Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions - Essay

STUDY SKILLS FOR HIGHER
EDUCATION

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Critical evaluation of article on Hofstede's cultural dimensions.................................................1
Justifying position in relation to the article..................................................................................2
Suggestions to be made................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................3
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................4

INTRODUCTION
This essay is based on analysing the article based on Hofstede's cultural dimensions to
understand the implementation part of applying techniques, tools and methods for better
interpretations of information and enhancing the critical thinking skills.
MAIN BODY
Critical evaluation of article on Hofstede's cultural dimensions
This article is based on the Hofstede's cultural dimensions and the inter-relation between
all its four cultural dimensions namely individualism versus collectivism, uncertainty avoidance,
power distance and masculinity versus femininity. Herein the prime focus is on understanding
the five elements of a culture and its impact on the business environment. Culture is a wider term
which is the combination of individual's beliefs system and refereed as the guiding light of a
person's behavioural approaches and thought processes. Primarily the five elemental features are
values, beliefs, symbols, rituals and thought processes that impact the working practices and all
the operational activities of an organization (De Mooij and Hofstede, 2010). It is understandable
that any business must be vigilant to identify, implement and evaluate to laid the foundation of a
robust framework to implement the risk taking and collaboration to bring productivity and
profitability as well.
Furthermore, individuality is the determinant to reflect upon the loose ties between the
group of individuals. Its stand for 'I' rather than 'we' and clearly glorifies the independence and
self orientation to perform tasks. However, on the other hand, collectivism stands for integrated
framework which stands on unity and team work. For instance, United States have an
individualistic culture which favoured its reputation as the most influential country of the world.
There is high levels of self interests to complete the tasks and the jobs at hand. Whereas in many
Asia countries, they believe in collectivism which helped them to grow steadily in the world and
followed a set of principles based on collectivism. Both components have their pros and cons and
according to the available resources, one must take decisions. Another dimension is power
distance which signifies the unequal distribution of power and resources. Here, United States is
mixture of both high and low power distance culture which gives a platform to adopt
participative form of management to bring an equality by safeguarding their capitalistic
approaches to remain on the top.
1