Why did the French national football team revolt in a way they did during the WC2010 in South Africa? Pretty much everyone following the WC2010 knows what happened: Anelka was sent home after he verbally abused coach Raymond Domenech and then refused to apologise. Consequently the whole team went on a training-strike, much resembling common life and society in France. Why do the French strike so much, including their national football team? From a cultural perspective this can be explained as follows: French culture, according to research from Professor Geert Hofstede, has a relative high score on one of the cultural dimensions Power Distance. Compared to countries like the UK and the Netherlands, there is a significant difference (UK & NL score much lower). A result of this is that change occurs in higher scoring France through revolution, rather than evolution (the case in UK & NL). Modern day revolution can be called a "Strike". When the Boss/Management/Power holder, suggests, or announces a significant change in its organisations operations, people have a tendency to group together to show a force of power by going on strike BEFORE any negotiations take place. In countries like the UK and the Netherlands, after a significant change announcement has been made, people tend to negotiate first (often bitterly) for a solution. Only when such a solution fails, they might go on strike, and quite often reluctantly.

Amsterdam (NL) has been known as the Diamond capital of the world. Well, at least it use to be an important trading center for diamonds. Until a couple of years back. The market slumped, fewer and fewer people bought.

Until recently. The world economy is getting stronger. The Chinese are making their mark. And the not only look at diamonds, they buy as well, according to Gassan, a leading diamond trader in Amsterdam
Diamonds are seen as a status symbol, much more so then in the Netherlands. Status is a Masculine trait, Chinese do score relatively high on this Hofstede dimension (66). The Dutch are relatively feminine (14).
Plus, according to a Gassan spokes person, when one Chinese buys, others will buy too! This in turn reflects the collective nature of the Chines culture (20 on Hofstede´s IDV dimension), where as the Western Europeans and Americans are relatively individualistic (scores of 70 and higher).

With the right "cultural approach" companies like Gassan diamonds can probably earn more then they are currently doing.