Cultural clashes dividing French

and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption according to experts and businesspeople, uses a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean. More than two-thirds of countries score below 50 on this year’s CPI, with an average score of just 43.
Australia: 77, France: 72
https://www.transparency.org/cpi2018

members of institutions and organizations expect and accept that power is distributed unequally
Transferred to children by parents and other elders

culture feel threatened by ambiguous and unknown situations
Not to be confused with risk avoidance: risk is to uncertainty as fear is to anxiety. Uncertainty and anxiety are diffuse feelings – anything may happen
This dimension focuses on how cultures adapt to changes and cope with uncertainty.  Emphasis is on extent to which a culture feels threatened or is anxious about ambiguity.  It is not risk avoidance but rather, how one deals with ambiguity.

which the ties between individuals are loose: everyone is expected to look after self and immediate family
Collectivism: A society in which individuals from birth onwards are part of strong in-groups which last a lifetime

emotional gender roles are distinct: men are supposed to be assertive, tough and focused on material success, women on the quality of life
Femininity: A society in which emotional gender roles overlap: both men and women are supposed to be modest, tender, and focused on the quality of life

Orientation is directed at the future and seeks future rewards through perseverance and thrift
Short Term Orientation is directed at the past and present through respect for tradition, fulfilling social obligations and seeking immediate rewards

48

Integrating all presently available cross-cultural databases accessible to him, and without an a priori commitment to the five Hofstede dimensions, Michael Minkov defined three new dimensions, two of which cover issues that Hofstede’s five address only partially or not at all.
Minkov labelled one of them Indulgence versus Restraint.
Indulgence stands for a society which allows relatively free gratification of some desires and feelings, especially those that have to do with leisure, merrymaking with friends, spending, consumption and sex.
Its opposite pole, Restraint, stands for a society which controls such gratification, and where people feel less able to enjoy their lives.

to commemorate people and events that are considered important, people in cultures that have high Monumentalism averages possess and openly demonstrate pride in themselves, their achievements, families, and other social institutions.
Scores from: Rek, M.; Makarovič, M. & Škabar, M. (2015). (Un) certainty in the Knowledge Society. Comparative Sociology, 14 (5), 613-634.
Monumentalism: Australia: 436, France: 165
Max: Nigeria: 908, Min: China 0

the World's Modern Societies and Their Cultures. Thousand Oaks, CA, USA, Sage Publications, p. 268.

The World Values Survey items that Minkov (2011) selected for his analysis were:
a. Percentage of respondents who mention »hard work« as an important trait for children (item A030 in 1994-2004 and v13 in 2005-2008);
b. Percentage of respondents who mention »thrift« as an important trait for children (item A038 in 1994-2004 and v17 in 2005-2008);
c. Percentage of respondents which state that leisure is very important to them (item A003 in 1994-2004 and v6 in 2005-2008);
d. Percentage of respondents who mention »religious faith« as an important trait for children (item A040 in 1994-2004 and v19 in 2005-2008);
e. Percentage of respondents who are very proud to be citizens of their country (items G006 in 1994-2004 and v209 in 2005-2008);
f. Percentage of respondents who agree strongly that one of the main goals in their lives is to make their parents proud (item D054 in 1994-2004 and v64 in 2005-2008).
Minkov, M. (2011). Cultural Differences in a Globalized World. Bingley, UK: Emerald.

sort of confrontation and do not resort to hard sell tactics.
The French tend to take time when negotiating. Do not rush them or appear impatient.  Expect a great deal of time to be spent reviewing details before a final decision is made. 
Decisions tend to be made from the top down.
Australia
It’s best to avoid hard selling, pressure tactics and any sort of conflict or confrontation.
Bargaining is generally not expected and is usually frowned upon.
It’s important to be direct about intentions and supporting them with hard facts and figures is a good idea.

then known as DCNS, had beaten rival bids from Germany and Japan to build 12 new submarines for the Royal Australian Navy.
The French-designed submarines would be built in the Australian manufacturing hub of Adelaide
The first of the conventionally powered submarines, to be known as the "Attack Class", is scheduled to begin operational service in the mid-2030s.
However last year the ABC revealed that Defence Minister Christopher Pyne had grown so frustrated with the French company over its handling of commercial negotiations, he cancelled meetings with some of its visiting top officials.
In December, Mr Pyne rejected another ABC report revealing that Defence had offered a two-year extension to Naval Group as it tried to lock in the Strategic Partnering Agreement.

specialised in naval defence and marine renewable energy. The group employs next to 13,000 people in 18 countries.
Naval Group (the original organization, French Naval Dockyards, was established in 1631 by Cardinal Richelieu) is a private law company in which the French government holds a 62.49% stake, Thales*35% and company personnel a 1.64% stake, and the company itself 0.87%, is the heir to the French naval dockyards and the Direction des Constructions et Armes Navales (DCAN), which became the DCN (Direction des Constructions Navales) in 1991, DCNS in 2007 and Naval Group since 2017.
* Thales Group is a French multinational company that designs and builds electrical systems and provides services for the aerospace, defence, transportation and security markets. Its headquarters are in La Défense (the business district of Paris), and its stock is listed on the Euronext Paris.

has not provided the French navy the relatively secret computerized combat management system developed by U.S. defense contractor Lockheed Martin.
However, due to the long-standing co-operative defense relationship between the USA and Australia, Lockheed Martin with work with the group to install the system on the RAN submarines.
The submarines' combat system represents about 30 percent of the value of the contract
Hence, NG will also work with Lockheed Martin.  

century", the French company chosen to build Australia's future submarines has conceded it's having cultural clashes with its $50 billion customer, with lunch and meeting times proving problematic.
NG pursues a “multidomestic” approach as it seeks deals with countries with distinct cultural difference such as Malaysia, Brazil or India, said Arnaud Génin, strategic communications director.
“Multidomestic” is analogous to Perlmutter’s “Polycentric” multinational company organization.

(1969). The tortuous evolution of the multinational corporation. Columbia Journal of world business, 4(1), 9-18.

evolution of the multinational corporation. Columbia Journal of world business, 4(1), 9-18.

Ghoshal

Bartlett & Ghoshal

Management Style

Centocentric

Geocentric

Ethnocentric

Polycentric

Coordination/ Configuration needs

Global

Global

Complex Global

Multidomestic

Multinational

Coordinated Federation

International

Transnational

Centralized Hub

Structure

Strategy

Decentralized Federation

Integrated Network

on a localized management structure.
Instead of centralizing and making all decisions from one primary location, the multinational corporation decentralizes, it allows MDs, CEOs, or their equivalents and others in the country of operation to make the decisions.
Because of this focus on assigning significant management and operational powers to the countries in which they operate, this structure is termed "multidomestic."

are utilized in all countries.

HQ

You see…our way
works best around
the world.

on a country-by-country basis (e.g., HRM is decentralized by country)

Would you look
at this? The GMs
do understand the
local markets

and cultures

HQ

Alphaland

Betaland

Betaminor

on a global basis)

I can see the
whole world
from here.

French and Australian officials working on the contract
One official said Australians needed to understand the sanctity of the lunch break in France — not just a sandwich snatched at the desk in front of the computer screen
The French Naval Group is developing "intercultural courses" for French staff being posted to Australia

deal effectively in the global marketplace. New York: New American Library.
Higher-context cultures: Afghans, African, Arabic, Brazilians, the Chinese, Filipinos, French Canadians, the French, Greeks, Hawaiian, Hungarians, Indians, Indonesian, Italians, Irish, Japanese, Koreans, Latin Americans, Nepali, Pakistani, Persian, Portuguese, Russians, Southern United States, the Spanish, Thai, Turks, Vietnamese, South Slavic, West Slavic.
Lower-context culture: Australian, Dutch, English Canadians, the English, Finnish, Germans, Israelis, New Zealand, Scandinavia, Switzerland, United States.

Working the Cultural Challenges”, 17 April 2019

“Not everyone thinks like the French,” said Jean-Michel Billig, NG program director for the Attack submarine.
Yvan Goalou, a former French Navy submarine commander and the NG institutional relationship manager.: There is need for listening and humility, he said. “There is search for openness and sharing.”
Australian Barbecue as Cultural Signifier
An example of Australian culture is the barbecue, an important part of fostering good work relations, Billig said.
There is a reciprocal need for Australians to understand the French sanctity of the lunch break, not just a sandwich snatched at the screen.
Another bid by NG to boost its openness to “Anglo-Saxon culture” is publishing its inhouse magazine in French and English, seen internally as a radical move.
Big companies such as Airbus and Thales have long published inhouse magazines in English and French, but an NG executive said those firms lack a 400-year history as a state arsenal.

seen in the letter to staff from CEO  Hervé Guillou, who referred to initiatives to be adopted after “la rentrée.”
In French  “la rentrée” means the return to work after the slack period of the summer break in France; it is used by students, workers and pretty much everyone.
In August, major sectors of France slow down or close up shop completely. School is out, the government is more or less closed, and many restaurants and other businesses are closed as well.
Therefore, many French people are on vacation for all or part of August, which means that la rentrée, in September, is more than just students and teachers going back to school; it’s also everyone else returning home and going back to work, returning to normalcy.
Australians get 20 days of annual leave a year.
Remember, in the Southern Hemisphere (e.g., Australia) the seasons are reversed from the Northern Hemisphere.

France, Northern France tends to be Monochronic; Southern France tends to be Polychronic.
In the Australian-French business relationships, on the French side, there was surprise to see an Australian insistence on punctuality, that a meeting scheduled for an hour meant just that, not an extra 15 minutes.
Additionally, when Australians got up after an hour and left a meeting scheduled for one hour, whether an agreement had been reached or not, that startled French counterparts.
In France, there is the concept of a “diplomatic 15 minutes,” indicating that one is not considered to be late if the tardiness is a quarter of an hour.
On the French side, there was surprise to see an Australian insistence on punctuality, and that a meeting scheduled for an hour meant just that, not an extra 15 minutes.
In France, there is the concept of a “diplomatic 15 minutes,” indicating that one is not considered to be late if the tardiness is a quarter of an hour.