...Hofstede's Framework for Assessing Culture He has found five dimensions of culture in his study of national work related values: • Low vs. High Power Distance - the extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organizations expect and accept that power is distributed unequally. Low power distance (e.g. Austria, Israel, Denmark, New Zealand) expect and accept power relations that are more consultative or democratic. People relate to one another more as equals regardless of formal positions. Subordinates are more comfortable with and demand the right to contribute to and critique the decision making of those in power. In High power distance countries (e.g. Malaysia, Slovakia) less powerful accept power relations that are more autocratic and paternalistic. Subordinates acknowledge the power of others simply based on where they are situated in certain formal, hierarchical positions. As such the Power Distance Index Hofstede defines does not reflect an objective difference in power distribution but rather the way people perceive power differences. In Europe, Power Distance tends to be lower in Northern countries and higher in Southern and Eastern parts. There seems to be an admittedly disputable correlation with predominant religions. • Individualism vs. collectivism - individualism is contrasted with collectivism, and refers to the extent to which people are expected to stand up for themselves and to choose their own affiliations, or alternatively act predominantly...
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...Hofstede's six basic cultural dimensions • Power distance (PDI), or the degree to which members of a national culture automatically accept a hierarchical or unequal distribution of power in organizations and the society; This dimension expresses the degree to which the less powerful members of a society accept and expect that power is distributed unequally. The fundamental issue here is how a society handles inequalities among people. People in societies exhibiting a large degree of power distance accept a hierarchical order in which everybody has a place and which needs no further justification. In societies with low power distance, people strive to equalize the distribution of power and demand justification for inequalities of power • Individualism-collectivism (IDV), or the degree to which individuals in a given national culture perceive themselves as separate from others and free from group pressure to conform; The high side of this dimension, called Individualism, can be defined as a preference for a loosely-knit social framework in which individuals are expected to take care of themselves and their immediate families only. Its opposite, Collectivism, represents a preference for a tightly-knit framework in society in which individuals can expect their relatives or members of a particular in-group to look after them in exchange for unquestioning loyalty. A society's position on this dimension is reflected in whether people’s self-image is defined in terms of...
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...Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions: A Comparison of Greece and U.S. Human Resource Management Approaches By Kelly M. Mistretta MBOL2 MBA 533, Human Resource in Management Dr. James C. Dumville Saint Leo University – Center for Online Learning September 9, 2012 Name: Kelly Mistretta Title: Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions: A Comparison of Greece and U.S. Human Resource Management Approaches Date: September 9, 2012 Abstract Globalization continues to become more important in the business culture in our world. No longer can management focus only on companies within their own country. Businesses are forced to compete with companies from other countries. With the increased global competition, a business must understand other cultures if they hope to remain competitive and have continued success. There are several models that show the influence of cultural differences between nations. Hofstede’s model, called the theory of cultural relativity of organization practices is the most recognized model. Hofstede’s model focuses on cultural influences and work behaviors in five different dimensions. Each dimension has important implications in understanding business. This paper will compare the Hofstede analysis of Greece and the United States. Biographical Sketch Kelly Mistretta is currently an MBA student at Saint Leo University. Mistretta has a BA in Accounting and plans to obtain an MBA to equip her with improved business skills to better contribute to society...
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...Critiques on Hofstede’s studies On Dimensions – Hofstede puts his five dimensions in binary pairs that polarize one over each other. However, people and cultures are not static, you cannot draw a clear line between each pairs or between West and East. Culture itself is dynamic and diverse and it changes over time. Behavior changes when you are in different settings (environments or people). Therefore, putting dimensions in opposite pairs is not accurate and not sufficient. Besides, his study was conducted 40 years ago, which is out-dated. He proposed to add the 6th dimension in 2010 - Indulgence versus Restraint (IVR), which measures the importance of leisure and happiness, feeling of life control and freedom of expression. This dimension captures the values of our generation better than the rest. We are born in an age where most people do not have to worry about their basic living. We have more financial freedom towards life. IVR therefore becomes a critical measure. On Hofstede’s Understanding of Cultures – Hofstede introduced the 5th dimension - Long Term Orientation in 1991 in an attempt to fit the uncertainty avoidance dimension into Asian culture. In my opinion, high LTO in Asia is mainly driven by institutions and wealth of the society instead of the Confucianism culture. Most of the Asians countries have a low tax rate comparing to the West, therefore, a long-term financial planning is essential to gather wealth. Besides, insufficient retirement welfare and low...
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...Hofstede's Dimensions of Culture Geert H. Hofstede was born on October 2, 1928 in Haarlem, the Netherlands. He received his M.Sc. from the Delft Institute of Technology in 1953, his Ph.D. (cum laude) from Groningen University in 1967. Hofstede is most well known for his work on four dimensions of cultural variability, commonly referred to as "Hofstede's Dimensions." These include: Uncertainty Avoidance, Power Distance, Masculinity-Femininity, Individualism-Collectivism, and Long-Term/Short Term Orientation. These dimensions were arrived in his 1980 publication, "Culture's consequences: International differences in work-related values." The study took existing survey data (sample size of 116,000) collected from a multinational corporation (IBM). The result was a score in each of the dimensions for 40 different countries. During 1978-83, the Dutch cultural anthropologist Geert Hofstede conducted detailed interviews with hundreds of IBM employees in 53 countries. Through standard statistical analysis of fairly large data sets, he was able to determine patterns of similarities and differences among the replies. From this data analysis, he formulated his theory that world cultures vary along consistent, fundamental dimensions. Since his subjects were constrained to one multinational corporation's world-wide employees, and thus to one company culture, he ascribed their differences to the effects of their national cultures. (One weakness is that he maintained that each country...
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...complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, customs, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society”, as an individual. Siew et al. argue that “culture is a complex and broad construct that is difficult to accurately measure” (2007). However, scholars have tried to theorize it through several frameworks. In this essay, Hofstede’s cultural dimensions and the GLOBE study dimensions are compared in order to assess the frameworks’ abilities to accurately measure culture. Hofstede’s cultural dimensions were created as a result of an empirical research of the employees of a global company in order to identify the different work motivations caused by the employees’ nationalities (2001, cited by De Mooji, 2013). The dimensions were constructed at the national level and thus their variables offer insights on nations. They do not correlate at individual or organizational level. However, scholars have misapplied Hofstede’s dimensions to individuals and organizations, which resulted in flawed conclusions at individual level (Venaik and Brewer, 2013). A criticism of Hofstede’s study is that the model is oversimplified and it doesn’t capture sufficient aspects of culture (Schwartz and Bilsky, 1990 cited by Venaik and Brewer, 2010). In addition, Tung (2008, cited by Venaik and Brewer, 2010) argues that the model...
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...Judith Brandl, Student ID no. 1044912 International Business, 4th Semester SUmmer semester 2016, 11.06.2016 Table of Contents – Cultural Dimensions according to Hofstede 1. The psychologist Hofstede a) Geert Hofstede b) Gert-Jan Hofstede 2. The cultural dimensions a) Social Orientation - Individualism-Collectivism-Index (IDV) b) Power Orientation – Power-Distance-Index (PDI) c) Uncertainty Orientation – Uncertainty-Avoidance-Index (UAI) d) Goal Orientation – Masculinity-Femininity-Index (MAS) e) Time Orientation – Long-Time vs. Short-Time-Orientation-Index (LTO) 3. Examples – Germany, United States, Venezuela 4. Problems and Discrepancies 5. Conclusion 6. Bibliography 1 Cultural dimensions according to Geert Hofstede Classifying and comparing cultures is strongly connected with the name Geert Hofstede. The Dutch social psychologist, as he calls himself, was born in 1928 in Haarlem(Netherlands) as Gerard Hendrik Hofstede. He went to schools until 1945, that was when he completed the Diploma Gymnasium Beta. From 17 on until he was 25 years old, he studied Mechanical Engineering and ended it in 1953 with a Master’s Degree. After two years of military service he started working in managerial jobs until 1965. He completed his Ph.D. in Social Sciences in part time studies. Already during that time, from 1965 until 1971 he founded and managed the Personnel Research Department of IBM. In this time, he developed the theory of...
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...Hofstede's Dimensions of Culture Geert H. Hofstede was born on October 2, 1928 in Haarlem, the Netherlands. He received his M.Sc. from the Delft Institute of Technology in 1953, his Ph.D. (cum laude) from Groningen University in 1967. Hofstede served in the Netherlands Army from 1953 to 1955. In 1955, he married Maaike A. Van den Hoek. They've also "lived happily ever after", but I'm not sure where (probably Brussels, Belgium). Hofstede is most well known for his work on four dimensions of cultural variability, commonly referred to as "Hofstede's Dimensions." These include: Uncertainty Avoidance, Power Distance, Masculinity-Femininity, Individualism-Collectivism, Confucian Dynamism. These dimensions were arrived in his 1980 publication, "Culture's consequences: International differences in work-related values." The study took existing survey data (sample size of 116,000) collected from a multinational corporation (IBM). The result was a score in each of the dimensions for 40 different countries. During 1978-83, the Dutch cultural anthropologist Geert Hofstede conducted detailed interviews with hundreds of IBM employees in 53 countries. Through standard statistical analysis of fairly large data sets, he was able to determine patterns of similarities and differences among the replies. From this data analysis, he formulated his theory that world cultures vary along consistent, fundamental dimensions. Since his subjects were constrained to one multinational corporation's world-wide...
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...Index Power Distance.....................................................................................................................................3 Collectivism vs. Individualism ..............................................................................................................4 Masculinity vs. Femininity....................................................................................................................5 Uncertainty Avoidance.........................................................................................................................6 Long-term Orientation..........................................................................................................................7 Indulgence vs. Restraint........................................................................................................................8 Do's & Don’ts in Italy............................................................................................................................9 Bibliography........................................................................................................................................10 2 Power Distance The PDI (Power Distance Index) deals with the inequalities amongst individuals. It is defined as „the extent to which the less powerful members (…) within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally“ (Hofstede, 2013a). Therefore, a high PDI implies that hierarchy is important...
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...Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions: Jamaica Gerard Hendrik Hofstede was born on October 2, 1928 in The Netherlands. He received his PhD in social psychology in 1967. Dr. Hofstede founded and managed the Personnel Research Department at IBM International. IBM is where he began his research on culture, which led to his Cultural Dimensions Theory. Dr. Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions Theory consists of a model on national culture. The national culture model is made up of six dimensions: Power Distance, Individualism, Masculinity, Uncertainty Avoidance, Long Term Orientation and Indulgence. Jamaica is an island located in the Caribbean Sea. The island is just over 4,200 square miles and is just south of Cuba. There are currently 2.9 million people living in Jamaica. The Arawaks, also called Tainos, originally inhabited the island. The Arawaks were from South America and called the island Xaymaca, which meant “land of wood and water”. Christopher Columbus landed on the island on May 5, 1494 after the Cubans described the island as “the land of blessed gold”. The island did not contain gold. Columbus claimed the land for Spain and enslaved the Arawaks. The Arawaks quickly died off from disease and the harsh conditions of their newfound enslavement. The Spanish used the island as a supply base. Horses, men, food and arms were shipped and stored in Jamaica to aid in the conquering of America. The English attacked Jamaica on May 10, 1655. The Spanish surrendered and fled...
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...According to Sweeney (2002), Geert Hofstede’s work on cultural dimension is considered to be very important to National Cultural attribute to a person’s value. However, in this article, the method of Hofstede's work are heavily criticised as the method used to formulate the notion are unreliable and misinterpreted as the author argues. Although the questionnaires used in Hofstede’s research were filled by 117,000 people, across 66 countries working in IBM, it is not guaranteed that these people effectively represent the national culture. Hofstede argued that values are formed in school and universities. Countering this argument the writer stated that, all schools and universities do not operate in the same standard. Furthermore, organizational culture also sufficiently influences the answers. Hence, questioning people from the same organization, performing similar job, doesn’t adequately support Hofstede’s methodology. The writer has mentioned in assumption two: the national is identifiable in the micro- local that triggers Hofstede’s argue in two ways where national culture is supposed to be carried by all individuals in a nation. Firstly, presupposition may not come with great outcome in all the time based on local sites of analysis. Apart from this, without supposition there are no valid grounds for treating local as representative of the national. Secondly, Hofstede defined occupational and organizational cultures as uniform. He also stated national culture only as average...
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...Hofstede’s Power Structures in Society “Culture is more often a source of conflict than of synergy. Cultural differences are a nuisance at best and often a disaster. For those who work in international business, it is sometimes amazing how different people in other cultures behave. We tend to have a human instinct that 'deep inside' all people are the same - but they are not. Therefore, if we go into another country and make decisions based on how we operate in our own home country - the chances are we'll make some very bad decisions.” We tend to have a human instinct that 'deep inside' all people are the same - but they are not. Therefore, if we go into another country and make decisions based on how we operate in our own home country - the Prof. Geert Hofstede, Emeritus Professor, Maastricht University. Hofstede’s studies include the identification and definition of groups, tribes, territories, national minorities or nations and he argues that they all possess specific features and behavior which can be opposed to other similar groups. Hofstede's IBM study in the 70s of the position of management, collaboration, organization, individualism, etc. have been widely used by companies when different cultures meet. Hofstede's framework for assessing culture includes the following five dimensions: 1. Power Distance 2. Individualism vs. collectivism 3. Masculinity vs. femininity 4. Uncertainty avoidance 5. Long vs. short term orientation The...
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...POWER DISTANCE (The degree to which power differentials within society and organizations are accepted.) Large Power Distance societies are characterized by: • centralized authority • autocratic leadership • paternalistic management style • many hierarchical levels • large number of supervisory staff • acceptance that power has its privileges • an expectation of inequality and power differences Small Power Distance societies are characterized by: • decentralized authority and decision making responsibility • consultative or participative management style • flat organizational structures • small proportion of supervisory staff • lack of acceptance and questioning of authority • rights consciousness • tendency toward egalitarianism UNCERTAINTY AVOIDANCE (The degree to which members of a society are able to cope with the uncertainty of the future without experiencing undue stress. According to Hofstede & Bond, 1988, this is a uniquely Western value.) Weak UA characterized by: • risk taking • tolerance of differing behaviors and opinions • flexibility • organizations with a relatively low degree of structure and few rules, promotions based on merit Strong UA characterized by: • avoidance of risk • organizations that have clearly delineated structures, many written rules, standardized procedures, promotions based on seniority or age • lack of tolerance for deviants • strong need for consensus • need for predictability hence, planning is important • respect...
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...Scientific criticism to Geert Hofstede’s research Cross-cultural issues in European Human Resource Management Contents Abstract 2 Introduction 2 Hofstede’s findings 2 Hofstede’s Framework of Cultures 3 Power Distance (PD) 3 Individualism - Collectivism (IC) 3 Masculinity - Femininity (MF) 4 Uncertainty Avoidance (UA) 4 Long/short term orientation (LTO) 5 Some aspects of Hofstede’s model having provoked scientific criticism 5 Methodological issues 6 Cultural Homogeneity 7 National Divisions 7 Number and bipolarity of dimensions 7 Out-dated concept 8 Political Influences 9 Conclusion 9 References 10 Abstract The high level of multiculturalism in the field of business indicates to raise awareness about cultural understanding. Researches in that line major refer to Greert Hofstede, who analyzes dynamics of cross-cultural groups and organizations. Undoubtedly, his model is as widely cited as criticized, because it is well-known pioneering research of national culture differences and their consequences. In this short paper, I am going to examine Hofstede’s findings and the reason why his work faces criticism. Introduction Culture in business has been of utmost interest for the last two decades, and with increasing national diversity in nowadays business environment, culture itself is regarded as an important dimension. The beginning of a pilot study in that sphere refers to the Dutch social psychologist Greert Hofstede and his...
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...Professor Geert Hofstede is celebrated for his 1980s theory of the 5s dimensions. “Professor Geert Hofstede conducted one of the most comprehensive studies of how values in the workplace are influenced by culture” (geert-hofstede.com). In theory he discusses the factual evidence that culture is programmed by groups and diversities make collective differences large enough to categorize. Hofstede’s dimensions are useful to distinguish what is considered valuable to which groups/ societies. Hofstede was able to pinpoint areas that have toleration for each country. The five dimensions include: Power Distance (PDI): PDI measures the amount of acceptance dictated by the powerful for each culture. “In cultures with low power distance, people are likely to expect that power is distributed rather equally, and are furthermore also likely to accept that power is distributed to less powerful individuals” (businessmate.org). For instance, when the PDI is high for a country, people are most likely more accepting of the unbalanced nature. They have accepted the inequality as part of the rights of those with the power. PDI measures the extent to which a community will accept this division and inequality. Low Power distance would include equality factors like decentralized government with constant questioning of authority, conscious democratic structure where society is actively part of its management. High Power Distance societies are centralized hierarchical structures that reflect...
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