are supposed to describe not only national culture in a large country with more than 100 tribes (and a variety of denominations), but also three other nearby countries: Ethiopia, Kenya, and Zambia. In the same way, even though cultural dimensions are based on questions related to a particular area of life, such as work, it is assumed that the differences found between countries are similar in other contexts, too.

Due to their abstractness, cul-
tural dimensions cannot tell us how
cultural values are put into practice
[ 2]. The similar scores of Finland
and Tanzania in uncertainty avoid-
ance, for example, suggest that
members of these countries would
feel equally uncomfortable in
unknown situations. But in practice,
Finnish and Tanzanian people use
different techniques for dealing with
the unknown: When faced with
strangers, Finns observe the situ-
ation silently from a safe distance
to “let other people be in peace”
[ 3], while the Tanzanian strategy is
perhaps geared more toward initiat-
ing contact and using talk to gather
information to reduce uncertainty.