Bangladeshi Business Culture by using Hofstede's five Dimensions:

Social Orientation: Bangladesh, with a score of 20 is considered a collectivistic society.

Collectivism is positively used public and private organizations in Bangladesh, for the reason
that the employer and employee relationship basically moral, good understanding between
management and workers. Doing business in Bangladesh involves building relationships.
Bangladeshi people only deal favorably with those they know and trust, even at the expense of
lucrative deals. It is vital for a good working relationship with any prospective partner.

➢ Concept of ‘WE’ .
➢ Stands for a society who are integrated into strong, cohesive in-group.
➢ Close ties between individual.
➢ Responsibility and care extended to all people – larger group and families.
➢ Harmony and consensus are ultimate goals.

Power Orientation: Bangladesh scores high on this dimension (score of 80) which means that a
high level of inequality of power and wealth within the society. This condition is not necessarily
imposed upon the population, but rather accepted by the society as a cultural norm. Everyone is
ranked in the society. People believe in the differences of social status within all organizations. A
person with higher rank in the organization should be obeyed and respected, even though he may
not always make a wise decision. Hierarchy is indispensable to maintaining the organizational
structure.

➢ Employee fear to express disagreement to their boss.

➢ Boss more on autocratic decision making style.
➢ Inequalities are expected and desired – class divisions are accepted.
➢ Relationship between boss and subordinate is rarely close or personal.
➢ Subordinate are expected to take the blame for things that go wrong.

Uncertainty Orientation: Bangladesh ranked high in uncertainty avoid index (score of 60).
Bangladesh has a culture of low risk and low change tolerant. The intercultural capabilities and
inclinations for uncertainty or risk are low. New plans are studied and analyzed with awareness
to make certain whatever risks they found are well defined and understood. In case of any
changes, the new proposals are supposed to be stabilized and accepted by the people.
Intercultural understanding is significant for risk considerably influenced by the consequences of
failure for both individual and organization.

➢ Prefer formal rules – try to minimize uncertainty through strict law and regulations.
➢ Have more written rules.
➢ Motivation for work comes from security.
➢ More emotional.
➢ Typically manager takes less risk.
Goal Orientation: Bangladesh has a very low Indulgence score of 20. This makes it a restrained
country. Societies with a low score in this dimension have a tendency to cynicism and
pessimism. Also, in contrast to Indulgent societies, restrained societies do not put much emphasis
on leisure time and control the gratification of their desires. People with this orientation have the
perception that their actions are restrained by social norms and feel that indulging themselves is
somewhat wrong.

➢ People feel less happy and less healthy

➢ What happens to me is not my doing

➢ Work ethic

➢ Pessimism, cynicism

➢ More introverted personalities

➢ Having friends less important

➢ Less sports participation

➢ Stricter moral discipline

➢ Stricter sexual mores

Time Orientation: Bangladesh has an intermediate score at 47, this indicates less long-term
orientation and high short-term oriented. Bangladeshi peoples tend to consider long-term
decision making rather than short-term.

And also they have respects for culture, tradition and concern about communal responsibilities.
Other issues like religion, language, locality and reciprocated of gifts are kept into consideration
in such culture.

A standard score in Long term orientation shows that Bangladesh is one the way of its
development.

➢ Basic orientation towards time that values patience.

➢ Lasting Relationship.
➢ Having a sense of shame.
➢ Tend to save money.

At the end, Bangladeshi people are pretty much adaptable and sociable in any environment and
in any culture. They know how to cooperate regardless of the fact that whether the company has
flat or tall organizational structure, whether it has centralized or decentralized management. In
Bangladesh, people follow fairly formal business etiquette.