Page 49 - Crossing Cultural Boundaries - Cees den Teuling

being bounded together, sharing values, loyalty, mutual support and being knitted closely in work groups (Vlachoutsicos, 1998). Another cultural phenomenon is the choice for and acceptance of Christian Orthodoxy, in coherence with the ruler’s power, as originated from Byzantium in the end of the tenth century (988). In majority, as instigated and contributed by the religion’s choice.
Russia was relatively isolated from the remaining part of Europe and the Latin civilisation. That isolation determined the larger part of the subsequent cultural and historical development of the Russian Empire. As a consequence, the ethnicity and culture of Russia are closely knitted with the Russian version of Orthodoxy, which has been the State religion for Russia for almost thousand years. Nowadays, albeit not officially, the Russian State and the Russian-Orthodox church are still on arm’s length.
Unlike the Western world’s focus on individualism, the Russian society has been and is dominated by ruling elites, the Tzars, Nobility, Landowners, the Communist Party Leaders and authoritarian governments. Russians grow up in a society with a lack of personal freedom and get accustomed to it. For over a millennium, the Russian Orthodox Church has stressed the obligation of subjugation to the authority and the individual subordination of interests to the common salvation (Puffer & McCarthy, 1995).
The collective nature of Russian society is shown by the existence of in-groups, i.e. with the motivated characteristic preferential treatment of in-group members, as argued by Brewer (1999). The centre of each in-group is the individual, who develop a distinctive stance and attitude towards and in outward direction. The first in-group is the nucleus family, followed, in sequence, by the extended family, friends and neighbours and is possibly limited to subsistence level in underdeveloped regions, e.g. in rural areas. In the more industrialised cities and Regions, the in-group can be extended to the workplace and unnumbered business relations (Triandis, Bhawuk, Barley & Erez, 1997). For being successful, Westerners should be informed, educated and prepared regarding the focal factor in the Russian mentality features (Denison, 1997; Shmulyar Gréen, 2013).
Hofstede applied his dimensional framework to Russia several years ago. In the recent researched scores published by the Hofstede Centre (www.itim.org, 2016) there is an in-depth overview of the Russian culture and its comparison with other cultures. Despite the critical notes, supported by the researcher on Hofstede’s approach, in which NCs and nation states are inextricably connected and intertwined, Hofstede’s researched dimensions on Russia are accepted. The main reasons are the lack of availability, the
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