Hofstede Comparison of Germany and China

Geert Hofstede is a professor who came up with a theory after researching how people from different background/ countries interact with each other, he based this on six different types of dimensions. Which were, power distance, individualism vs collectivism, masculinity vs femininity, uncertainty avoidance and long and short term orientation. This theory was created so that society could come into terms with issues that needs to be organized. Geert Hofstede theory has become more important as society is continuing to become an integrated global economy.

We have police officers to serve and protect. In China they do not have as much confidence in police system as people in the United States.

24. How do you view yourself in terms of Hofstede’s six dimensions (Fig. 8.8)? For each dimension, place and “X” on one of the globes to indicate your own cultural preference. Do your preferences show the influence of your cultural background? Explain. Page 233

The Geert Hofstede cultural dimensions seek to explain the culture of a country along five dimensions power distance, individuality, masculinity/femininity, uncertainty avoidance and long term orientation. Power distance reflects the degree to which a culture is accepting of differences in power. The higher the score, the more the country accepts inequalities among the people in the culture. The United Kingdom scores 35 and Japan 54. This means that the UK is in particular a low power distance culture, in that the people in the culture generally do not tolerate inequality in the society. For a society that has historically been class-based, this is an interesting finding, but Britain has also been home to many Enlightenment thinkers and their ideals about equality. Japan is a mildly hierarchical society with its score, and Japanese people are generally conscious of their hierarchical position. Japan tends to be fairly hierarchical in a business

amount of money because of the communist society, so it is much harder to have

Hi, I like how you described the differences between China and the US. China is a traditional country that follow rules on a daily lifestyles. The US is different and evolved into a more hands on approach to managing and working. My company had the open door policy to which employees could jump the chain of command, like a supervisor, and talk to a manager.

7. What are the shortcomings of Hoftsede’s criteria for assessing differences on a global basis? Do you consider that his fifth factor adequately caters for the underlying differences between Asian and Western cultural values?

Chinese workers believe that close personal relationships are imperative to effective communication. American companies don’t share the same views and some organizations have even related this to workplace fraternization, which can result in disciplinary action. Since we don’t believe that these relationships are necessary, or even appropriate, we don’t form them and this could affect a bi-national workplace and possibly even carry over to business dealings outside of the company. The Chinese believe that, when conducting business with other people, a relationship must first be formed to gain the trust of business partners.

The people in China are rich in culture just like other Asian countries. Therefore, to be involve with Chinese people in China for business, undertsanding their values and culture are very important. The first important thing to understand about Chinese is their devotion to collectivism. Chinese is trained from very early to consider himself as a dependent segment of a group, which is also called totalitarianism. It is helpful to think of the notion of family in China as a template applied to many networks of relationships that hold the society together. In the Chinese business context, the notion of family is about more than the emotional support and ties of a nuclear family. Family members, for

Germany, a western country is well-known for beer, sausage and innovative technology. China, an eastern country is well-known for delicious food, martial arts and low priced products. Everyone knows they are completely different. However, can you raise some concrete examples showing their difference? And is it true that both do not have a single similarity at all? Though, they have certain similar aspects if you look closer.

Geert Hofstede developed the widely applied Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, which mainly focuses on how different countries with different cultural backgrounds handle different anthropological problems that occur in cross-cultural communication (Hofstede 1980). The first five Hofstede’s dimensions will be discussed in following paragraphs. It should be clear that there is no good and bad between two elements in each dimension since every culture has its unique features and ways to function.

Dr. Geert Hofstede created the first four dimensions of culture in the 1970’s after analyzing statistical data from IBM over the course of many years. In the 1990’s he created the fifth dimension after noticing specific cultural differences in Asian countries and their ties to Confucian philosophy. (www.mindtools.com) The five dimensions are as follows: Power/Distance (PD), Individualism (IDV), Masculinity (MAS), Uncertainty/Avoidance Index (UAI), and Long Term Orientation (LTO). I will only discuss a few of these as they seem more prominent to this case. First, let’s talk about the Power/Distance (PD) dimension as it pertains to Ms. Myers in South Korea.

For example, if a company based in the United States were going to expand into France, the company could use Hofstede’s 6 cultural dimensions to get a general look at the differences between the two. Then out of those differences, the company could see what approaches may or may not work, or what they may need to change,

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 consider culture as “the collective programming of the mind”, which makes it necessary to look at the attitudes, beliefs, and values. Explain the element of Hofstede typology.