Understand Italians

Bel Paese (Beautiful country) – how Italians call their country

Italy is a beautiful country, often visited by tourists and businessmen; therefore getting to know the cultural profile of Italians will facilitate building business relations and contribute to a better understanding of the society and its national culture. The proverb often quoted by me at the intercultural workshops “When in Rome, do as the Romans do” is an explicit invitation to familiarize you with the business culture of Italians.

Italian culture of relations 

The Italian proverb saying, “The family is the best that God has given,” reflects importance of family for Italians. They put a lot of attention to maintain good familiar relations. A family includes parents, siblings and children, but also other cousins and relatives; they support each other in business and life. Sometimes this mutual support may be a problem for people who do not belong to the family, when in business situations people who know themselves are preferred over those who have the appropriate competences. This phenomenon is called nepotism, the term derived from the Italian word “nipote”, meaning grandson. A word ‘raccomandato’ which means referred person is often used in Italian social life. 

In Italian corporations, people build horizontal relationships; they are called “cordata”. The word denotes a group of climbers in the mountains linked by a safety chain. Knowing about the importance of relations in the functioning of Italians, when working in Italy it is worth spending enough time to build good relations.

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Deal-focus and relationship-focus business cultures  

Due to the way business relations function, there are two types of cultures – a deal-focus and a relationship-focus cultures (R. Gesteland model). Societies belonging to relationship-focus cultures prefer to do business with people they know, which is why building relationships is so important for members of these societies. 

Italy belongs to this culture. In the case of the deal-focus culture, its representatives do not attach so much importance to the fact that they only do business with people they know, because the main goal of a business relationship is a transaction. The USA and the Netherlands belong to transaction cultures. In this dimension, Polish culture is referred to as dual, as Poles exhibit behaviors typical of both the deal-focus and relationship-focus cultures.

A society of relationship-focus culture characterized by intense social relations that should be nurtured and supported by social interactions. The best opportunity is to eat together. It is no coincidence that relationship-focus cultures such as China, Japan, France or Italy have a highly developed food culture and the best cuisines in the world. In the case of Romanesque cultures – France and Italy, relationships are maintained through frequent conversations and discussions. Italians talk everywhere – the driver driving the coach, he can talk on the phone all the way (2 hours), passengers on the train talk continuously to each other or on the phone.

People stop in the street to talk to each other (I rarely see such scene in Poland).

What does this mean in business?

In business, the relationship-focus culture is reflected in the fact that Italians prefer to do business with people they know or have been recommended to them. In the case of team work, trust in the new person is built over a longer period of time, because Italians belong to a culture where trust is built on the basis of a relationship, as opposed to a deal-focus culture, e.g. in the US, where trust in a person is built on the basis of the competences a person has. The differences in organizational behaviour between the two types of cultures can be summarized by saying “I trust a person I know” in a relation-focus culture versus „I trust a person who is competent in a deal-focus culture”.

Italians’ affective way of communicating

Italians like to be in touch, also in the literal sense of the word. While talking, they gesticulate; may touch the interlocutor, the distance between people who are standing and talking is definitely smaller than, for example, in Poland or in Anglo-Saxon cultures, as Italy belongs to affective cultures in which showing emotions is the cultural norm. Poland with little body language and showing no emotion belongs to a moderately affective culture. This means that we are more emotional in communicating than, for example, Finns (belonging to a neutral culture), but less affective than Italians.

It is worth to know these two cultural dimensions that define the way the people in different cultures communicate, and consider them when interpreting their communication.  Human nature is to interpret what they encounter in international relations through their personal experience (which may be limited) and through prism of it own (national) culture – all these may lead to misinterpretation and misunderstanding.

For example a behaviour of interrupting or overlapping statement of an interlocutor during a conversation, is a norm in an affective cultures and reflects expression of the interlocutor’s commitment but  may be considered rude in a neutral culture.

Italians, with their dynamics, expression and commitment to the conversation, are excellent interlocutors, so it is worth appreciating it. 

Particularistic culture of italy

Culture researchers F. Trompenaars and Ch. Turner-Humpden distinguished two types of cultures due to their attitude to obeying the law, rules and principles: universalistic and particularistic. In the first one – its representatives, when they have a dilemma to favour the law or relations when deciding how to behave in a specific situation, are guided by the law and observance of procedures in their actions. In universalistic cultures, it is believed that law and principles are the equal for all, and should be obeyed by all. Representatives of particularistic cultures believe that the law should generally apply, but in their (particular) case or their friends’ case it can be interpreted in their favour.

In Polish culture (being particularistic), this attitude is well defined by the proverb “If Kali steals it is good, if Kali has been stolen is not good”. Italians also belonging to particularistic cultures have a proverb  “Fatta la legge, trovato l’inganno” which can be translated as “Every law can be circumvented”.