The integration of the dimensions is viewed in terms of their impact on the local businesses in Israel. In Israeli businesses language of communication, Hebrew is integrated into business with words such as, boker tov-good morning, used to create rapport between the buyer and seller. Body language such as raising of the hands to imply bringing up of a point or to interject brings order into communication especially during haggling. The impact of this is that it has facilitated ease of transactions in local businesses.
Israelites being very religious integrate religion into every aspect of their lives, business included. The main religion practiced is Judaism, a one-God religion. The integration of religion tends to affect working times, with prayers being recited three times a day. Religion also influences the kind of communication with negative words being discouraged. This has impacted the local businesses in that businesses have had to fix their schedules to suit the praying times as well as the all important religious holidays and festivals such as Passover. The locals shun businesses that are viewed as hostile to the religion.
The ethical decisions are influenced by individual attributes, social and cultural environment. The ethical practices in this case hinge more towards religion and social structures. The impact is that local businesses have to adhere to the ethics or face legal action.
The social structures and organization are based on the family structure. The social structures will have effect on local business ownership and local investments on businesses.
Education is heavily integrated into local businesses with the local businesses drawing labor from the local pool of experts. This has led to available cheap trained labor for the local businesses hence reducing the cost of doing business.
What are the implications for US businesses that wish to conduct business in the Israel?
American businesses that want to conduct business have to understand the subtleties of the cultural dimensions. The education standards and integration directly affect foreign investment. Foreign tech giants such as IBM, Cisco have set up in Israel due to the availability of labor. The cultural dimensions do not have direct impact on portfolio investment as the stock exchange depends on market forces.
Green field investment suitability in hinged on the integration of the business in relation to the cultural dimensions. The more integrated the business policies, the more suitable the green field investment. Mergers and acquisitions can be influenced by the social structures with family owned businesses involving negotiations between the acquiring parties and the families.
How do both of the above items compare with US culture and business?
The mode of communication differs not only in the language used; English versus Hebrew, but also in the way the language is used. American communication is understood to be direct and rude while Israeli communication even in English is mild and tends to be indirect in terms of interpretation.
The US view on religion is liberal compared to the strict adherence of Judaism by the Jews. The social structures though similar in terms family structure is different. Family structure in the US has also been subverted with the emergence of homosexuality in the US.
The education system is essentially similar with emphasis on technical skills.
Brief summary of the Hofstede Analysis on this topic
Businesses differences in the US and Israel is viewed in terms of Hofstede’s theory of uncertainty avoidance that indicate the extent to which a society feels threatened by vague situations try to avoid them and instead seek stability. The Israeli businesses are less adventurous with few investment risks compared to their American counterparts. American businesses are also differentiated by the power distance dimension where in US businesses,” superiors consider subordinates as different people”-large power distance- compared to Israeli businesses that “superiors consider subordinates to be “people like me””-small power distance.
The strengths of business practices in Israel when viewed through the power distance dimension is seen by the small power distance that offers accessibility to superiors, equal rights and independence. This offers increase in productivity as the accessibility of management offers easy oversight of workers. The workers are also easily motivated by the equality not to mention the innovation opportunities offered by the independence.
The dimension of uncertainty avoidance is a weakness in the Israeli way of doing business. Israel is characterized to some extent by weak uncertainty avoidance that is characterized by low levels of anxiety and aggressiveness that creates among other things laziness.
Opportunities for Israel business system development and expansion
The individualism –collectivism dimension seems to offer opportunities into business system development and extension. Israeli business system tends to gravitate towards collectivism. This offers opportunities targeting the collectivists as they tend to encourage membership into organizations thus business opportunities targeting these organizations.