Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe the cultural values – how things should be – and the cultural practices – how things are – of Angolan society. The authors expected to find: a gap between practices and values; high levels of power distance, institutional and in-group collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, future and humane orientation; and low to medium levels of performance orientation, gender equality and assertiveness. Design/methodology/approach – In all, 235 employees in Angola responded to a questionnaire using GLOBE’s cultural scales. Findings – There is a gap between cultural practices and values. Within Angola, humane and performance orientations are the most valued cultural dimensions. Power distance and in-group collectivism are the most prevailing cultural practices. Compared to other countries, Angola has high levels of humane orientation, institutional collectivism and uncertainty avoidance values and high levels of assertiveness and performance orientation practices. Practical implications – Higher than desired levels of assertiveness and power distance, on the one hand, and lower than desired levels of humane orientation and uncertainty avoidance on the other, are key aspects that should be taken into account by HRM in this context. Originality/value – These results may have important implications for HRM in Angola. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first analysis of Angola’s culture from a business research perspective.

The human element is the most influential resource and the one that has the greatest responsibility in the organization’s effectiveness and efficiency. Therefore, the development of human resources and their training is fundamental to achieve organizational goals. Globalization facilitates the mobility of people around the world, increasing the number and diversity of tourists in hotels, from different cultures, bringing with them different perceptions of the quality of services. This new reality has become a challenge for human resources management practices, and specifically in one of its key areas, which is training. Studies show that training has a positive impact on skills development and worker performance. Given this importance, a cultural training programme is proposed for professionals of the hospitality sector that takes cultural values into account, as well as their impact on the interaction of these professionals with clients.

One of the consequences of globalization was the internationalization of organizations. In this context, expatriation has become fundamental for the competitiveness of the organizations. Training is indispensable to adjustment of expatriates in a new culture. Poor performance by expatriates compromises the success and competitive capacity of organizations. Like expatriation, responsible leadership is a very important topic. Responsible leadership can be the answer for a more ethical business in a context full of uncertainties. In literature there are a variety of definitions about responsible leadership. In spite of that, the relationship between leaders and stakeholders (internal and external) to achieve a common objective is vital. Leaders interact with different stakeholders with different costumes and culture. Knowledge of national idiosyncrasies is very important because these are a key element in the internationalization process as well as a factor of success in expatriation and responsible leadership.

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