Hofstede's cultural dimension case study

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Hofstede's cultural dimension case study
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Aim

• to examine the results of a world-wide survey of
  employee values by IBM in the 1960s and 1970s.

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Procedure

• Between 1967 and 1973, he executed a large survey
  study regarding national values differences
  across the worldwide subsidiaries of this
  multinational corporation he compared the
  answers of 117,000 IBM matched employees samples
  on the same attitude survey in different
  countries. He first focused his research on the
  40 largest countries, and then extended it to 50
  countries and 3 regions, "at that time probably
  the largest matched-sample cross-national
  database available anywhere

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Findings Hofstedes Cultural Dimensions

• Individualism-collectivism
• Masculinity-femininity
• Power distance
• Uncertainty avoidance

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Hofstedes Cultural Dimensions (contd)

• Work-related value dimensions
• Most influential effort to group by cultural
  values
• Created maps of pairs of dimensions

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Individualism-Collectivism

• Self-perception as individual or part of a group
• Most widely studied
• Most complex
• Dimensions different across cultures
• i.e., Asian vs Latin American collectivism

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Individualism-Collectivism (contd)

• Individualism
• High value on autonomy
• Individual achievement
• Privacy

• Collectivism
• High value on group
• Family, clan, organization
• Loyalty
• Devotion
• Conformity

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Masculinity-FemininityDescribes Importance of
Achievement versus Relationships

• Success
• Assertive acquisition of money/power
• achievement

• Equality of genders
• Caring for disadvantaged
• harmony

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Power DistanceAcceptance of differences in power

• High-Power Distance
• Accept position
• Follow authority
• Concentrated centralized authority
• Hierarchical

• Low-Power Distance
• Avoid concentration of authority
• Decentralized
• Fewer layers of management

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Uncertainty AvoidanceReaction to ambiguous events

• Low Uncertainty
• Avoidance
• Embrace unpredictable
• Less adherence to rules, procedures, or
  hierarchies
• Risk taking desirable

• High Uncertainty
• Avoidance
• Threatened by ambiguity
• Need stable predictable workplace
• Reliance on rules

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Cultural Maps

• Individualism-Collectivism Power Distance
• Uncertainty Avoidance Masculinity-Femininity
• Uncertainty Avoidance Power Distance

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Individualism-Collectivism Power Distance

• Large power distance and collectivism
• Asia and Latin America
• Small power distance and individualism
• Northern Europe and Anglo countries

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Uncertainty Avoidance Masculinity-Femininity

• Achievement oriented-weak uncertainty avoidance
  masculine values
• Security Motivation-high uncertainty avoidance
  masculinity
• Social Motivation-feminine values high
  uncertainty avoidance

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Uncertainty Avoidance Power Distance

• Family-large power distance weak uncertainty
  avoidance
• Pyramid of People-large power distance strong
  uncertainty avoidance
• Well-Oiled Machine-small power distance strong
  uncertainty avoidance
• Village Market-small power distance low
  uncertainty avoidance

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Limitation of Hofstedes Dimensions

• Missing countries
• Estimates values
• Ignores differences within clusters

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Trompenaarss Alternative Dimensions

• Focus on values and relationships
• Survey of
• 15,000 managers
• Over 10-year period
• From 28 countries
• Bipolar cultural dimensions

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Trompenaarss Alternative Dimensions (contd)

• Outer-directedInner-directed
• UniversalismParticularism
• NeutralEmotional
• SpecificDiffuse
• AchievementAscription
• IndividualismCommunitarianism

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Question from Alex to Sierra
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Question from Alex to Sierra