Essay on Hofstede's five dimensions of cultural differences

Attitudes and beliefs about older workers have been characterized as "ambivalent" (Barth, McNaught, and Rizzi 1993, p. 162) and "mixed" (American Association for Retired Persons [AARP] 1995, p. 19), that is, older workers are viewed as having both positive and negative attributes. Several studies (AARP/Society for Human Resource Professionals [SHRM] 1993; AARP 1995; Barth, McNaught and Rizzi 1993; Hassell and Perrewe 1995) reveal that, when compared to younger workers, older workers are viewed positively on a number of traits including low absenteeism, low turnover, work attitudes and motivation, job skills, and loyalty.

The Americans with Disabilities Act provides civil rights to those who are disabled. The ADA guarantees equal opportunity to those individuals who are disabled in the work force and with the state and local government. The ADA will ensure that people with disabilities are not discriminated against when it comes to hiring, firing and advancements. The employer must provide certain accommodations for those with disabilities, but only if it does not cause them undue hardship.

The next issue I’d like to talk about is the positive and negative perception of older workers. Executives and managers have both positive and negative outlooks on older employees depending mostly on the job being performed. Studies done by AARP said that elderly workers (those age 50 and older), and were valued for their experience, knowledge, work habits, attitudes, commitment to quality, loyalty, punctuality, ability to keep cool in crisis, and respect to authority. (AARP 1989) They are valued

Americans with Disabilities Act was established to restrain illegal discrimination in employment against individuals qualified to be disabled. The purpose of the law was to generally end discrimination in the place of work and to deliver equal employment chances for individuals living with disabilities or have had histories of disabilities. The act defends employees that experience physical or mental deficiency that greatly limits a key life activity. In addition to that, it protects the rights of employees with a history of disability and those that employers regard as being disabled even when in the real sense they are not. The main goal of this law is to simply eradicate discrimination against people with disabilities.

According to the Office of Disability Employment Office, “The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a landmark federal law that protects the rights of people with disabilities by eliminating barriers to their participation in many aspects of living and working in America. In particular, the ADA prohibits covered employers from discriminating against people with disabilities in the full range of employment-related activities, from recruitment to advancement, to pay and benefits”(“ODEP”, para. 1). With this being said, it is important to remember the main focus for this Act is that it to allow protection for

Ageism is a huge problem against older people in the workplace. Most employers look for the most respectable, intelligent, hardworking workers who are capable of doing the job tasks. A lot of employers may prefer younger employees over older employees with the idea that younger employees are more able and efficient for the job which isn’t true in most cases. Many employers could also believe that young employees are a better choice because they might be able to work longer periods of time, more up to date with technology,

The Americans with Disabilities Act is one of the most significant laws in American History. Before the Americans with Disabilities Act (A.D.A.) was passed employers were able to deny employment to a disabled worker, simply because he or she was disabled. With no other reason other than the person’s physical disability were they turned away or released from a job (Acemoglu & Angrist, 2001). The ADA prevents discrimination by establishing rules and regulations designed to protect persons with physical disabilities. When this act was signed in 1990 it changed the range of opportunities available for those disabled. The social implications surrounding individuals in the workforce with disabilities can be assessed on many levels.

In 1973, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was a "national movement to end discrimination against people with disabilities" (Hardman, Drew, Egan 10). ADA has substantially closed the gaps between those with and without disabilities, however, it has not been enough. Individuals with disabilities deserve the same opportunities, rights, and respect as others. A key area that the community should pay more attention to is the employment rates of the disabled compared to the non-disabled. For example, "only 21 percent indicated that they are employed, compared to 59 percent of people without disabilities" (Hardman, Drew, Egan 13). This is sad because there are discrimination laws that protect the disabled, but obviously they are not being

Looking at the chart the first dimension of culture plotted is individualism-collectivism. This dimension addresses how people define themselves and their relationships with others. Cultures that fall on the individualism side of the continuum share four characteristics. First, such cultures consider the individual to be the most important entity in any social setting. Second, individualistic cultures stress independence rather than dependence. Third, individualistic cultures reward individual achievement. The last characteristic is; individualistic cultures value each individual’s uniqueness.

While some people live with significant disabilities and severe health conditions that render them unable to work, millions of individuals can and do work despite their disabilities. The Department of Labor reported in June 2014 that only about nineteen percent of disabled Americans were employed, compared to almost seventy percent of non-disabled workers. Though disabled Americans comprise twenty percent of the overall population, they are twice as likely to be unemployed as their nondisabled counterparts. For those who are employed, research provides evidence

What distinguishes the individualist culture from collectivist culture is in how the relation of individual interests and community interests are dealt with. In a collectivist culture, people are taught that the interests of the community are considered to be the most important.

Because of The American’s With Disabilities Act, people with disabilities are treated more fairly and are allowed to participate in the workforce without discrimination. It is common for people with intellectual disabilities to be active members of the workforce. Intellectual disabilities fall on a broad

Normally we tend to think of diversity in relation to age, race, gender and religion. These days there is more focus being given to diversity in the form of generational differences.

Individualism vs collectivism: This dimension deals with how personal goals are taken into consideration versus how goals of a group are taken into consideration. People in individualist societies take great inspiration from personal success while people collectivist societies work best with people who they know.

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.