countries are rather small or non-significant. And therefore, may mistakenly think that concepts developed in one part of the world, will also be effective across borders (Harzing, 2005). Another study has shown that 57% of the interviewees stated that language acts as a barrier to communication (Marschan-Piekkari, Welch & Welch, 1999). People might develop a sense of frustration when they have no choice than to write and speak in a foreign language. Moreover, people who do not possess the language spoken within a company might feel excluded from the group in day-to-day conversations. In addition, language can increase the time needed for a specific task as individuals might need extra time to translate and rewrite text (Park, Dai Hwang & Harrison, 1996). However, an individual in the possession of relevant language skills often resulted in more power as he can gain access to sensitive information (Marschan-Piekkari, Welch & Welch, 1999). Furthermore, language provides an important indication of the cultural values within a society. Some languages have informal and form Grief Management al forms of the word ‘you,’ the use of which depends on the relationship between the speaker and the person addressed. This needs especially to be taken into account when dealing with businesspeople from countrie Grief Managements in which this is applicable (Yum, 1988). 3.2 – Hofstede’s Four Dimensions Next to these cultural elements, Geert Hofstede developed four dimensions by which a culture of a country can be categorized. These dimensions further clarify the characteristics of a country’s culture. Hofstede, a D Grief Management utch researcher, is the most influential researcher in the area of cultural differences and similarities. He performed a study on 116,000 people working for IBM in a lot of different countries and thus with many different cultures. Hofstede wanted to develop a commonly acceptable, well-defined, and empirically based terminology to describe cultures (Hofstede, 1983). 3.2.1 – Individualism versus Collectivism>