Understanding National Culture And How Relevant Is Important

Taking the first concern mentioned into consideration, we can easily relate to cross-cultural researcher, Edward T. Hall’s differentiation between high-context cultures and low-context cultures.

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.

Halsall, R., 2008. From ‘business culture’ to ‘brand state’: conceptions of nation and culture in business literature on cultural difference. Culture and Organization, volume 14 (1), page 15-30.

Culture is defined by a community, it shapes the aspirations, how success is defined, the resources available to the people within. This further effects the beliefs and behaviors of the individuals. Societies where isolation is normalized cause the people within them to be more solitary and unable to maintain relationships (Cacioppo 74). When people are no longer able to maintain relationships, they turn to other forms of interaction. Cacioppo writes about the substitution of human interaction.

Culture, according to Hofstede (1982), is a “collective programming of the mind which distinguish the members of one category from another”. The term “category of people” can be a nation, a region, a work organization, or even a family.

Culture is one of the terms that have been becoming more familiar in the 21st century among the multinational companies all around the world. The world has been shrunken by the fasting travelling and communicating technologies which has brought down the barriers for the organisations having business in international market. But still then there are few barriers that make the international business critical and hard for everyone to succeed in it. This is due to the factor that the businesses have direct influence over the culture that is followed in the respective country where the business is carried out. So it would be interesting to

To show how culture influences the values that exist in the workplace, Geert Hofstede, a Dutch social psychologist and international management professor at

The escalation of globalization in recent times has brought a phenomenal change in the market and business. The argument that arises is how and where the firm should enter the comprehensive arcade. The research into international business has become an active area of study over the last four decades and is likely to become even more so, as the procedure of economic globalization accelerates into the future. The most fascinating and current are the issues relating to national culture and its outcomes on business process (Venaik and Brewer, 2008).

Professor Geert Hofstede’s study looked at six dimensions of national culture to determine values in the workplace. The six dimensions are, Power Distance Index, Individualism vs Collectivism, Masculinity vs Femininity, Uncertainty Avoidance Index, Long Term Orientation vs Short Term Normative Orientation, and Indulgence versus

The importance of national culture has become increasingly significant and has been shown to noticeably impact business activities and ventures throughout the world (Bhagat et al., 2005). Failure to appreciate and account for cultural differences can ultimately lead to the failure

Some of the most influential research on cultural values has been done by Geert Hofstede. His empirical studies of work-related values have been extended to 74 countries. He has identified five major dimensions along which cultural values vary: high vs. low power distance, individualism vs. collectivism, masculinity vs. femininity, uncertainty avoidance vs. uncertainty acceptance, and short-term vs. long-term orientation.

Geert Hofstede defines culture as follows: "Culture is the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one human group from another". By this definition he emphasizes that culture is not a property of the individuals, but of groups. It is a collection of more or less shared characteristics possessed by people who have been conditioned by similar socialization practices, educational procedures, and life experiences. Because of their similar backgrounds, the people in any given culture may be said to have similar "mental programming." Thus, one can speak of the culture of a family, a tribe, a region, a national minority, or a nation; culture is what

Based on Hofstede’s (1993) definition of national culture, it is stated that national culture is the software of the mind, and it is deeply embedded in everyday life and fairly resistant to change. Moreover, it is confirmed that national culture has a significant relationship with HR policies and practice (Hofstede, 1993). Also, Earley (1994) demonstrated that national cultural values that reinforce HR are more likely to yield predictable behaviour and better performances. This is because a national culture is usually characterized by the values of the people who belong to that culture, so well HR practices are consistent with existing behaviour expectations and routines that transcend the workplace. Employees are not distracted from work if HR practices are consistent with national cultural value. The various values had been grouped, by Schuler and Jackson (1994), into four categories, work goal importance, need deficiency, fulfillment, and job satisfaction, managerial and organizational variables, and work role and interpersonal orientation. Furthermore, Hofstede (1993) has presented four largely independent dimensions of differences among national values systems, which were labeled "Power Distance", "Uncertainty Avoidance," "Individualism vs. Collectivism," and "Masculinity vs. Femininity."

A major principle of Hall’s theory is that meanings are not static. Instead, they are continuously produced and exchanged in a culture and even across cultures. About this claim, Hall explains that a culture is primarily concerned with the production and the exchange of meanings between the members of a society or a group (Hall, 1997).

According to Hofstede (n.d.), the Six Dimensions of Culture are power distance index, individualism versus collectivism, masculinity versus femininity, uncertainty avoidance index, long-term orientation versus short-term normative orientation, and indulgence versus restraint. Professor Geert Hofstede conducted a study on how values in the workplace are influenced by culture. He analyzed a large group of employee value scores that were collected with IBM between the years of 1967 and 1973. This data covered more than seventy countries. Hofstede first used forty of the largest groups that had the most respondents, and then he extended his analysis to fifty countries and three regions (Hofstede, n.d.).