Hofstede Model: Masculinity and Femininity Dimension Analysis

Hofstede Model
“Masculinity and Femininity”

HOFSTED MODEL 1
Introduction
Hofstede’s cultural dimension is a theory of cross-cultural communication which is
introduced by Geert Hofstede. Hofstede model was introduced by the personal research
department of IBM Europe in 1965 (Bakir, Blodgett, Vitell, and Rose, 2015). This is the first
theory which is used to explain the differences between the cultures. This model describes the
effects of culture on the value of its members. Hofstede model is developed to analyse the
values of employees in the world by IBM between 1967 and 1973 (Bakir, Blodgett, Vitell,
and Rose, 2015). Earlier the original theory has four dimensions along to understand the
cultural values such as individualism-collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, and masculinity-
femininity and power distance. The other research of Hofstede introduced the fifth dimension
which is long-term orientation. And in 2010, the sixth dimension is again introduced which is
indulgence versus self-restraint. In the present days, the Hofstede model has six dimensions
to analyze the culture value of the different country. This model is used in research especially
for cross-cultural psychology, cross-cultural communication, and international management.
This model is also encouraged to research on the other aspects of culture such as a social
belief (Saleem, and Larimo, 2017). In this report, critical analysis has been done on the
“Masculinity and Femininity dimension of Hofstede model” by western bias.
Masculinity and Femininity
Masculinity and femininity have a different meaning in which the first meaning is in the
context of biological that refers the sexual characteristics. The second meaning is in the terms
of a sociological which refers to the real and symbolic roles that society attributes to men and
women (Darroch, 2014).

HOFSTED MODEL 2
Masculinity defines the preferences of a society for achievement, heroism, material rewards
for success. In this society, Women perform their values by performing household activity.
Feminine society shares a modest and caring view equally with the men. There is no
difference between the men and women in this society.
Behaviour of Dimension
This dimension helps to analyse the nature of the society either it modest and care society or
strong society which main aim is to achieve and won the rewards. If the society is
masculinity then it means the society has a strong power to win the rewards. Feminine society
means caring nature of human beings which takes care of the feeling of people. Hofstede
model analyses the culture of a country which states the nature of a society that is why
masculinity and femininity include in the five dimensions of the model. It also helps to
analyse the development of the country by analysing the human mentality (Rodriguez
Mosquera, 2016).
Criticism
Masculinity and femininity dimension analyse the mentality of a human being by analysing
the behaviour of people towards the role of male and female. Masculinity society believes
that the males have the responsibility to earn money and the women have the responsibility to
take care of people. It helps to analyse the organisation in expanding the business at the
international level. This dimension analyses the organisational culture to the national culture
which helps all level of the multinational company. It analyses the mentality of employees
which directly affect the output of the organisation. Before entering the country, it is
necessary for the organisation to analyse the behaviour of the people and understand the
culture of the country. Most of the manufacturing companies use this dimension just because
to analyse the behaviour of labour towards the work and their mentality towards gender