Cultural Dimensions and Global Web Design

The studies into culture have been on-going and the importance of cultural significance in societies has increased in recent years due to the changing dimensions of the world we live in. Globalization itself has had a very profound effect on cross-cultural interactions through progression in the fields of communication and technology that allow the formation of virtual work teams, the elimination of borders in trade, increased labour mobility and migration between countries. While theorists over the years have tried to define culture, it is important to note that cultural experts themselves have stressed the difficulty of defining the concept without touching into different ideas and theories that contradict each other (Browaeys and Price, 2008). Hofstede (2001) defines culture as 'the collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from another '. In his book International Management (2003), Tayeb adds to the literature defining culture as ‘historically evolved values, attitudes and meanings that are learned and shared by the members of community and which influence their material and non-material way of life’. Some of the most commonly identified elements of culture are values, attitudes, rituals and shared meanings that are developed by individuals over the course of their lives through education, regional and national influences (Hofsede et al, 1991; Schwartz, 1992; Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner, 1997). Having

Geert Hofstede, G. J. (2010). Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind. New York: McGraw-Hill

Understanding the influence of culture in business practices and managerial decision-making requires explaining the differences between cultures. This is why, Hofstede (appendix 1) presents a well-known model based on four dimensions of culture:

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.

The most famous researcher of prevailing cultures in different countries goes by the name of Geert Hofstede. “He conducted one of the most comprehensive studies of how values in the workplace are influenced by culture” (). With the help of his research team, Professor Geert Hofstede created a model of national culture consisting of six dimensions. “The cultural dimensions represent independent preferences for on state of affairs

The United States and China boast the two largest economies in the world but, despite this fact, these two countries have very little in common. At first glance, this may seem very obvious to most people but, what exactly is it that makes these two countries so different? How is it that such different perspectives and approaches can both lead to great success? Hofstede’s six dimensions of culture are an attempt to answer these questions and more. Dr. Geert Hofstede, studied employees of the computer firm IBM in over fifty different countries. When he examined his findings he found “clear patterns of similarity and difference along the four dimensions” (Manktelow, Jackson Edwards, Eyre, Cook and Khan, n.d.). The fact that he focused his research on solely IBM employees allowed him to eliminate company culture as a differentiating factor and “attribute those patterns to national and social differences” (n.d.). He used his findings to originally identify four dimensions, later expanded to six, that could “distinguish one culture from another” (n.d.). The six dimensions all on a scale from 0 to 100 are:

Culture and the environment affect a business in many ways. Culture is not simply a different language, a different shade of skin, or different styles of food. Culture, and the environment in which you are a part of, affect the running of day to day business operations of all companies’ day in and day out. This paper will assess how Linda Myers, from the article, “The would-be pioneer,” (Green, S., 2011) was affected by the huge culture shock of working for a global conglomerate from Seoul, South Korea. We will discuss what went wrong with Ms. Myers approach to business, Hofstede’s five dimensions of culture as it

Geert Hofstede is an influential Dutch researcher in the fields of organizational studies and more concretely organizational culture, also cultural economics and management. He is a well-known pioneer in his research of cross-cultural groups and organizations and played a major role in developing a systematic framework for assessing and differentiating national cultures and organizational cultures. His studies demonstrated that there are national and regional cultural groups that influence behavior of societies and organizations.

When a business decides to venture internationally into different countries with its products, services, and operations, it is very important that the company gains an understanding of how the culture of the different societies affects the values found in those societies. Geert Hofstede conducted one of the most famous and most used studies on how culture relates to values. Hofstede study enabled him to compare dimensions of culture across 40 countries. He originally isolated four dimensions of what he claimed summarized different cultures — power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism versus collectivism, and masculinity versus femininity (Hill, 2013, p.110). To cover aspects of values not discussed in the original paradigm Hofstede has since added two more dimensions — Confucianism or long-term orientation and indulgence versus self-restraint (Hofstede, n.d.). Because of the way Hofstede’s cultural dimensions are given an index score from 0-100, it is easy for a company to get a general comparison between the cultures they are expanding into and the culture they are already in.

In a global economy, the way employees interact within the workplace is critical to the way that business is conducted and is ultimately successful. Leaders and managers who interact within the global setting need to understand differences between each person’s culture, regardless of whether or not the interaction is amongst employees or clients. These differences can include mannerisms or methods of etiquette that may seem strange or unique to those from a different cultural setting. Other differences might include the way that organizations in different nations may or may not be willing to do business or work with other groups based on race, gender, ethnicity, sex, or religion. With a utility such as Geert Hofstede’s Six Dimensions, one can gain insight into the differences between countries the world over regarding these cultural differences (Hofstede).

It was evaluated and compile by IBM employee after a detailed survey of IBM employees of over 40 countries. It is one of the very first cultural models that were compiled by evaluating, assessing, and comparing the working pattern of the employees all over the world in order to highlight the factor of cultural as differentiation factor among them. Apart from an extensive research, the cultural model has been highly criticised by different scholars and marketing expert because of the research in one sector. Many of the scholar criticise that Hofstede Model was singularly done of the base of IBM employees therefore, the demonstration limits research criteria (Hofstede,

The term culture is defined by a number of authors. Shankar (2003) has defined culture as “complex and interrelated set of elements, comprising knowledge, beliefs and values, arts, laws, and habits acquired by a human as a member of a particular society. These act together to distinguish one group from another. “Culture determines the identity of a human group in the same way as personality determines the identity of an individual” (Hofstede, 1984). Further he always defined culture as the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one human group from another. In order to compare the cultures of different organisations Gerant Hofstede discovered five dimensions which he found universally present in different nations and organisations. They are Power distance, Uncertainty avoidance, Individualism vs

What if I told you culture has a bigger role in your life than you think? Well according to Gerard Hendrik Hofstede, a Dutch social psychologist, culture is an enormous factor when it comes to analyzing a society’s values and behavior. Hofstede traveled all over the globe and interviewed several employees on their values and with that he developed an immense database that analyzed the ways cultures differ from one another. Hofstede’s culture dimensions theory consists of six dimensions: power distance index, individualism vs. collectivism, uncertainty avoidance index, masculinity vs. femininity, long-term orientation vs. short-term orientation, and indulgence vs. restraint. Culture is more than one’s heritage; culture determines and justifies a society’s behavior and values.

It is important for the companies to understand what culture actually means, Hofstede (1984), defines culture as “collective mind programming which differentiate one group from another culture through set of values”. So these values and fundamental assumptions held by a group of individuals are manifested into people’s attitudes and behaviors. Thus, culture difference can lead individual to view similar things in quite different ways.

According to Hofstede (n.d.), the Six Dimensions of Culture are power distance index, individualism versus collectivism, masculinity versus femininity, uncertainty avoidance index, long-term orientation versus short-term normative orientation, and indulgence versus restraint. Professor Geert Hofstede conducted a study on how values in the workplace are influenced by culture. He analyzed a large group of employee value scores that were collected with IBM between the years of 1967 and 1973. This data covered more than seventy countries. Hofstede first used forty of the largest groups that had the most respondents, and then he extended his analysis to fifty countries and three regions (Hofstede, n.d.).