Cross-Cultural Differences in Business Development | Desklib

Strategic Marketing Management 1
STRATEGIC MARKETING MANAGEMENT
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Strategic Marketing Management 2
Section 1:
An Analysis of the Hofstede Model
Globalization in the current business environment has resulted into a business workf
that is seamless. There are no longer physical barriers that limit communication and
trade. Seamlessness refers to a world where economic, political and cultural barriers
are eliminated. The utmost focus of this essay will be on cultural globalization
analyzing in detail what brings about the different dimensions of culture.
The general idea of culture has different meanings depending on the context in which
it has been used. Schein (2016) defines culture as knowledge and characteristic of a
certain group of people and encompasses religion, music, arts, and cuisine among
other social habits. Geert Hofstede’s theory on the dimensions of culture shall be
particularly of interest in this discussion. He is a renowned author who performed a
study in fifty countries to look at the unique aspects of culture in the different cultures
and rated them on a scale for comparison. Hofstede was able to identify different
categories of cultural dimensions namely; power distance, uncertainty avoidance,
individualism/collectivism, masculinity/femininity and long-term/ short-term
orientation.
Flaws in the Model
Hofstede’s dimension of culture has it its flaws that have been criticized by several
authors. This paper hence analyzes the criticisms as well as identifies other
frameworks that have been used to describe the dimensions of culture.
Geert Hofstede explained different people have different outlooks on life that are
influenced by their cultures. In his power distance cultural dimension, Hofstede
explained that the culture shows great respect for hierarchy. Children in a culture that
has high power distance show great respect for their elders. The same is portrayed in

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the workplaces. There is a significant regard for power in such societal settings and
autocracy is generally accepted (Hofstede, Hofstede & Minkov 2010). On the
contrary, in a low power distance society, inequality is not seen as appropriate. People
want to be engaged in the decision making process and would prefer a more
democratic leader.
Individualism verses Collectivism
The focus on individualism verses collectivism dimension is on the questions about
whether people prefer a close nit society or prefer work alone for one’s own personal
accomplishment (Trompenaars & Hampden-Turner 1997). An individualistic society
gives priority to people accepting to work alone, focusing on self and autonomy rather
than working collectively as part of a group. In contrast, a collective orientation in the
society concerns itself with the overall success of the group as opposed to gauging
one’s own personal accomplishment. Americans by way of illustration, have a more
individualistic cultural dimension. They place value on the freedom to work alone,
accomplish challenging work and at the end of the day achieve self- actualization.
Japan on the other hand has a collectivism orientation (Hofstede, Hofstede and
Minkov 2010).
Uncertainty avoidance expresses the degree to which members of a society feel
intimidated with uncertainty and ambiguity and would much rather device methods or
rules to avoid them. In a culture that has high uncertainty avoidance, there is a
preference for structure, rules and policy. People are more willing to do things by the
book to avoid mistakes. In contrast, societies with low uncertainty avoidance will
more readily take risks but the existence of rules instills fear in them and would much
rather have rules when absolutely necessary.

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According to Hofstede, the masculinity dimension of culture represents a preference
in society for success, achievement, competition, heroism and material rewards for
triumph. On the other hand, femininity stands for a preference for more tender values
such as cooperation, modesty, caring for the weak and quality of life.
Long-term cultural orientation dimension can be interpreted as dealing with society’s
value of future outcomes (Trompenaars & Hampden-Turner 1997). A society that has
the long-term orientation values persistence, perseverance and saving while aligning
their strategies towards achieving future set goals. Societies that have a short-term
orientation dimension generally have a concern with establishing and building the
present and while considering the past. It is easy to see that different cultural have
different views of the world based on their cultures and histories. An understanding of
these areas and being able to identify them, helps to work with and understand the
diversity in backgrounds.
Although Hofstede’s model is generally accepted as the most comprehensive
framework used to explain the differences in cultural values, it is not short of
limitations. Critics of the Hofstede model would put it that model is essentialist. This
means that the model tries to state that everyone has an innate essence of which they
are. You are essential “born into it” so “must you be” and it is inescapable. For
instance, the cultural dimension of femininity that describes women as innately caring
and nurturing is an essentialist assumption (Spencer-Oatey & Franklin 2009). While
in some areas of culture this may be true and accepted this is not stationery as it
changes from one culture to another and throughout history. Noteworthy is the
certitude that, essentialism is not true to everyone. It is a fallacy to state that everyone
is innately something. From the individualistic dimension of culture, though known
that USA has an individualistic culture, it may not be applicable to every person in the

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United States of America. Individualism holds that, every person should be
hardworking in the workplace, people should take the initiative to learn on their own.
This may stands as a great guideline for a lot of companies in the USA but may not be
true for each person or organization. An organization doing charity work, for instance,
would prefer collectivism to individualism.
These theories however could be particularly helpful in giving insights into what the
general practices of a country are (Schneider 2006). The power distance dimension,
though also not applicable to all companies or countries, could be an indicator of
hierarchy of power. An indication of the value for the chain of command and a
guideline of how power is to distributed equally or unequally 2002. Another obvious
weakness in this model is that the data collected is relatively old hence may not fully
record the evolution in the business world today (Hofstede 2011). Moreover, the data
collected was only from a few organizations and therefore cannot be a representation
of an entire nations culture. It also assumes the uniformity of culture across an
organization.
Other cultural frameworks of the dimensions of culture in nations include the works a
Dutch researcher by the name Fons Trompenaars (Trompenaars & Hampden-Turner
1997). In his research in over 40 countries, he came up with a seven dimensions
framework that is more recent. Five of the identified dimensions of Trompenaars
place emphasis on the relationship between people while last two anchors in
management of time and the relationship between a culture with nature. The Global
Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness commonly known as the
GLOBE Study also attempted to categories national cultures along different
dimensions. It takes into account some of Hofsetede’s dimensions such as the power

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distance and individualisms versus collectivism dimensions.at the same time has new
models such as the gender egalitarianism and performance orientation.
It can be concluded that the variations in cultures have a role to play in the mindset of
different people across the world. These variations determine the different outlooks on
life hence Hofstede’s cultural dimensions are still valid in today’s business
environment through flawed. The cultural dimensions, however, are not a
representation of every individual since not every individual adheres to these
categories.