Use of Hofstede's Five Dimensional Model to Analyze Indian Culture

Hofstede’s five dimensions of culture are power distance, individualism v collectivism, masculinity v femininity, uncertainty avoidance, and long-term v short-term time orientation. In the film the five dimensions are present, in the dimension of power distance it clear with the powerful positions that all the characters have within their professional lives. The way they live and own lavish houses leads to believe that they don’t believe they are equals to everyone else because of their status. Most of the couples demand respect and expect not to be question in their motives, which is a higher power context. Next is individualism versus collectivism, in

The following day, we met with the director of the mission who briefed us on the area and handed out a sheet labeled “Geert Hofstede Cultural Dimensions.” This was a much more formal run down of the cultural norms and taxonomies of India. He also went over some guidelines for expected teaching styles. “As you can see in your cultural dimensions handout, India is a high power distance country. When giving assignments you should always give clear and explicit

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.

In this book, Hofstede point out the different six dimensions that describe the national culture of a country. The author note, that even though the six dimensions are considerable, the ones that are highly correlated with individualistic or collectivistic cultures are the dimensions of ‘‘power distance’’ and ‘‘individualism’’, in which United States and Saudi Arabia have totally different punctuations, being United States an individualistic country and Saudi Arabia a collectivistic one.

The country that I choose for the Session Long Project for this class is Japan. By observing the Hofstede’s webpage a person can easily tell that there is a huge disparity in the values of the power distance, individualism, masculinity, and uncertainty avoidance cultural dimensions between Japan and the United States. Japan’s cultural dimension values of power distance, masculinity, and uncertainty avoidance are significantly higher than the values of the United States. The United States’ value in the cultural dimension individualism doubles that of Japan. Japan’s power distance score indicates that the country’s has a borderline hierarchy society while the United States’ fairly low score indicates that the country has the belief that everybody is treated equal rather than having a hierarchy. By observing the individualism culture dimension value for both countries, one can identify that the United States has a more independent society than Japan.

Geert Hofstede once said, “Culture is more often a source of conflict than of synergy. Cultural differences are a nuisance at best and often a disaster.” This quote means that no culture is alike or completely cohesive and that the differences between cultures are often incompatible and combative. This quote also ties directly into what will be discussed in this research paper. An analysis of the similarities and differences between the United States and India through Hofstede’s cultural dimensions of individualism, collectivism, low uncertainty avoidance, high uncertainty avoidance, power distance, masculinity, femininity, short-term oriented culture, and long-term oriented culture.

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).

famous five-dimensional theory (Five dimensions): Power distance, Uncertainty avoidance, Individualism vs. Collectivism, Masculinity vs. Femininity, and Long-term orientation vs. Short-term orientation. Hofstede five cultural dimensions are used to measure the cultural differences between different countries. It is an effective value-oriented architecture.(Orr and Hauser, 2008)

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.

Here the cultural values by Eric and Indian employees show the differences in terms of power, position, relationship, and rules. The entire report is focussed on the cultural differences in India and the west.

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.

Over the years, social psychologists try to come up with different dimensions for comparing culture. Hofsteade (1980) suggested a number of dimensions such as power distance, uncertainty

| * India scores high on this dimension, 77, indicating an appreciation for hierarchy and a Top – Down Structure in society and Organizations. dependent on the boss or the powerholder for direction, acceptance of un-equal rights between the power-priviledged and those who are lesser down in the pecking order, immediate superiors accessible but one layer above less so, paternalistic leader, management directs, gives reason / meaning to ones work life and rewards in exchange for loyalty from employees. * Real Power is centralized even though it may not appear to be and managers count on the obedience of their team members. * Employees expect to be directed clearly as to their functions and what is expected of them. * Communication is top down and directive in its style and often feedback which is negative is never offered up the ladder

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

Somewhere culture defines the way of living of people of that area. Therefore I selected this topic of cross culture of India because the India a huge populated country and there are different religions in this country. Besides this I think we should have the knowledge about the other country cultures there languages how they like to live because in this world we can meet any one in any situations. That’s why it’s necessary for us to have knowledge about the cultures of the other country there people, there style of living, festivals, education systems, cuisines, weddings and the most important one their languages.