Peruvian and Finnish cultures differ greatly according to Hofstede's cultural dimensions. Peruvian culture scores high in Power Distance and Masculinity due to its history of discrimination and importance placed on competition and success. It scores lower in Individualism due to traditional collectivist influences. Finnish culture scores low in Power Distance and Masculinity but high in Individualism. Peruvian culture also has higher Uncertainty Avoidance and a shorter-term orientation compared to Finnish culture. Key factors shaping Peruvian culture include its history of colonialism and discrimination, influence of Catholic and indigenous religions, and economic instability promoting a short-term view.

1. DIFFERENCES CULTURE: PERUVIAN AND FINNISH CULTURE
I want to start with this comparative square:
DIMENSIONS
PERUVIAN
POWER DISTANCE
The Peruvian culture scores
high in this ‘cause the power
"This dimension deals with
is centralized in some people
the fact that all individuals in
and there are long distances
societies are not equal – it
between the people that
expresses the attitude of the
have this power that who
culture towards these
not. Why? There are many
inequalities amongst us.
variables for this, but for me
Power distance is defined as
the most important are (and
the extent to which the less
I’m sure that this variables
powerful members of
have relation between each
institutions and organizations
other): The presence of
within a country expect and
discrimination: race, origin,
accept that power is
“género” (female, men),
distributed unequally."
studies and others.
The History
Religion
This dimension’ve been
present for more than 600
years and I think that is part
of the collective unconscious
and continue being strong.
FINNISH
"Finland scores low on this
dimension (score of 33) which
means that the following
characterises the Finnish
style: Being independent,
hierarchy for convenience
only, equal rights, superiors
accessible, coaching leader,
management facilitates and
empowers. Power is
decentralized and managers
count on the experience of
their team members.
Employees expect to be
consulted. Control is disliked
and attitude towards
managers are informal and
on first name basis.
Communication is direct and
participative."
Score (in my opinion):
between 85 to 95
INDIVIDUALISM:
More collectivist than
"Finland, with a score of 63 is
individualist (but many times an Individualistic society. This
"The fundamental issue
the people are more egoistic) means there is a high
addressed by this dimension
preference for a loosely-knit
is the degree of
In this dimension I think that

2. interdependence a society
had a strong influence the
maintains among its
original culture: Andean
members. It has to do with culture (Incas) and
whether people´s self-image Amazonicculture (jungle),
is defined in terms of “I” or religion. So This collectivism
“We”. In Individualist
is an old characteristic and
societies people are
was stronger before and I
supposed to look after
think that is in the collective
themselves and their direct unconscious.
family only. In Collectivist
Score: between 30 to 40
societies people belong to ‘in
(There’s collectivism but it’s
groups’ that take care of
not stronger)
them in exchange for loyalty."
MASCULINITY/FEMININITY
social framework in which
individuals are expected to
take care of themselves and
their immediate families only.
In individualistic societies
offence causes guilt and a
loss of self-esteem, the
employer/employee
relationship is a contract
based on mutual advantage,
hiring and promotion
decisions are supposed to be
based on merit only,
management is the
management of individuals."
In the present and since 200 "Finland scores 26 on this
years (approximately I think) dimension and is thus
"A high score (masculine) on
masculine: The competition is considered a feminine
this dimension indicates that
more important, success
society. In feminine countries
the society will be driven by
more important than: quality. the focus is on “working in
competition, achievement
of life and do the best and
order to live”, managers
and success, with success
there are many people that strive for consensus, people
being defined by the winner /
do everything (many times value equality, solidarity and
best in field – a value system
not right things) for be the
quality in their working lives.
that starts in school and
best of this competition and Conflicts are resolved by
continues throughout
have materials things on life, compromise and negotiation.
organisational behaviour. A
admiration and power.
Incentives such as free time
low score (feminine) on the
and flexibility are favoured.
dimension means that the
Score: 75- 85
Focus is on well-being, status
dominant values in society
is not shown. An effective
are caring for others and
manager is a supportive one,
quality of life. A feminine
and decision making is
society is one where quality
achieved through
of life is the sign of success
involvement."
and standing out from the
crowd is not admirable. The
fundamental issue here is
what motivates people,

3. wanting to be the best
(masculine) or liking what you
do (feminine)."
UNCERTAINTY AVOIDANCE: High score in this dimension. "Finland scores 59 on this
dimension and thus has a
"The dimension Uncertainty At the beginning I thought
medium high preference for
Avoidance has to do with the that this was about rules and
avoiding uncertainty.
way that a society deals with act in the same way that
Countries exhibiting high
the fact that the future can those, but then reading more
uncertainty avoidance
never be known: should we I understand than it was not. I
maintain rigid codes of belief
try to control the future or can say that in the Peruvian
and behaviour and are
just let it happen? This
culture are very important
intolerant of unorthodox
ambiguity brings with it
and strong the traditions,
behaviour and ideas. In these
anxiety and different cultures ways to act in specific
cultures there is an emotional
have learnt to deal with this situations, but are open to
need for rules (even if the
anxiety in different ways. The the change if this coming
rules never seem to work)
extent to which the members from other more growing
time is money, people have
of a culture feel threatened societies. This happen (I
an inner urge to be busy and
by ambiguous or unknown
think) because the History.
work hard, precision and
situations and have created
punctuality are the norm,
Score: 85-90
beliefs and institutions that
innovation may be resisted,
try to avoid these is reflected
security is an important
in the UAI score."
element in individual
motivation”.
LONG TERM ORIENTATION: A short term orientation.
"The Finns score 45, making it
a short term orientation
"The long term orientation The Peruvian culture give
culture. Societies with a
dimension is closely related more importance to the
short-term orientation
to the teachings of Confucius short-term point that longer
generally exhibit great
and can be interpreted as
and is characterized for only
respect for traditions, a
dealing with society’s search think on the immediately
relatively small propensity to
for virtue, the extent to which benefices, do for tomorrow
save, strong social pressure
a society shows a pragmatic that you can do today, time is
to “keep up with the
future-oriented perspective more circular than horizontal
Joneses”, impatience for
rather than a conventional (maybe this was stronger in
achieving quick results, and a
historical short-term point of the past but at the same time
strong concern with
different), the people don’t
establishing the Truth i.e.

4. view"
have a culture of save money
and if they do that the
majorities don’t put the
money in the bank. The
reasons: the culture, and
history too.
normative. Western societies
are typically found at the
short-term end of this
dimension, as are the
countries of the Middle East."
(save money: last
governments, don’t
trust,change tendency of
governments )
Score: 25-35
PERU - FINLAND
GEERT HOFSTEDE DIMENSIONS
PERUVIAN
FINNISH
90
87
80
63
59
45
33
35
30
26
PDI
IDV
MAS
UAI
LTO
If we see the graphic we can see that between Finnish and Peruvian culture, according to
Hofstede, G. dimensions there are big differences in three dimensions(PDI, IDV, MAS), they are
opposites: if Finnish score high in one dimension Peruvian scores low and if Perú scores high Finnish
scores down. But in the last two UAI and LTO have the same characteristic but the scores have big
distances.

5. What factors influence in the Peruvian culture? I think that fist the History:Perú have a long and rich
history but I’ll summarize in this: in the beginning many cultures and the better known (maybe the
better value too) and last: the Inca’s culture, then the country lived a history of submission for more
than 300 years where there was races of people with more power than others in this order: Spanish
people, creoles, mestizos, Amerindian people (of course there was Chinese and African people too)
where the races with the less power were Indian and African people (There was an event that could
you understand better this: The Valladolid debate about if the Amerindian people was animals or being
humans)This 300 years was characterized by much discrimination, iniquity (Some examples the
Amerindians cannot: speak their native language, practice native costumes, believe in their deity, etc.
the people with more power in this case Spanish people called Quechua to their language and
Quechua means something like: language that is not worth and called to Amerindian “cholo” that
means dog) so then came the independence where who acquire power was the creoles (I think that
people more Spanish than Amerindian) but the others races continued being submitted for another
200 years to the present with maybe less iniquity but again discrimination. For other hand the people
from the jungle had a sad submitted history too bud not too long (Fever Caucho). I think that for all
this history, Peruvian people bring in the unconscious collective this power distances, in the present
we can see contempt and veiled, silent but real discrimination (for Peruvian people that have Spanish
or Europe characteristics to people with Amerindians and this is in both directions: Could be
like:some of the first than discriminate to the seconds, some of the seconds that feel discrimination
or less than the first, people that cannot trust on people with Europe characteristics or people that
see like the best to people with Europe characteristics) But of course there are other variables like: if
you’ve studied in the school, university (in my work I can see this the people that studied a career see
less to the others: technical despise the uneducated population, disparage professionals technicians,
doctors look down on other professionals …) and for this reason is not easy when somebody that is
considered “less” like for example the population without studies makes an observation about the
professional’s work. This makes the high score in the dimension: Power Distances and Masculine.
The religion is other strong variable because the country is considered Catholic in majority
bud is not for conviction but rather for tradition and is not a pure Catholic religion too (there are
Anthropologist with much knowledge who said that the religion that Peruvian people have is a mix
between the Andean religion and the Catholic religion and in the beginning the Amerindians did
Catholic practices in public but in secret they continued doing their own religion practices and in one
moment happened that both were mixed). And in the present the people continue doing those
practices between the Catholic beliefs and values but at the same time Andean beliefs and values,
but not like the Inca’s in the beginning where they have a collective view about the world and where
the complements was an important point. And this influenced in the collectivism view (Individualism
dimension).

6. The old history with the closer history makes that in the Peruvian culture the people have a
short term orientation: The hopelessness unconscious plus history of this 30 years ago where we
lived the terrorism, corrupt governments, the people that saved money lost everything, devaluation
of money,the insecurity, those did that: the people doesn’t trust in banks, save not much money and
only a few people; that we change the tendencies of government always and without counting (if you
look at the last presidents from 80’s to now they are so different and of different political
movements).
Other things of interest that, since my view, have changed are changing and would change
the Peruvian Culture: There are new tendencies of pride Peruvian with: the MarcaPerúand it’s
started to be strong, the cooking that is started to be recognized. The entrepreneurship is started to
become important. The news is many times pessimistic, morbid, sensationalist (and in this moment
the majority of media such as newspaperscould belong to a single owner).