Compare and Contrast the Relative Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions of Usa, China, Germany and India

The theory of individualism/collectivism refers to the values and nature of a society. Those cultures deemed as individualist place high

In essence this dimension deals with the relationship between the individual and the collectives in a given society. It is reflected in the way in which people live together. For example, nuclear families, extended families, tribes and other larger communities. It directly effects peoples values and behaviours. In some cultures individualism is sometime to be sought after but in others it is seen as alienation.

Individualism in today’s society is the “belief that each person is unique, special, and a ‘basic unit of nature’.” The individualism concept puts an

A1. Leadership Style Upon conducting research, it is clear that the definition of “leadership” is not agreed upon. It is fluid, based upon many perceptions, situations, and surroundings. According to Robinson (2010), adopting a specific style of leadership is rather futile as it is, “contingent on the personal traits of the leader, the people being led, and the nature of the activity.” Tools are available to help guide potential leaders in determining a preferred style of leadership. For example, utilizing the “Leadership Self-Assessment

“Acknowledges the fact that in individualistic cultures, ‘people are supposed to look after themselves and their family only’ while in collective cultures, ‘people belong to groups or collectives which are supposed to look after them in exchange for loyalty’”. (Theriault, 2016)

Looking at the chart the first dimension of culture plotted is individualism-collectivism. This dimension addresses how people define themselves and their relationships with others. Cultures that fall on the individualism side of the continuum share four characteristics. First, such cultures consider the individual to be the most important entity in any social setting. Second, individualistic cultures stress independence rather than dependence. Third, individualistic cultures reward individual achievement. The last characteristic is; individualistic cultures value each individual’s uniqueness.

Individualism is the tendency of people to look after themselves and their immediate family only. This dimension is in direct contrast with collectivism, the tendency of people to belong to groups that look after each other in exchange for loyalty. Hofstede has found that economically advanced countries tend to place greater emphasis on individualism than do poorer countries. For example, the United States, Great Britain, the Netherlands, and Canada have high individualism. In contrast Ecuador, Guatemala, Pakistan, and Indonesia have low individualism. Although Hofstede did not measure changes in individualism along with a time continuum, he did find that Japan has a higher individualism score than any other country in the Orient. Given the

Individualism is an ideology or moral stance where the personal worth, freedom, ambitions and goals of an individual is valued above the good of everything else. In this ideology, the individual does whatever is best for him or her. Self-sufficiency and self-actualization is held at a high standard and valued in this ideology. Individualism is usually defined in contrast to collectivism, which promotes the goals and values of the society above the individual. The concept of individualism is woven into the fundamental foundation of the United States of America. In this outline, the historical framework, that is how and why individualism became a part of western culture, the contemporary issues, that is how individualism manifest itself in the

This dimension is described by Hofstede (1980, 2001) as the framework where society decides if they are closely related to their group or if they are more individualistic. Does the individual come first? Or does the team? In more individualist countries, focus is on the individuals interest and needs, value is placed on the person specifically, individuals are awarded for their efforts (i.e. leaders take credit for

Dr. Hofstede performed a comprehensive study of how values in the workplace are influenced by culture. In the 1970’s, as a Dutch researcher Dr. Geert Hofstede, collected and analyzed data from 116,000 surveys taken from IBM employees in forty different countries around the world. From those results, Hofstede developed a model that identifies four primary dimensions of differentiate cultures. These include: Uncertainty Avoidance (UA), Masculinity-Femininity (MAS), Individualism-Collectivism (IND), Power and Distance (PD). After a further study of the Asian culture by researcher Michael Bond in 1991, Hofstede added a fifth dimension in his theory, Long- and Short-term time orientation (LTO), also referred to as the Confucian Dynamism. His research has framed how cultural differences can be used in professional business transactions. Geert Hofstede 's dimensions analysis can assist the business person in better understanding the intercultural differences within regions and between countries.

Individualism vs collectivism: This dimension deals with how personal goals are taken into consideration versus how goals of a group are taken into consideration. People in individualist societies take great inspiration from personal success while people collectivist societies work best with people who they know.

This dimension determines the culture in the term of “I” or “we”. Individualism prefers to the society in which individuals only take care of themselves and their immediate family. In contrast, collectivism prefers to the the society in which people integrate and share good relationships in groups, and expect the unquestioning loyalty. (Hofstede, 1991). The three questions related to this dimension are:

The greatest diversion in cultural values between eastern and western nations can be observed through the mentality that shapes social behaviors in terms of relationships and in response to goals. The Hofstede dimension which best represents this aspect of society is the Individualism versus Collectivism index. This dimension refers to the degree of interdependence among the members in a particular society.

This essay will discuss the influence of cultural dimensions on behavior. A cultural dimension is defined as a perspective of a culture based on its values and cultural norms. In particular, Hofstede’s cultural dimension of individualism vs. collectivism will be discussed. Individualism vs collectivism is defined as the preference of a person only being concerned about oneself and looking after oneself, compared to a person who wants to remain in a closely knitted network. These are some terms with definitions which will be used in this essay: the Asch paradigm, which refers to the studies conducted by Solomon Asch, in which he showed his participants different lines and asked them to verbally judge and respond as to what the length of the

Hofstede (1991) developed several types of organizational models based on his national cultural dimensions. Of the five cultural dimensions he developed, the combination of PD and UA is considered the most important in studying organizations in various national cultures. Organizational structures are decided by who has the power to take decisions (dependent on PD dimension) and what rules and procedures are needed to arrive at a decision (dependent on the UA dimension). The combination of these dimensions yields a four-quadrant framework (based on the combination of low and high values of UA and PD), each of which represents certain profiles of organizations. These four organizational models are: machine, market, pyramid and family. Each quadrant includes countries that share a common degree of national