Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions Comparison

Understanding the differences and similarities inherent in other cultures may provide opportunities when working with individuals (or groups) who may have different cultural values, beliefs, and/or norms. There are multiple ways to explore different cultures. One way is through Hofstede’s (2017) cultural dimension; which are currently made up of six broad categories, including high-low power distance, individualism-collectivism, masculinity-femininity, uncertainty avoidance, long-short term orientation, and indulgence-restraint. It is beyond the scope of this paper to explore all these cultural dimensions in great detail; however, it is important to understand some of the implications of these scores. The scores for both the US and China can be seen in Table 1, along with the differences between each score.

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.

Most people in the United States of America, and many in other countries, are very familiar with Disney Land, in California and the long standing boat ride through Walt Disney’s vision of a world coming together as children from across the globe sing “It’s a small world.” In no other place are these four powerful words more prominent than in the shrinking world of business today. As the world’s corporations seek to expand their brands to the far reaches of the planet, diversity in the work place is becoming copious with people from differing personal beliefs, religious beliefs, nationalities, races, sexes, and genders. It is; therefore, of absolute importance that every person develop a strategy that will enable him/her to embrace strong and professional relationships with each and every person within the organization regardless of their differences. It is the intention of this paper to explore Geert Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions Model and to determine how interpersonal relationships with a coworker, who happens to be a native of Japan, can either be positively or adversely affected.

As professor Geert Hofstede put, "Culture is more often a source of conflict than of synergy. Cultural differences are a nuisance at best and often a disaster." Therefore, understanding different cultures in different countries is a significant issue for multinational enterprises, especially for the inevitable trend of globalization. As our project aims at analyzing the international expansion of German, Japanese, and Irish enterprises, I would like to depict the culture background of these three countries through the method of Hofstede Culture Dimensions.

Professor Geert Hofstede is a Dutch social psychologist who has extensively studied the interactions between different cultures and their influences in the workplace. His theory is found on the concept that value can be placed on six different cultural dimensions. These dimensions include, power, collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, temporal orientation, and indulgence ("Geert Hofstede and cultural dimensions theory," 2011). His data was gathered through surveys carried out by his former employer International Business Machines Corporation (IBM). With his data, he projected a scoring system from one to one hundred and twenty which scores countries based on the dimensions from his

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.

The man who put corporate culture on the map—almost literally—Geert Hofstede (born 1928) defined culture along five different dimensions. He measured each of these dimensions in numerous countries and then made cross-country comparisons. In the age of globalization, managers trying to understand the differences between workforces in different environments have used this model extensively. Early in his career he worked for IBM, during which he carried out the research on which his career and reputation successively rests. Now known as the Hofstede Cultural Orientation Model is based on his study between 1967 and 1973 of IBM employees in 40 different countries.

As it were, this hypothesis contemplates noteworthy parts of society and gives them a rating on a comparison scale. So far as worldwide business is concerned, the measurements of society frame a vital feature. Information of the way in which distinctive components of a business are seen in various societies, can help an administrator in comprehension and cruising effectively over the global business market. This research assignment will discuss about the theme of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions by investigating; introducing the five dimension frameworks, and utilising the measurements to comprehend societies and individuals in view of a contextual analysis of social contrasts, the importance of overseeing social distinction as a major aspect of diverse workforce, conclusion, and recommendations.

Hofstede defines culture as 'the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one human group from another '”. (Kirkman, Lowe &Gibson, 2006, p. 286). He started his research in the 1960’s, by examining the concept of culture within one of the largest multinational companies in the world – IBM. Thousands of interviews were held across 66 countries, although results were only used from only 40. As a result of his investigation, four dimensions of culture were identified: individualism-collectivism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance and masculinity-femininity. Years later Hofstede and Bond added another dimension, long-term orientation. (Hofstede and Bond 1988). First dimension, power distance is defined as the extent of willingness that societies accept the hierarchical power structure (Morrison 2006). Cultures, which are considered low power distance, tend to have preferences towards equality and decentralization of terms of power and

Hofstede’s dimension of culture offers a gauge to measure the similarities and differences that are dominate among people of different cultures. Therefore, the three countries selected for this analysis are China, India and the United Kingdom (UK), as Hofstede’s dimensions of culture examines individualism/collectivism, high/weak uncertainty avoidance, masculinity/femininity, power distance and long-term orientation, associated with the management culture in these nations.

The Hofstede's cultural dimensions theory was conducted by Professor Geert Hofstede. The Hofstede's cultural dimensions theory are the model of Hofstede was the outcome of factor analysis done on a global survey of the value system of employees at IBM between the years 1967 and 1973. This theory was one of the initial ones which could quantify cultural differences (Cleverism, 2015). The six dimensions of national culture are based on extensive research done by Professor Geert Hofstede, Gert Jan Hofstede, Michael Minkov and their research teams which is power distance, individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, long term orientation and indulgence. The original theory that Hofstede proposed talked of four dimensions, namely power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism versus collectivism and masculinity versus femininity. After conducting independent studies in Hong Kong, Hofstede included a fifth dimension, known as long-term versus short-term orientation, to describe

A famous study of cultural dimensions, which can provide a more clear view of the impacts of culture on international business.Dimensions of cultural differences are very necessary for organizations especially those who operate internationally to understand and cope with such differences that can manifest themselves in terms of different standards, values and expectations in the various countries in which they operate. (Johnson, Scholes, Whittington 2008: 190) Here I have to mention one of the most effective studies of cultural dimensions, Hofstede's cultural dimensions, which are consisted of power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism and collectivism, masculinity-femininity, and

Hofstede’s model (1980) has been used widely in research in the past two decades. The

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: