Measuring National Culture by Analyzing Business Processes: A Case Study in Germany and India

Nowadays, many companies face problems because of cultural differ-ences, especially in multinational settings. Traditionally, national cultures have so far been identified by questionnaires asking participants about e.g., their val-ues. These invisible elements of culture become manifest in tangible artifacts such as concrete actions or structures, e.g., rituals and organizational charts. Process models serve as a graphical representation of processes precisely describ-ing activities, responsibilities and process flows. Thus, we anticipate that the be-havior becoming apparent in process models provides insights into national char-acteristics. Consequently, the goal of this paper is to develop an approach to measure national culture in process models. Based on Hofstede’s (2010) cultural dimensions, we define metrics that can be applied to process models. We demon-strate the use of these metrics by applying them to a process executed both in a German and an Indian company. Our analysis confirms a correspondence of the metrics’ results with Hofstede’s findings.

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