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Culture environment
. There are many challenges the country need to dealing with include culture. Culture can
be in many terms. It can influence the business in different ways. For example culture difficulties
are language problems, pricing difficulties and also the cross culture. The important thing to have
in mind is that the foreign culture is not as we used to at home, by learning those host country
language, respect and trust more easily be won, and also competitive advantage can arise.
Brazil is the only nation that derives its language and culture from Portugal. Brazil is the
largest economies in South America and the eight largest economies in the world. Brasilia is the
capital of Brazil. In Brazil, the climate is mostly tropical but temperate in south. The population
is between 184,101,109. Their nominal religion is Roman Catholic about 80% and the remaining
is others.
Culture refers to the knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meaning,
hierarchy, religion that acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through
individuals and the group. Besides that, culture can be in term of communication and vice versa.
Actually, culture can’t be defined specifically because the meaning is different for each
individual. It is depend on the society of the country. Culture varies obviously from country to
country. . In Brazil itself there are dimensions of their culture which can be differentiate with
American Majority. Tables below show the differences between their dimensions.
Comparison between Brazilian and U.S. majority cultures (Collectivism vs. Individualism).
Brazilian Culture American Majority Culture
Collectivism Individualism
Extended family: Parent(s), children, Nuclear family: Parent(s) and children.
grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc
Loyalty to the group = “I belong.” Loyalty to one's own goals = “I'm self-
sufficient.”
Group consensus = “We” Personal opinion = “I”
Omission of truth = Harmony Omission of truth = Dishonesty
Confrontation is not desirable; it's rude. Confrontation: It is healthy to give and receive
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feedback.
"No” is substituted for “Well…, maybe…, “No”
let's see…”
Group identity is emphasized. Identity based on individual characteristics
Comparison between Brazilian and U.S. majority cultures (High vs. low power distance).
Brazilian Culture American Majority Culture
High power distance Low power distance
Honors referent powers, and perceives a clear Honors legitimate or expert power; considers
delineation between superiors and authority something to be earned.
subordinates and between the young and the
old.
Values obedience in children. Encourages independence and active
experimentation in children.
Expects teachers to be authoritarian and direct Places on student initiative and student-
student learning. oriented educational process.
Power distance as defined by Hofstede, is the measurement by which less powerful of
business accept and expect the power distribute unequally. Brazil’s power distance index (PDI),
according to Hofstede is 69 out of 100. Brazil has higher power distance culture. They accept
greater number of inequality especially compared to United State (US) which as PDI is only 40
(as shown by the graph below).
Comparison between Brazilian and U.S. majority cultures (femininity vs. masculinity)
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Brazilian Culture American Majority Culture
Femininity Masculinity
Places higher value on people, quality of life Places higher value on material possessions,
and nurturing. power and assertiveness.
Interprets sex roles more fluidly and places Clearly delineates sex roles and individual
greater value on cooperative efforts and competition has been highly regarded.
service.
Possess strong concern for social harmony Has strong motivation for achievement, and
and human relationships. considers work central to life
Brazil democratic society is still bating against their gender differences. Research and
study suggest that Brazilian men have advantages over women in power, status and authority.
The gap between them is no more because of legal under representative. Brazilian men earned
more than women in every category. In other words, women are paid less. There is no doubt that
sexism is the continuing challenge for Brazil’s democratization.
A society’s social structure is its basic social organization. Brazil is the biggest country
in South America and they are diverse, because of their influential origin from Africa, Europe,
Asia and Native Indians. Brazilians concern about their position in social class because no class
interact with another social class unless it in professional ways. They can be divided according to
their race, level of education and incomedistribution.
Firstly, race can be known as classification of human based on their skin, geographic,
characteristic and others. In Brazil, individual that has dark skin are more likely to be lower class
than someone with lighter skin who is consider to be higher part of society. Brazilians who
working with art crafts, landscaping, and construction is consider to be of a lower class. This
mindset is come from the past centuries where Indians and African that used to make artesian to
survives.
Brazilian also can be categorized by the level of their education. An individual can be
consider as high society based upon their vocabulary, since most of Brazilians of a lower class
converse with a lot of slang. The condition of a country’s economic decides the level of
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education the kids will receive. Individual who have higher income can send his child in a
private school, compared to those who cannot afford private school, go to a public school or
don’t go at all.
Since living in the city is very expensive, the family that lives there is considered to be
middle to higher class. Hence, the families who living in suburbs or farms is categorized as low
middle or low class. Brazil is the most unequal distributor of income in the nation except for
South Africa. The income receive a wealthy person receives is three times more than the income
of a poor person. This is a big problem in Brazil where the richer keeps getting richer and the
poor keeping getting poorer. Brazil also has social welfare but it does not help the lower class
people enough because of increasing in population and low circulation of money.
Reasons Why Brazil has such an Income Inequality (2007 Data)
•Had the 10th highest GDP in the world - $ 1,838,000,000,000
•Had an unemployment rate of 9.8%
•31% of the population lived below the poverty line
•Had the 7th highest labor force in the world - 99,470,000
•The growth rate was 4.5%
•Is the 7th largest country - 190,010,647
Portuguese is the eight most spoken languages worldwide. Portuguese was introduced in
Brazil during colonization. Portuguese is the official language of Brazil but Spanish, English and
French also spoken there. Language is the one strongest elements of Brazil’s nation unity.
Portuguese is spoken by nearly 100 percent of the population. Within Brazil, there are no dialects
of Portuguese, but only moderate regional variations in accent, vocabulary, and use of personal
nouns, pronouns, and verb conjunctions. Variations tend to diminish as a result of mass media,
especially national television networks that are viewed by the majority of Brazilians.
In Brazil today, there is a diversity of religions. In fact, it is the largest of the Roman
Catholic countries of the world. The 200 census indicated that 74 percent of the population of
them is Roman Catholic, although only a small percentage regularly attend Mass. Approximately
15 percent of the population is Protestant, an estimated 85 percent of who are Pentecostal or
evangelical. Evangelical churches have grown rapidly and have challenged the traditional
dominance of the Catholic Church. The Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics (IGBE)
counted approximately 427000 adherents of “Buddhism and other oriental religions.” The
number of Muslims was 27239, 39840 practitioners of Spiritualism, 10723 adherents of
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indigenous traditions, and 2979 Hindus. There are 7 percent did not practice any religion.
384000 participants did not respond to the census. Leaders of the Muslim community estimate
that there are between 700000 and 3 million Muslims, with the lower figure representing those
who actively practice their religion. Shia’s Islam is practiced predominantly by immigrants from
Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt who arrived during the past 25 years. Due to the recent trend, there
are increasing in conversions to Islam among non- Arab citizens. There are 55 mosques and
Muslim religious centers.
There are three levels of government in Brazil which is federal government, state
government, and municipal government. The three governments vary per region. In Sao Paulo,
the government is much less visible than in Rio de Janeiro where various cultural institutions are
managed directly by the Ministry of Culture. Sao Paula is the largest city in Brazil and is a
metropolis city. The government of the Sao Paulo is very active in the cultural sector, unlike in
other states. Broadly speaking, government still does not allocate enough resources to culture.
On basis, the amount is well under 1 percent of the total national budget. The previous minister
of culture, Gilberto Gil fought to improve the situation, but was not entirely successful.
Generally speaking, no-one ever expects to receive government support, except of course
through the tax relief laws.
Business etiquettes in a nation greatly impact the international business. In Brazil,
dropping without appointment is considered as bad. They prefer to make appointments at least
two weeks in advances and never try to make impromptu calls at businesses or government
offices. The key for success in Brazil is always be prepared to commit long term resources both
in time and money in order to build strong relationship in Brazil. As reminder, never start into
discussion before the host does, usually business meeting start with casual chatting first. Then,
giving a gift is not required at the first business meeting; instead buy a lunch or dinner.
