A Comparison between Australian and Indonesian Cultures

Strech your wings to campare those countries
by Andress Hamenda

In this 12th posting, I compare about the differences and the similarities of Australian cultures with Indonesian cultures in dealing with daily activities in the family, society and business matters.

When I spoke to a 27-year male student whose nationality is Australian from one of my classes, I found that Australian and Indonesian cultures are different in terms of individualism versus collectivism and power distance (Based on Hofstede's research). Therefore, I will give you suggestions on how to interact with Australian and Indonesian cultures to minimise miscommunication and misunderstanding among individuals.

Based on Hofstede’s research (Harris et.al., 2003, pp. 21-23), the country cultures of Indonesia are high power distance, low uncertainty avoidance, collectivism, and masculinity. Meanwhile, the country cultures of Australia are low power distance, low uncertainty avoidance, high individualism, and masculinity.

Based on Hofstede’s research, the highest Hofstede score for Australia is Individualism at 90 compared to the lowest Hofstede score for Indonesia’s Individualism at 14. An individualistic culture indicates that people are more direct verbal in communication and people are logic to point out their argument in confrontation (Reisinger, 1997). Australian people, for example, do not irritate to say the word “no” if they disagree with someone and make negative request using verbal communication directly when the situation discomforts them.

Meanwhile, a very low individualism score for Indonesia reflects that Indonesian country is a collectivism society. Collectivism means societies tend to sustain harmony and face-saving through strong personal relationship and support from third party (Chien, 2006, p234). In addition, people in collectivist culture are more likely to avoid conflict and these people are less insulting than people from individualistic culture (Cai & Fink, 2002). The demonstration of the collectivism is also shown in a strong long term commitment and responsibility for not only immediate family, but also extended family (International Business Center, 2003). Moreover, Reisinger (1997) explained that Indonesian people tend to avoid conflict by using indirect non-verbal communication and tend not to make people ashamed.

The lowest Hofstede score for Australia is power distance at 36 compared to the highest Hofstede score for Indonesia’s Power Distance at 78. It is also interesting to note that according to International Business Center (2003), Indonesia’s power distance index is 78, greater than the average Asian countries’ power distance at 71. In a low power distance culture, Australian people expect to lessen the imbalanced authorities in decision making within organisations and utilise consultancy to reduce that authorities (Reisinger, 1997). Australians, for example, tend not to prioritize the other people based on their age, position and gender. Australians do not usually call people or their managers by their formal titles.

In contrast, the high power distance culture in Indonesia indicates the high degree in which less powerful individuals accept the distribution of imbalanced authority in organizations or societies (Hofstede, 2001 cited by Chan et.al., 2003). Furthermore, Reisinger (1997) stated that a manager is authoritative in making decision in organisations and their subordinates respect them. Employees are more likely to call their superiors by their formal title, such as professor, doctor, or special term “bapak”, “ibu” which are translated “sir” or “madam” respectively to address people when they are not sure with their titles or older than themselves.

The other cultures are uncertainty avoidance and masculinity. Uncertainty avoidance is Indonesia’s second highest score which is 48, whereas Australia’s second highest score is masculinity which is 61. Even though Indonesia has the second highest score in uncertainty avoidance index, it is still a low score compared to a world average of 64 and Asian countries’ average of 58 (International Business Center, 2003). Low uncertainty avoidance for Indonesia reflects that communities are less aware of threat caused by uncertain condition and thus is less likely to avoid that condition.

In conclusion, in Australian cultures, it is acceptable to disagree with someone using logic argument and do not have to resist with uncomfortable situation if you do not like it. In Indonesian cultures, however, it is important to call people by their formal titles or the term “bapak” for ”sir” and “ibu” for “madam” to interact with Indonesian people.

Hopefully, this minor research article will help my Indonesian friends to interact with Australians. Get relaxed friends!