Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions

11 Key excerpts on "Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions"

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  Culture and Psychology

  • David Matsumoto, Linda Juang(Authors)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Cengage Learning EMEA

    (Publisher)

  In his 1984 study, he reported data from an additional 10 countries. In 2001, he reported data from 72 countries involving the responses of more than 117,000 employees, spanning over 20 different languages and Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Culture and Organizations 373 seven occupational levels to his 63 work-related values items (Hofstede, 2001). Hofstede identified five major dimensions of work-related values and computed overall scores for each country on each of these four dimensions. As we discussed in Chapter 1, the five dimensions were power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism– collectivism, masculinity–femininity, and long- versus short-term orientation. Each of the dimensions is related to concrete differences in attitudes, opinions, beliefs, and behaviors within organizations, and each forms the basis for understanding certain societal norms in each of the countries in Hofstede’s studies. These dimensions also have consequences for organizational structure and interorganizational behavior. We focus here on what they mean in terms of organizational culture. Power Distance Organizations need vertical or hierarchical relationships based on status and power. Differentiating people according to their roles, functions, and positions is vital to the successful operation of any organization. The various statuses afforded to differ-ent individuals within a hierarchy come with certain benefits, rights, privileges, and power not afforded to others. The “chain of command” within an organization identi-fies the players and their roles.

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  Cross-Cultural Management

  • Veronica Velo(Author)
  • 2011(Publication Date)
  • Business Expert Press

    (Publisher)

  PART II Frameworks for Cultural Analysis Passage contains an image

  CHAPTER 2

  Frameworks for Cultural Analysis

  The Cultural Dimensions of Geert Hofstede

  The Aim of This Chapter

  This chapter aims at describing the basic and most widely used frameworks for cross-cultural analysis according to Geert Hofstede, who defined what he calls “dimensions” or general aspects in which cultures may be grouped according to commonalities in their mental programming.

  Cultures in which gender roles are greatly differentiated and emphasized are known as “masculine” cultures—as opposed to “feminine” ones. Groups in which the collective interests overcome individual ones are called “collectivist” as opposed to “individualist.” Mental programmings in which hierarchy is a requirement for social order received the name of “high power distant,” and that in which a standard pattern of behaviors is preferred to innovative ones are called “high uncertainty avoidant.” Later in his career, Hofstede included the category of long-term versus short-term orientation to differentiate groups in which the emphasis is on saving before spending and those that think that debt encourages hard work.

  Hofstede1 and those who followed his work ranked countries according to how they fitted into these categories and most of their research has evolved into more quantitative ranking of the same sort. In this chapter we will pay less attention to rankings and develop on the meaning, origins, and consequences of each stereotypical mental programming.

  Frameworks for Cross-Cultural Analysis

  Having discussed the origins of culture, its development, and its tendency to reinvent itself through the years in order to survive, we will proceed to the study of different areas in which cultures may differ. Several authors have intended to categorize cultures according to the collective mental programmings that each society promotes.

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  Public Opinion on Economic Globalization

  Considering Immigration, International Trade, and Foreign Direct Investment

  • Roger White(Author)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Palgrave Macmillan

    (Publisher)

  3 Using the Hofstede data, we construct two related measures of cultural differences. In total, there are six cultural dimensions related to the Hofstede model, and the two Hofstede-based measures that we employ differ only in terms of the number of dimen- sions used to construct each measure. The first of these two measures, which we refer to as the Hofstede 4-factor measure of cultural dis- tance, is based on four of the cultural dimensions. The second measure is constructed using data for all six dimensions and is referred to as the Hofstede 6-factor measure of cultural distance. While the 4-factor meas- ure is narrower in scope than the 6-factor measure, it is representative of a greater number of countries (38, as compared to 35 for the broader measure). Between 1967 and 1973, Geert Hofstede conducted two rounds of surveys to collect data from more than 116,000 employees of subsidi- aries of IBM that worked/lived in 72 different countries. The surveys were intended to elicit information on differences, across countries, to questions about employee values. The result was a set of country-specific measurements of four cultural dimensions that are labeled (i) the Power Distance Index, (ii) Individualism vs. Collectivism, (iii) Masculinity vs. Femininity, and (iv) the Uncertainty Avoidance Index. Since the ini- tial data collection period, the number of cultural dimensions has been expanded to six; however, prior to discussing the more recent additions, we will focus on the initial four dimensions. The Power Distance Index (PDI) is described as “the degree to which the less powerful members of a society accept and expect that power is distributed unequally” (Hofstede 2001, p. 79).The PDI is a reflection of how inequalities within a society, perhaps in the forms of wealth, power, or general social status, are viewed by its members. The PDI is constructed based on mean values, taken across respondents grouped by

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  Culture and Business in Asia

  • Maureen Guirdham(Author)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Red Globe Press

    (Publisher)

  27 Hofstede’s (1981) values constitute a starting point for comparing our inter-viewees’ accounts of the business cultures of their countries with the literature on dimensions of culture. This comparison shows up some similarities but also some quite marked differences from those that the Hofstede values would predict. For Asia as a whole, the Hofstede findings were that in comparison with the world average Asia was very low on individualism (high on collectivism), slightly high on power distance, close to the world average on uncertainty avoidance, some-what high on masculinity and very high on long-term orientation. This pattern INTRODUCTION • THE BUSINESS CULTURES OF FIVE ASIAN COUNTRIES • ANALYSING ASIAN BUSINESS CULTURES • OWNERSHIP, FINANCING AND GOVERNANCE • ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT • BUSINESS STRATEGY • 7 218 would predict business cultures where trust is extended mainly to familiar or related others, where authority figures are respected but not obsequiously obeyed, where rules and procedures have their place but are used flexibly, where task orientation prevails over relationship orientation but not to a great degree and where patient waiting for results is the norm. It may well be that this is a characterization of the average Asian business culture, if there is such a thing. However, both Hofstede’s findings and the results of the present study show very substantial variation within Asia. I turn now to compare predictions based on Hofstede’s findings with the reports on business cultures for the three largest countries in the present study. Hofstede’s research showed China as having an extremely high long-term orientation, well above both Asian and global levels. Murphy and Wang (2006) suggested that this long-term orientation of Chinese culture provided a possible explanation for a finding of theirs.

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  Global Marketing and Advertising

  Understanding Cultural Paradoxes

  • Marieke de Mooij(Author)
  • 2021(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications Ltd

    (Publisher)

  Masculine/feminine can be misinterpreted as politically incorrect wording. At the time Hofstede labeled this dimension, there was no such thing as a political correctness movement. The problem can be solved by using the terms “gender of nations” or “tough versus tender.” Table 4.4 summarizes the key elements of the three dimensions. Table 4.4 For another GLOBE dimension, performance orientation, of which the descriptions include values related to the hard and soft aspects of culture, hardly any conclusive findings have been published. None of the many calculations with a variety of consumer behavior issues found a relationship with this dimension. The description includes puzzling elements. Javidan 107 links it to the work ethic of protestant Calvinism and summarizes it as a characteristic of high performance-oriented cultures that they value education and learning, emphasize results, take the initiative, and prefer explicit and direct communication. Those that score low value social and family relations; loyalty, tradition, and seniority; and use subtle and indirect language, which points at high-context communication. Japan and Korea are cultures with high-performance ethics and score medium to high on this dimension, but people are certainly not direct in their communication. Uncertainty Avoidance Both Hofstede and GLOBE use the term uncertainty avoidance for dimensions that are quite different and have an opposite relationship, which is reflected in reverse relationships with other variables. For example, whereas frequent use of the computer is found more in cultures that score low on Hofstede’s dimension, it is found less in cultures that score low on GLOBE’s dimension. Hofstede’s 108 definition is “the extent to which people feel threatened by uncertainty and ambiguity and try to avoid these situations.” Some people do not mind ambiguity, whereas others hate uncertainty or ambiguity and try to cope with it by making rules and prescribing behavior

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  International Management

  • Richard Mead, Tim G. Andrews(Authors)
  • 2009(Publication Date)
  • Wiley-Blackwell

    (Publisher)

  This control means that comparisons can be made, despite questions that might arise over generalizing to other occupational groups within the same national culture. 44 Cross-cultural Management The DIMENSIONS tap into deep cultural values and make significant comparisons between national cultures. The connotations of each dimension have RELEVANCE to management. The comparisons that can be made are of immediate interest to the international manager concerned with establishing and implementing management structures and systems. No other study compares so many other national cultures with comparable rigor. Despite its limitations, this is still the best formal model there is. The model is most useful when its limitations are respected. It cannot be applied to describing individual psychology or organizational culture. It does not examine values that might be shared by regions – other than Confucianism, particular to the Chinese world. It does not make absolute statements about any particular culture, but offers sets of comparisons. The findings indicate which orientation most members of a culture group are likely to adopt in routine situations. They may have to be modified to the specific situation and needs. The manager who needs to understand a particular setting is wise to supplement comparative findings by the single-culture research conducted by anthropologists. In addition, he or she is likely to be concerned with making decisions for a specific industry and organization, and for this needs an understanding of industry standards and the organizational culture. It is not the case that Hofstede profiles describe only the values accepted by the power elite. In practice, the majority endorse their shared culture, even though an outsider might perceive that they are its victims.

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  Marketing Research for the Tourism, Hospitality and Events Industries

  • Bonita Kolb(Author)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Chapter 2

  Understanding cultural and ethical research issue

  Learning objectives

  ● What effect do cultural differences have on the choice of research method?

  ● How can the Hofstede model of cultural dimensions be used to ensure the research method will be successful?

  ● What are the ethical guidelines that researchers should follow when conducting research?

  ● Why does using social media to conduct research present new ethical issues for researchers?

  Chapter summary

  ● Research may need to be modified when conducted with visitors from areas that have different cultures. Culture is the way life is lived including the choices made when engaging in daily activities such as what to wear and what to eat. It also includes beliefs and values, such as the role of family relationships. Ethnocentrism, prejudice and stereotyping can cause a researcher to not see the other person as a unique individual.

  ● Geert Hofstede developed a well-known model that groups cultural values and behavior by dimensions that determine how people will act in social situations. Hofstede proposed four dimensions: power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism versus collectivism, and masculinity versus femininity, that could be used to categorize cultures.

  ● A researcher can use dimensions to adjust research methodologies based on how people in a cultural group will react. When designing research methodology the culture of the research subjects will affect the type of method chosen. Some tasks may require independent action and types of communication with which members of cultural groups may be uncomfortable. In addition, they will affect the skills needed by the moderator chosen for focus groups.

  ●

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  Beyond Hofstede

  Culture Frameworks for Global Marketing and Management

  • Cheryl Nakata(Author)
  • 2009(Publication Date)
  • Palgrave Macmillan

    (Publisher)

  One of the findings of this meta-analysis of 508 empirical studies was that, depending on the value dimension, a hefty 81–92 percent of the vari- ation in cultures resides within countries. This result strongly suggests weak discriminant validity of geographic boundaries. Consequently, at least for the work-related cultural values as defined in Hofstede’s model, it appears that socio-economic and demographic factors are much more relevant dimensions for clustering cultures and subcultures. Years ago, area of residence (i.e., a country or region within a coun- try) probably was a much better predictor of cultural values. In today’s “global village,” geographical boundaries are becoming less relevant in studies of culture and national, or even regional, averages. Analyses of cultures of socio-economic classes, professions, or generational cohorts are probably much more meaningful than analyses of national or regional cultures, at least within the framework of Hofstede’s model, with its dimensions of individualism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and masculinity. It is time to reexamine the boundaries of cultural clusters. Assumption 7: Mean scores and ranking sufficiently quantify cultures The most important categories of information in the over 300 pages of Hofstede’s (1980) Culture’s Consequences are the tables providing the national cultural statistical averages and rankings. Although Hofstede raised a number of other issues in his numerous publications, the national averages are the cornerstone of his work. Such is Hofstede’s Vas Taras and Piers Steel 51 emphasis on averages that his result tables did not offer any informa- tion about score dispersion within groups (e.g., variance). Following Hofstede’s path, most of the subsequent research focused on cultural means, be it national or group averages. The mean compari- sons, typically using t-tests, have been the main tool for studying and describing cultures.

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  Contextual Management

  A Global Perspective

  • Erdener Kaynak, Raghbir S Basi(Authors)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Chapter 3

  Critical Dimensions of Organizational Cultures

  Culture is “the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one human group from another.” 1

  —Geert Hofstede

  Organizations as well as individuals function within societal systems. Individual interactions are conditioned and affected by organizational and societal contexts. The organizational “context is created by these interactions and, in turn, the interactions are constrained by the context.”2 These patterned interactions, constrained by their contexts, eventually produce specific “definitions of the situation” giving rise to “shared orders of meaning” for individual participants. These are the roots of organizational cultures.

  THE MACRO DIMENSIONS

  The examination of culture provides a perspective for viewing the relationships between people and technology and between their subsystems within an organization and the outside societies. Critical dimensions of an organizational culture are both macro and micro. The (1) societal environment in which the organization is functioning, (2) task technologies available to the organization, and (3) operant needs levels of the people make up the significant macro dimensions. The significant micro dimensions are (4) organizational design, (5) job configuration, and (6) top management, especially CEO orientation. Collectively, the interactions among these six critical dimensions make up particular cultures and provide contexts for effective management styles. What follows is a description of each of the six dimensions and how they produce unique organizational cultures.

  Our discussion of the macro dimensions is organized under three broad headings: (1) societal states, (2) task technologies, and (3) individual needs.

  Societal States

  Societal states consist of successive dynamic systems. Somewhat like a slow movie, each frame represents a particular state in the societal system’s development. At first, the movie travels at a snail’s pace, as in the Stone and Iron Ages. The movie picks up speed in agricultural societies. If the process of industrialization is successfully initiated, the movie gains momentum at an increasingly accelerated pace.

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  The Enlightened Leader

  Lessons from China on the Art of Executive Coaching

  • Frank T. Gallo(Author)
  • 2015(Publication Date)
  • Emerald Group Publishing Limited

    (Publisher)

  Although this model has faced criti-cism by some who say that it is outdated and sometimes causes stereotyping, it is still useful for dialogue about a culture by look-ing at what Hofstede referred to as “ dimensions. ” Thus, the D in the 6-D model stands for dimension. The six are power distance, individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, pragmatism, and indulgence. The following description of how China fits in this model is extracted and paraphrased from the Hofstede Centre website ( The Hofstede Centre ). Each description is then followed by an analysis of how China ’ s status on the dimension may affect executive coaching. Power Distance The power distance dimension addresses the inequalities among dif-ferent people in a relationship. Specifically, Hofstede defined it as “ the extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organizations within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally ” ( The Hofstede Centre , p. 1). When compar-ing Chinese culture to many (but not all) parts of the Western world, power distance is an important dimension. China is at the high end of the scale for power distance. This means that in a Chinese corporation, the relationship between the boss and the employee is greater than you might expect in other cultures. It is higher on the China mainland compared to Taiwan and Hong Kong and Singapore. Only Malaysia has a higher power dis-tance in Asia. 36 The Enlightened Leader So how does the relatively high power distance in China affect executive coaching? There are two obvious situations. The first is when the person being coached is the boss and sees himself or her-self significantly more “ powerful ” than subordinates. While this situation may not be a problem in some local firms, it will defi-nitely get in the way in a multinational company. This will most likely come about in a 360 ° feedback assessment or during pre-coaching interviews.

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  International Perspectives on Organizational Behavior

  • Betty Jane Punnett(Author)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • Taylor & Francis

    (Publisher)

  Those favoring egalitarian commitment endorse abstract principles of what is right and just and believe that jobs should be filled on the basis of impersonal criteria such as qualifications. Those favoring conservatism prefer their immediate circle to outsiders. This includes values such as loyalty to one’s boss and job appointments based on connections or family relationships. The second dimension was defined as utilitarian involvement versus loyal involvement. This contrasts involvement in the organization that is contingent on meeting one’s individual goals with involvement based on a long-lasting identification with the organization’s goals as one’s own. These two dimensions incorporate several that proved closely correlated with one another from among the larger number of dimensions proposed by Trompenaars. Trompenaars himself continues to distinguish seven dimensions of cultural variation, but the remaining dimensions have not yet been reliably measured. Space does not permit examination of these models in detail here. The models that we have looked at in detail are among the most popular in the international management literature, but international managers might find it helpful to identify additional models and review them to decide which are most relevant in specific circumstances. For example, the individualism/collectivism construct has been examined (Triandis 1972), and some authors have concluded that it is not simply a continuum from individualistic to collectivistic but, rather, that there are different types of individualism and collectivism; specifically, he identified horizontal and vertical dimensions of individualism and collectivism. Some people find this approach particularly insightful and useful internationally. In addition to developing new concepts and models of culture, the existing ones are also evolving over time. For example, the Hofstede model has added new dimensions based on new work

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