Examples Of Hofstede's Dimension Of Culture

Question 1. How might the troubles with the tourism company be explained by Hofstede’s dimension of culture. Make sure to look at both Japanese and American cultures.

Collectivism contradicts individualism and concerns the social position, ideology, and political attitude of a group. The interest and aims of such a group are underlined and served from a corporate perspective. Collective interests and objectives are, therefore, viewed as superior to those found at the individual level.

This knowledge of weakness should not be used against people of other cultures or in stereotyping individuals. In obtaining the indices, research was based on data obtained from IBM employees. According to Hofstede, “dimensions and associated country scores were developed through factor analysis of the means of nationally aggregated individual item responses which were collected as part of IBM employee surveys” (Hofstede 491). The problem, however, is that as much as this may be useful in determining the culture of a country, it does not have enough diverse subjects to form a complete perception of an individual, cultural group or organization; especially an organization different from IBM. The diversity of ethnicity, religious belief, social economic status, education and other variables that makes up an individual’s value system may not be reflected in the average IBM employee. Brewer and Verniak, in their article On the Misuse of National Culture Dimensions, believe “The correlations among the items used to measure the national culture dimensions are positive and highly significant at the aggregated national (also known as “ecological”) level, but are mostly low and insignificant and sometimes of opposite sign at the individual level” (Brewer and Venaik

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.

Power/Distance (PD), “refers to the degree of inequality that exists- and is accepted- among people with and without power. A high PD score indicates that society accepts an unequal distribution of power, and that people understand “their place” in the system. Low PD means that power is shared and well dispersed.” (www.mindtools.com) As an example from the article, Myers goes on to say, “there were basically four levels: VP, director, manager, and worker bee. You only talked to people at your level.” SK Telecom boasted that

According to The Oxford Dictionary, culture is defined as “the customs, arts, social institutions, and achievements of a particular nation, people or other social group (Oxford, 2016).” With the rise of multiculturalism and diversity across many nations, understanding and practicing cultural etiquette within the business arena has never been of greater importance. Geert Hofstede, a well known leader in intercultural research and studies, conducted a comprehensive study in which he analyzed how culture influenced the values rooted within the workplace (The Hofstede Centre, 2016). Hofstede focused on evaluating nations based on the following dimensions in order to be better equipped culturally, socially and professionally: Power Distance Index (PDI), Individualism versus Collectivism (IDV), Masculinity versus Femininity (MAS), Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI), Long Term Orientation versus Short Term Normative Orientation (LTO) and Indulgence versus Restraint (IND). For the purposes of this research paper, a brief country profile of China, Ethiopia and Germany is provided along with an analysis of the six cultural dimensions of Hofstede at work in these countries in comparison to the United States of America.

Geer Hostede describes power distance as the degree less powerful members of a society or workforce accept the inequalities in power (“Dimensions – Geert Hostede,” n.d.). The United States scores 40 compared to 31 for Sweden. Both countries scored fairly low in power distance suggesting equality is central desire. Lower ranking staff members in societies that exhibit small power ranking scores expect to be consulted (Hostede, 2011). Participative leaders could be very effective in this society as the defining qualities of this leadership style include collaboration and seeking consensus in decision making. Employees in both countries expect to be treated with equality and will not follow leadership blindly.

The Hofstede’s six cultural dimensions were created collectively by Geert Hofstede, Michael Bond, and Michael Minkov. These dimensions of culture were created to view how values in the workplace were influence by a particular culture of a given country. Essentially, it was a tool to describe how workforces in different countries operate under their own culture. There are currently six different dimensions of national cultures; power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism, masculinity, long-term orientation, and indulgence versus restraint. Professor Greet Hofstede was the creator of the first four cultural dimensions, back in 1973. Roughly two decades later, Michael Bond with the support of Hofstede created the fifth dimension, in 1991. Recently in the 2010, the last dimension was added to the list, by Michael Minkov and his research team (Minkoy & Hofstede, 2011). The first four dimensions discovered by Hofstede, dealt with four different anthropological issues that were handled differently from nation to nation. These issues involved; methods of coping with inequality and uncertainty, relationships within a primary group, and the emotional significance of having been born as male or female (National, n.d.). The fifth dimension is long-term orientation. Long-term orientation provides the idea that a given culture or country prefers to do things in an old-fashion manner or in a modernized pragmatic approach. The last dimension,

The leading study of cross-cultural management conducted by Dr. Hofstede became a framework for cross-cultural communication. It is the effects of a society’s culture on the values of its members and how these values relate to behavior, using a structure derived from factor analysis. Dr. Hofstede’s theory identified five cultural dimensions: power distance (PDI), uncertainty avoidance (UAI), individualism (IDV) vs. collectivism, masculinity (MAS) vs. femininity, and long term orientation (LTO), which allows one to compare any two or more countries with each other and quickly illustrates what cultural differences exist, which are aligned, and which are uniquely different. Each of the five cultural dimensions are nationally scored on a scale from 1 to 120 and allows for international comparison between cultures, which can be utilized to select the most aligned countries when evaluating and considering which countries should be involved in the project. Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions

This alludes to the quality of the binds individuals need to others inside the group. A high IDV score shows detached associations. In nations with a high IDV score there is an absence of interpersonal association and small imparting of obligations past family and maybe a couple of close companions. A general public with a low IDV score would have solid gathering union and there would be a lot of dependability and appreciation for parts of the gathering. The gathering itself is additionally bigger and individuals assume more liability for one another 's well-being.

Individualism (IDV) vs Collectivism: For this dimension says that the people are incorporated into gatherings. In individualistic social orders, the anxiety is put on individual accomplishments and individual rights they worry about themselves and family member’s .Conversely, in collectivism social orders, people act prevalently as individuals from a deep rooted and binding gathering family groups in society.

Masculinity vs. Femininity is whether the culture is deemed assertive and competitive which is depicted as masculine. Or it seems more cooperating and modest which is depicted as feminine. In a masculine environment trying transactional leadership could be beneficial, which rewards outcomes. This means the team is motivated to perform by getting tangible rewards such as money when the goal is achieved or possibly punishment if certain rules aren’t adhered to. Employees

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.

Psychologist, Dr. Geert Hofstede developed a framework to link culture and organizational behavior considered the most useful outline for a scholarly community. The basis of his framework is comprehensive research involving 160,000 participants’ of managers and employees from 53 countries throughout the world. The study categorized the five cultural dimensions as Power/ Distance, Individualism /Collectivism, Uncertainty Avoidance, Masculinity / Femininity, and Short-Term / Long-Term Orientation (Khan 2014). Evaluating and understanding that culture has influence on how trade is conducted in a particular country and around the world, is critical in helping to increase a leader’ knowledge and ability to communicate and direct resources, to make viable business decisions globally. In addition, knowledge of the five cultural dimensions can be an effective tool for business leaders dealing with the rapidly growing cultural diversity within their respective countries.

2. Individualism vs. collectivism (IDV): The extent to which a society is based on the needs of the individual as opposed to the needs of the group.