OGL 350 Module 4 Intercultural Interview Paper: A Mexican-Born Supervisor Through Hofstede's Dimensions Example

Respect, Family and the Long Way Up: An Intercultural Interview Through Hofstede's Lens

Student Name

BA in Organizational Leadership, Arizona State University

OGL 350: Diversity and Organizations

Instructor Name

Month Day, Year

Respect, Family and the Long Way Up: An Intercultural Interview Through Hofstede's Lens

Introduction

I interviewed Lucía (a pseudonym), 41, a shift supervisor at a logistics company in Phoenix. She was born in Hermosillo, Sonora, moved to Arizona at 19, became a U.S. citizen at 30 and now leads a team of 22 warehouse associates. I grew up in a small Ohio town and have no family ties to Mexico. Our hour-long conversation, held over video with her permission, focused on work, family and the moments when she noticed cultural differences most. This paper analyzes her experiences using Hofstede's cultural dimensions, examines how several dimensions of identity shaped them and connects her account to published research.

Hofstede's Dimensions: Mexico and the United States

Hofstede and colleagues describe national cultures on six dimensions, scored roughly from 0 to 100 (Hofstede et al., 2010). The scores describe national tendencies, not individuals, but they offered a useful starting point.

The largest gaps, power distance and individualism, matched what Lucía raised first. In her first job, she waited to be told what to do and avoided disagreeing with her supervisor, behavior her American manager read as a lack of initiative. "In Mexico," she said, "you show respect by not putting your boss on the spot." Her experience fits Hofstede's description of high power distance cultures, in which subordinates expect to be told what to do (Hofstede et al., 2010). Today she deliberately asks her team for disagreement, explaining, "I had to learn that here, the boss wants to hear no."

Collectivism appeared in her decisions about work. She turned down a promotion that would have required moving to Texas because her parents, who had joined her in Phoenix, depended on her. Her American colleagues saw the decision as a career mistake; she saw it as obvious. Research on Hispanic cultural scripts describes simpatía, an emphasis on warmth and harmony in relationships, as a strong expectation in social interaction (Triandis et al., 1984). Lucía described feeling that early American meetings were "cold," with business discussed before anyone asked about family.

The framework fit less well on long-term orientation, where the scores are nearly identical and Lucía noticed no difference, and it could not capture how her views changed over two decades. National scores also hide regional and generational variation; she described her younger siblings, raised in Arizona, as "more American than me."

Dimensions of Identity

Language shaped her early career most. Although she studied English in school, she was placed in jobs that did not require speaking with customers until her English became fluent, and she believes that delayed her advancement by several years. Gender intersected with culture: on the warehouse floor, some older male associates from Mexico initially resisted taking direction from a woman, while some American managers assumed she was an interpreter rather than a supervisor. Socioeconomic status mattered because she paid for community college while working nights. Citizenship changed how secure she felt; before naturalizing, she avoided raising complaints at work. Religion, she said, was a source of community rather than a barrier, since her Catholic parish connected her to job leads. Race was the dimension she discussed least, although she noted that customers sometimes spoke to her slowly before she said a word.

Connecting the Interview to Research

Quantitative data place Lucía's story in context. People of Mexican origin are the largest Hispanic origin group in the United States, at about 37.2 million in 2021; about 29% were immigrants, 74% of those ages 5 and older spoke English proficiently and 15% of adults 25 and older held a bachelor's degree (Moslimani et al., 2023). Lucía is unusual in having completed a degree, which she earned at 35. Qualitative research points the same way: an interview study of Hispanic women managers and professionals found that their career possibilities were shaped by both cultural and personal perspectives, a framework that excluded neither family nor ambition (Hite, 2007). Lucía described exactly that balance.

What I Learned

I had assumed that cultural differences at work would show up as misunderstandings in language. The interview showed me they appear more often in expectations about authority and family. As a future manager, I will ask new team members how they prefer to receive feedback, and I will not read silence in meetings as a lack of ideas.

Conclusion

Hofstede's dimensions explained much of what Lucía experienced, especially around power distance and collectivism, but her story also showed the limits of national averages and the importance of language, gender and citizenship. Combining the framework with her own account and published data produced a fuller picture than any one source alone.

References

Hite, L. M. (2007). Hispanic women managers and professionals: Reflections on life and work. Gender, Work & Organization, 14(1), 20-36. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0432.2007.00330.x

Hofstede, G., Hofstede, G. J., & Minkov, M. (2010). Cultures and organizations: Software of the mind (3rd ed.). McGraw-Hill.

Moslimani, M., Lopez, M. H., & Noe-Bustamante, L. (2023, August 16). 11 facts about Hispanic origin groups in the U.S. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/08/16/11-facts-about-hispanic-origin-groups-in-the-us/

Triandis, H. C., Marín, G., Lisansky, J., & Betancourt, H. (1984). Simpatía as a cultural script of Hispanics. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 47(6), 1363-1375. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.47.6.1363