Impact of Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions on Organisational Development

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Discussion........................................................................................................................................4
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................6
Reference list...................................................................................................................................7
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Introduction
Culture provides a direction to individuals regarding their behavior and thinking. The culture has
five elements namely rituals, values, beliefs, thought process and symbols. Culture influences the
decision, management, and business functions in order to increase productivity. An organisation
having different cultures of different countries develops its business easily as several innovative
ideas regarding the business gather from different cultures. Cultures also provide engagement
within the workforce of an organisation.
The article is based on the Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions. The research project was done in 64
countries on national culture differences across the subsidiaries of a multinational corporation
(IBM). Subsequent studies were covered by students in 23 countries, elites in 19 countries,
commercial airline pilots in 23 countries, civil services managers in 14 countries and up-market
customers in 15 countries. The studies evaluated four dimensions regarding cultural differences
and that is individualism, power distance, masculinity and uncertainty avoidance (Bakir et al.,
2015). The study will be discussed on how the different cultural dimensions influence the
business environment. At the end of the study some suggestions has been given to increase the
use of cultural dimensions in the work place of an organisation.
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Discussion
Cultural difference has various impacts on the society and organisation. Culture helps to increase
employment engagement in the work place, and that increase the performance of individuals and
also productivity of that organisation.
Hofstede found four cultural dimensions in his cultural dimension theory that can have a
profound impact on the business environment and that are individualism versus collectivism,
uncertainty avoidance, Power distance and masculinity versus femininity (Helmreich and
Merritt, 2017). Individualism can be defined in the Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions as the
strength of mutual ties between the individuals within their community or culture. The
individualist culture places a high value on their achievement and self-interest. the United State
is an example of the individualistic culture. On the other hand, collectivism prefers to work in
group harmony and collective goals. Mexico is an example of a collectivistic culture to gather
more information (Van Hoorn, 2015).
Figure 1: Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions
(Source: Khlif, 2016. )
Uncertainty avoidance is referred to how the individuals respond to the uncertainty and
unknown situation in society (Qu and Yang, 2015). The culture scores high on the uncertainty
dimensions tend to take a low risk such as Great Britain. In this culture, organisations have more
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rules and regulations to ensure that employees maintain the norms in the workplace. Cultures
having less uncertainty avoidance believe that innovation and risk-taking are the main factors to
achieve targets and success in the market.
Power distance is referred to as the ‘power inequality’ among subordinate and superiors. Power
distance has elements of both low and high power distance culture (Hauff and Richter, s2015). In
the last few years, the US business market has implemented practices such as participative
management, which place equal them among supervisors and subordinates. A high power
distance indicates high inequality in the society and it tends to be more hierarchal. A strong
hierarchical environment shows low respect in society. In the case of low power distance, the
culture shows more equality in society.
Finally, masculinity refers to equality between male and female and the society compiles its
values and the male and female. In the case of a male, the importance is on the performance and
success and on the other hand, for female, it is about the sensitivity, modesty, and quality of life.
In high scoring of this process, the male is said to be masculine whereas the female is feminine.
In the case of a low score, female works parallel to the male and there is high cooperation, the
male is allowed to be more sensitive and kind. The strong and successful females are given more
respect in the low scoring culture.
In the case, Hofstede has given the entire concept of the culture and how this culture affects
individuals and society. In this theory, it is also stated that culture has several benefits for the
organisation. Culture helps to work in a team and that teamwork gives an efficient product in
society.
Masculinity and femininity is the best dimension of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions theory. Both
the male and female should be treated equally and provide equal opportunities to both of them in
terms of job opportunities, performance. Female should also be treated as strong individuals in
society. In addition to this, the concept of high scoring power distance is not applicable as the
culture does not risk in its functions and as a result, innovation is not implemented in its
mechanism. Hence, culture should use innovative ideas in order to develop its objectives in
society (Kachel et al., 2016).
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Every organisation should maintain diversity in its work place as diversity has various
advantages in the productivity of an organisation. Diversity refers to different cultures and
behavior. In that context, the organisation should also maintain good organisational behavior as
behavior affects the workforce in reducing its performance, and that reduces the productivity of
the company.
The organisation should follow several best practices in order to maintain a good environment in
the workplace. The good practices include equality among the staffs, providing best facilities to
them and many others. An organisation providing better facilities retains the best talent in its
workforce and that helps in creating effective products and service.
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Conclusion
The study concludes that culture has a great impact on the development of an organisation and
also on the behavior of individuals. Culture helps to create interconnection among individuals
and organisation as well. As a result, the people get opportunities to improve their performance
with the help of other people having different culture of working criteria. Culture consists of
several elements and those are important for the improvement in society. The four elements of
the Hofstede’s cultural dimensions theory have different aspects to measure the cultural
differences of individuals and society. Four elements are power distance, masculinity,
uncertainty avoidance and individualism. These also gave ideas on the fairness among male and
female. Hofstede has given various suggestions to increase the cultural dimensions among
individuals and society.
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Reference list
Bakir, A., Blodgett, J.G., Vitell, S.J. and Rose, G.M., 2015. A preliminary investigation of the
reliability and validity of Hofstede’s cross cultural dimensions. In Proceedings of the 2000
Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference (pp. 226-232). Springer, Cham.
Hauff, S. and Richter, N., 2015. Power distance and its moderating role in the relationship
between situational job characteristics and job satisfaction: an empirical analysis using different
cultural measures. Cross Cultural Management, 22(1), pp.68-89.
Helmreich, R.L. and Merritt, A.C., 2017. Culture at work in aviation and medicine: National,
organizational and professional influences. Routledge.
Kachel, S., Steffens, M.C. and Niedlich, C., 2016. Traditional masculinity and femininity:
Validation of a new scale assessing gender roles. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, p.956.
Khlif, H., 2016. Hofstede’s cultural dimensions in accounting research: a review. Meditari
Accountancy Research, 24(4), pp.545-573.
Qu, W.G. and Yang, Z., 2015. The effect of uncertainty avoidance and social trust on supply
chain collaboration. Journal of Business Research, 68(5), pp.911-918.
Van Hoorn, A., 2015. Individualist–collectivist culture and trust radius: A multilevel
approach. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 46(2), pp.269-276.
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