Hofstede National Differences
The Hofstede’s national differences can be of great use in order to analyze a country’s culture. The analysis of Geert Hofstede can best describe the National cultures and differences. The idea was initially grounded on a large research project into the national culture differences across various subsidiaries of multinational corporation (IBM) within 64 countries and. Later on, various studies were made by the students and elites, which further led to four independent dimensions of the national culture differences, along with a fifth dimension added later on
• Power Distance – Power distance Index is use to measure the actual extent of the less powerful members of organizations and institutions accept and also expect, that power is distributed unequally. It displays that the inequality of society is supported by the followers as much as is by the leaders.
• Individualism- Individualism is in opposite to collectivism (the level to which individuals integrate into groups). In individualism, emphasis is led on the societies whose ties between the individuals are loose: it means everyone is bound to look after him/herself and his/her family.
• Masculinity- Masculinity is in opposite to femininity (the spreading of roles between the genders, which is a fundamental issue for society). The IBM survey unveiled that values of women differ less among societies than the values of men; and men’s values in every country contains a dimension from assertive and competitive and maximally is different from values of women on one side, to modest, caring and similar to every woman’s values on the other side.
• Uncertainty Avoidance – Uncertainty avoidance is related to the society’s tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity. It is the man’s search for Truth and points towards the extent to which a culture, programs its members in order to feel either uncomfortable or comfortable in unstructured situations (which are novel, unknown, surprising, and different from usual).
• Long-Term Orientation
- Persistence
- ordering relationships by status and observing this order
- thrift
- having a sense of shame
• Short-Term Orientation
- personal steadiness and stability
- protecting your ‘face’
- respect or tradition
- reciprocation of greetings, favors, and gifts
Written by: Matt
We also suggest this relevant article if you have time: Cultural Dimensions by Geert Hofstede
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