Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions (Doc)

Hofstede's Cultural
Dimensions

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY ..................................................................................................................................1
1. Evaluation of Hofstede's Four Cultural Dimensions...............................................................1
2. Agree and Disagree.................................................................................................................2
3. Suggestions.............................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
Organizational culture is an important aspect of organization which shapes up the
activities, behaviours and values of employees and organization. For the better understanding of
relationship between cultures, values and organization environment, Professor Greet Hofstede
developed 4 dimensions which is known as Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions. These dimensions
play crucial role in relationship of Cultures-Values-Environment (Hofstede Cultural Dimensions,
2013-2018). Report will highlight the evaluation of four dimensions and agreement and
disagreement aspects of these dimensions. Report will also give suggestions regarding these
dimensions.
MAIN BODY
1. Evaluation of Hofstede's Four Cultural Dimensions
In 1965, Greet Hofstede conducted research regarding values and cultures regarding
multinational corporations. These research created 4 common dimensions which is later known
as Hofstede's Four Cultural Dimensions. These dimensions impact the values of employees and
organizational activities and it's environment (Beugelsdijk and Welzel, 2018). These 4
dimensions are as follows -
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Illustration 1: Cultural Dimensions
Source : Hofstede Cultural Dimensions, 2013-2018.

1. Individualism And Collectivism Dimension – Individualism Dimension emphasis on
Self-focus and self-achievement. In this dimension, employee doesn't care about other's
objectives. He just thinks about his tasks completion and self-recognition. It's opposite,
Collectivism emphasis on team-spirit and team-achievement. In this dimension,
employee works with his team in order to achieve common goal. When a team achieve its
objectives. This leads to team recognition.
2. Masculinity And Femininity Dimension – This dimension is not related to particular
gender. It is related to the management approach. Masculinity dimension is related to task
oriented management approach in which the focus is on task completion and for that they
do communicate. Femininity dimension is related to people oriented management
approach in which the focus is on relationship building so that the objectives can be
achieve (Ugrin, Pearson and Nickle, 2018).
3. Power Distance (Low And High Degree) Dimension – Power distance is also knows as
Power Of Authority which is clearly understood by hierarchical structure of organization.
If employees clearly understand the hierarchical structure and unequal distribution of
power in organization, it is known as High Degree of Power Distance. And if employees
don't understand the hierarchical structure and do demand for equal distribution of power,
it is known as Low Degree of Power Distance.
4. Uncertainty Avoidance (Low And High Degree) Dimension – Uncertain means
unknown. Uncertainty Avoidance means the extent to which employees are not ready to
accept the changes. High degree of Uncertainty Avoidance refers to the situation where
employees are not ready to accept the changes and rely upon the formal procedures. Low
degree of Uncertainty Avoidance refers to the situation where employees are ready to
accept the changes. They are considered to be risk takers.
2. Agree and Disagree
I would agree with following dimensions -
1. High Degree Of Power Distance – It refers to the clearly understanding of power of
authority which means clearly understanding of power distribution, roles, duties and
responsibilities. Also, whom to communicate and whom to reporting is also clearly
define. This all lead organization to easily manage its activities without any confusions
and conflicts (Minkov, 2018).
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2. Femininity – It is related to people oriented approach. In this approach, the focus is on
building relationship which helps managers to understand employees. This will help
them to create team spirit and achieve their objectives.
3. Low Degree Of Uncertainty Avoidance – Employees are ready to accept and adopt the
changes, which make organization upgraded. Adoption of changes makes process easy
and advance, which lead to improvement in quality of products and increment in profits.
This all help company to gain its competitive advantages and enhances goodwill.
I would not agree with following dimensions -
1. Low Degree Of Power Distance – It means employees are demanding for equally
distribution of power which lead to equal roles, duties and responsibilities. This will lead
to work accordance with own ways which lead to no co-ordination between activities and
creation of conflicts.
2. Masculinity – It is related to the task oriented approach in which only task completion is
matter. What employees wants, what work employees want to do etc. does not matter.
This lead to decrease in employees morale, satisfaction level and efficiency. This all
cause to increase in employee turnover.
3. High Degree Of Uncertainty Avoidance – It refers to the situation where employees are
not ready to adopt the changes and rely on formal procedures that is being used in
organization for long time. This will increase in cost of production and price of final
goods, which make consumers switch on another brand which is less cheap (Hofstede,
2017).
4. Individualism – Individualism emphasis on self-focus, which makes employee only
think about his self-development and task completion. This can lead to creation of
conflicts regarding objectives. Also, there will be no communication between employee
and another person which can create misunderstanding and conflict between them.
3. Suggestions
I would like to give suggest that organization can adopt Collectivism Dimension. This
dimension will bring employees and managers together in order to work with each other and
achieve a common goal. When they will work together, this lead to communication which create
understanding between them. They will start respect each other. They will become friendly with
each other. This will create friendly organizational environment, in which employees will be
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happy and satisfied which increase their efficiency. This will increase the productivity, which
improves the quality and increase in profits. This will enhance the goodwill for company.
Employees and managers gain recognition. They will get incentives. Also, they will get support
from their stakeholders. These all make company a competitor for another companies.
CONCLUSION
From the above study, it has been summarized that Hofstede's four cultural dimensions
influence the business activities and its environment. These dimensions can be manipulated in
order to increase the business efficiency. Because, every dimensions has their own advantages
and disadvantages which influences the business. Thus, every organization should adopt the
mixture of these dimensions instead of single dimension according to the nature of business.
Also, organization need to maintain a balance between these dimensions.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Beugelsdijk, S. and Welzel, C., 2018. Dimensions and dynamics of national culture:
Synthesizing Hofstede with Inglehart. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology. 49(10).
pp.1469-1505.
Hofstede, G., 2017. Why is culture so important?.
Minkov, M., 2018. A revision of Hofstede’s model of national culture: old evidence and new
data from 56 countries. Cross Cultural & Strategic Management. 25(2). pp.231-256.
Ugrin, J.C., Pearson, J.M. and Nickle, S.M., 2018. An Examination of the Relationship between
Culture and Cyberloafing Using the Hofstede Model. Journal of Internet Commerce. 17(1).
pp.46-63.
Online
Hofstede Cultural Dimensions. 2013-2018. [ONLINE]. Available through:
<https://www.toolshero.com/communication-skills/hofstede-cultural-dimensions/>
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