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ABSTRACT
This paper investigates how symptoms of culture shock may be related to cultural features. A group of expatriate executives are tested on how they respond to Poland's culture dimensions which are specified in accordance with Hofstede's indices. Symptoms of their culture shock are identified and juxtaposed with everyday behaviours of Poles in the workplace and public place/social arena. The results show that some of those functional patterns of Poles which result in extreme/inefficient/counterproductive behaviours and constitute sources of culture shock for the expatriates are linked to large Power Distance and strong Uncertainty Avoidance in Poland or a combination of the two dimensions. Implications for researchers are specified. Recommendations for expatriate managers vis-à-vis induction training and the content of in-company courses for Polish managers are listed.
Keywords: culture shock; Hofstede's cultural dimensions framework; expatriates in Poland; Power Distance; Uncertainty Avoidance
INTRODUCTION - CULTURE SHOCK
The phenomenon of culture shock as a concept was described as early as the 1950s (Lysgaard, 1955; Oberg, 1960). Sverre Lysgaard was commissioned by the United States Educational Foundation in Norway in 1955 to carry out a study on 198 Norwegian Fulbright students in the US. However, it was anthropologist Kalervo Oberg who first introduced the concept and gave it the name of "culture shock" in a seminar addressed to the Women's Club of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on August 3, 1954 although the text of his presentation did not appear in print until 1960 and thus it was preceded by Lysgaard's paper. Oberg referred to the symptom complex known as culture shock as: "an occupational disease of people who have been suddenly transplanted abroad" (p. 177). Oberg also inventoried the symptoms of culture shock, such as: "a feeling of helplessness (...) and fits of anger over delays and other minor frustrations" (p. 177). Additionally Oberg's contribution in the field was the description of the reasons for culture shock, such as losing the guidance of the familiar social cues; finding oneself in a sea of incomprehensible contextual signs; rejection of the host country and glorification of the home country (which Oberg calls "regression"). He also identified stages in the development of the process and gave them names, i.e. the honeymoon period, the hostility stage, the opening to the new cultural...