How to understand Ukrainians?
When you come to Ukraine, you might be wondering how locals live here, their traditions and culture. In this article, I will try to find some answers to these questions. To do that, cultural differences of Ukrainians can be analyzed through the prism of six dimensions of national culture, based on extensive research done by Professor Geert Hofstede. These dimensions are Power Distance Index, Individualism versus Collectivism, Masculinity versus Femininity, Uncertainty Avoidance Index, Long term orientation, Long term orientation and Indulgence.
Power Distance Index
In this dimension, Ukraine scored 92 points, which means that power holders in Ukraine are very distant from society. [1] The dialogue between power and society has been problematic for centuries, but it got even worse after the Soviet Union. It still causes a lot of problems from both sides, because politicians struggle to gain trust and citizens hardly understand whom to trust on the elections. So if you start talking about politics with people in the taxi or wherever in Ukraine, there is a high chance that they would start blaming all the politicians, who are in power at the moment. Sometimes, the indifference of people towards political decisions also causes problems, as only a few opinions are taken into account and politicians make unpopular decisions. If there is a different situation in your country, you might be surprised why people, especially of old age, are being so negative about everything connected with power. In this case, you need to take into account our soviet heritage, when the power made a lot of authoritarian decisions and citizens could not do much about it. It is also important to mention that Soviet society was quite paternalistic. Citizens had a lot of social benefits, but they also were not politically active. The new generation of Ukrainians, especially those who were born after 1991, did not experience living in the Soviet Union and they rely more on themselves. They are trying to shorten this gap between power and society by participating in political and social life. They are still a minority though, so just be patient, we are working on this problem!
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[1] https://www.hofstede-insights.com/country-comparison/ukraine/
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Individualism versus Collectivism
The fundamental issue addressed by this dimension is the degree of interdependence a society maintains among its members. It has to do with whether people’s self-image is defined in terms of “I” or “We”. [2] Ukraine scored only 25 points here.
If you ask me for a restaurant recommendation or a haircut, the ones I would tell you most probably were introduced to me by my friends or relatives. Ukrainians rely a lot on personal connections. If you want to start a business or just meet locals, you need to connect with them, and it will take some time. Locals you meet might seem a little uncommunicative from the first meeting, but it is just because they mostly trust only their “trust circles”, like family and close friends. The roots of it go from insecurity and lack of trust in society. This problem always comes with a bad economic situation. It is getting better now, especially in big cities of Ukraine because the average wage is growing every year, but people still feel conscious when connecting with other people [3]. So, if you have trouble connecting with locals in Ukraine, just try to make them feel secure and be aware, that it takes some time to show you are a credible person.
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[2] https://www.hofstede-insights.com/country-comparison/ukraine/
[3] https://tradingeconomics.com/ukraine/wages
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Masculinity versus Femininity
A high score (Masculine) on this dimension indicates that the society will be driven by competition, achievement and success. A low score (Feminine) on the dimension means that the dominant values in society are caring for others and quality of life. The fundamental issue here is what motivates people, wanting to be the best (Masculine) or liking what you do (Feminine). [4] Ukraine scored only 27 points here, which means our society tends to be more Feminine.
Ukrainians are rarely driven by competition, they would prefer staying on one stable job for years rather than changing something, chasing a higher salary or more interesting opportunities. This, by the way, may be one of the reasons why our economy is not growing so fast. With the younger generation it is different, because they grew up with more information about the possibilities they can pursue elsewhere. So, this peculiarity has its pros and cons. For instance, for some employers, it means having really loyal employees, whom you do not often find among young people. At the same time, it causes a lack of competition in the workplace, which does not motivate companies for innovations and without them our economy does not grow as fast as it could.
Uncertainty Avoidance Index
The dimension Uncertainty Avoidance has to do with the way society deals with the fact that the future can never be known: whether they try to control the future or just let it happen. This ambiguity brings with it anxiety and different cultures have learnt to deal with this anxiety in different ways. Ukraine scored 95 here, which means Ukrainians are really threatened about the uncertainty of their future. [5]
Ukrainians value stability a lot, even though it is hard to believe that since 1991 we went through the collapse of the Soviet Union and two revolutions. One of the reasons why people feel so bad about uncertainty is probably because they are tired of it and they cannot reach this ground to be certain. You can be less anxious about the future if you know at least partly what to expect from it. For now, citizens do not know what to expect because of lots of social problems going on, like the conflict with Russia; unstable economic situation; constant changes on the governmental positions. Hence, it is quite obvious that people would fear uncertainty because it is really hard to predict what would happen even in the nearest future. On the positive note, Ukraine has shown progress over the last years after an economic crisis in 2014[6] and despite these social problems we are growing as a country and as a nation, so if this situation does not change, over time people will become more optimistic and less anxious about the future.
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[4], [5] https://www.hofstede-insights.com/country-comparison/ukraine/
[6] https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.KD.ZG?end=2018&locations=UA&start=2014
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Long term orientation
This dimension describes how people in the past, as well as today, relate to the fact that so much that happens around us cannot be explained. In societies with a normative orientation, most people have a strong desire to explain as much as possible. In societies with a pragmatic orientation, most people do not have a need to explain everything, as they believe that it is impossible to fully understand the complexity of life. Ukraine scored 86 points in this dimension it is classified as a pragmatic culture.[7]
Ukrainians are not very flexible when it comes to unexpected situations. They would rather do the same thing they did before then try a new approach. It also slows down the process of reforms and changes in society because it is hard to explain to people why these changes are needed. Another example of that is manipulations in Ukrainian media. The situation in Ukraine is quite complex, so in order to understand all the details of particular appointment in the government or court case, you need to analyze a few resources before making up your opinion about it but people often rely on one source only. Again, it is different with the new generation and in terms of media we currently have way more sources than just a few channels on TV, so young people mostly watch different channels, which give them more broad understanding.
Indulgence
This dimension is defined as the extent to which people try to control their desires and impulses, based on the way they were raised and socialised. Relatively weak control is called “Indulgence” and relatively strong control is called “Restraint”.[8] In the research, Ukraine is classified as a “Restraint” culture, which means that people do not put much emphasis on leisure time and do not control the gratification of their desires.
A lot of people in Ukraine are convinced that they have obligations towards their family or workplace and they cannot fail them even if they understand that they want something else. If they do fail some of these obligations, they feel the social pressure of the possibility to be excluded from their social circle. It may sound a little bit too restrained but it does not always mean something bad. For instance, most of the Ukrainians consider marriage as quite a high commitment and this restraint upbringing creates strong and life-long families. Another feature, which you might notice while talking to some locals, they are shy and they tend to underestimate their achievements and it is also a peculiarity of the restrained type of culture but another side of is that they are brought up to be kind to other people and listen to them. So, you actually might find very good friends among Ukrainians.
All of the aforementioned research results quite clearly describe culture peculiarities in Ukraine. You can observe that in some dimensions statistics mostly refer to the older generation, so meeting young locals might be a little bit different experience. Overall, I hope this article will help you connect with locals here on a deeper level!
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[7], [8] https://www.hofstede-insights.com/country-comparison/ukraine/
