Hofstede 's Cultural Dimensions With Globe Study

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.

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.

The IBM study of employees from the 70 countries was the basis for the dimensions and has been critized since there was only one company in the data set however, Hofstede’s belief was that using just one company would better reveal the national differences. According to the authors Phatak, Bhagat, and Kashalk (2009), he believed this because the IBM employees were the same in other respects like type of work, job descriptions, and education. This study has been stated to be the most comprehensive study of how values are influenced in the workplace (Itim International, 2012). Itim International, (2012) noted that Hofstede’s work established a paradigm in international economics, communication, and cooperation, from which Hofstede developed the first emphirical model of “dimensions” for national organizational culutre.

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.

It is this gap in cultural understanding and increase in globalization that makes cultural models, such as Hofstede’s, that much more important to learn and apply during business relations. Many companies that try to expand beyond their current borders end up failing due to refusing to recognize the differences between cultures. An American company that expands into foreign markets, yet tries to run their operations and marketing as they would in America, is going to have a difficult time. Products and well as company practices need to be adapted to suit the country’s business culture, current market climate, taste/preferences of the citizens, etc.

Term 11. Hofstede’s Cultural Dimension- a theory that describes the effects of a society’s culture on the value of its members and the associated behaviors (Cornacchione, & Daugherty, 2013).

Power Distance is one of Hofstede’s dimensions which is used to measure how the difference in power between the people is seen in a country. A country that has a high power distance is one where people are considered superior according to their gender, status, education, race, or family background. A good example of this dimension is India, mainly because of their caste system and females being looked down upon. Indian population is split into 5 groups, and each group has a separate power status and one you are born in the lowest caste, you cannot marry or associate with the highest class other than being servants of the higher class. Cultures with low power distance include Canada, Austria and Israel. People in these countries see each other more as equals.

According to Models2use, Hofstede’s cultural dimension theory is a framework for cross-cultural communication. It describes the effects of a society’s culture on the

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.

Around the world business culture is expressed differently in most countries, but how different? Culture is one main difference that can be distinguished from different countries. Culture is defined in many ways; Culture is the collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from

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.

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,

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 first discuss the nature of Hofstede’s cultural framework and compare it with other culture frameworks. In the second part my personal score for each of the Hofstede’s cultural dimensions will be presented, followed by discussion on how my individual scores relate to the benchmarks suggested by Hofstede for my cultural background. The third section will address the issue of cross-cultural management and give suggestion to an Australian friend who is going to work as a manager in Shanghai.

1. Power distance index (PDI): The degree to which the less powerful members of a society accept and expect that power is distributed unequally.