Comparative Analysis of Cultural Diversity: BBA Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of cultural diversity in the context of business administration, focusing on the application of Hofstede's cultural dimensions. The report examines the cultural nuances of Australia, Canada, South Africa, and the United Kingdom, evaluating each country across Hofstede's six dimensions: Power Distance, Individualism vs. Collectivism, Masculinity vs. Femininity, Uncertainty Avoidance, Long-Term vs. Short-Term Orientation, and Indulgence vs. Restraint. The analysis includes detailed comparisons of each country's scores on these dimensions, highlighting the implications for workplace dynamics, management styles, and overall business practices. The report concludes with recommendations for navigating cultural differences in a global business environment, offering practical insights for professionals and students alike. The report is well-researched and includes a table of contents, references, and an appendix with visual representations of Hofstede's dimension scores for each country, making it a valuable resource for understanding and addressing cultural diversity in business.

Running head: CULTURAL DIVERSITY
Cultural Diversity
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Table of Contents
Hofstede Cultural Dimension.....................................................................................................2
Power distance.......................................................................................................................2
Individualism and Collectivism.............................................................................................2
Masculinity.............................................................................................................................2
Uncertainty avoidance index..................................................................................................2
Long and short term orientation.............................................................................................3
Indulgence and Resistance.....................................................................................................3
Different country’s cultural analysis..........................................................................................3
Australia.................................................................................................................................3
Canada....................................................................................................................................4
South Africa...........................................................................................................................4
United Kingdom.....................................................................................................................4
Summery and Recommendation................................................................................................5
References..................................................................................................................................6
Appendix....................................................................................................................................8

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Hofstede Cultural Dimension
Hofstede identified six cultural dimensions that differentiates the corporate culture of
the different countries all over the world (Beugelsdijk, Kostova & Roth, 2017). He scored
countries on these dimensions to find out how they behaved in certain situations. The six
dimensions are Power distance, Individualism and Collectivism, Masculinity and Femininity,
Uncertainty avoidance, Long-term orientation and Indulgence.
Power distance
According to Hofstede’s cultural dimension theory, is based on the concept that
individuals in a society are unequal and the extent to which these inequalities are accepted
and practiced. It indicates that the higher the score of inequality, the more likely is the
company to have hierarchical organizational structure. The extent to which the less powerful
members of the organization accept the unequal distribution of power forms the basis of
power distance.
Individualism and Collectivism
This dimension can be defined as the interdependence of the people of the community
and their ties to each other. The higher the score in this sector, the more individualistic people
are and thus have weaker interpersonal relationships. High scores indicate that people of the
country are more community oriented and are likely to receive collective or community based
sentiments more positively (Lo, Waters & Christensen, 2017).
Masculinity
This dimension determines the definition of success and the distribution of roles
between men and women. In masculine societies, men are expected to work in an assertive
and dominant way while women are expected to be accepting and compromising. In feminine
societies, the roles of men and women overlap and values are given to modesty and
relationship building.
Uncertainty avoidance index
This dimension indicates how likely are the people in the society to take risks and
handle anxiety. Countries with higher uncertainty avoidance index are likely to prefer
controllable and predictable life course to taking any risks. Countries with low scores are
likely to welcome innovation and risky business decisions.

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Long and short term orientation
This dimension indicates that people might prefer long term or short-term goals
depending on the culture of the countries. Countries believing in short term goals are likely to
value quick gains and results over making long-term commitments that will yield lengthy
results. Countries that are oriented towards long term are more likely to be pragmatic in
nature and value principles over gains (Beugelsdijk & Welzel, 2018).
Indulgence and Resistance
This sixth dimension describes the cultural behavior of a country based on their
acceptance of people’s own gratification. Countries that have high score in this aspect are
likely to give positive encouragement for enjoying life or taking time out for fun while the
opposite is true for countries having low score. These countries are likely to have stricter
norms and give more importance to behavior and conduct of people over their own
gratification.
Different country’s cultural analysis
Australia
The score of Australia on Hofstede’s cultural dimensions can be seen in the appendix.
This shows that in Australian corporate culture, hierarchy is formed for convenience rather
than norm. In this culture, supervisors are accessible easily and the managers have confidence
on the employees and their teams to apply their expertise to get the job done. Australia has
individualistic culture and thus, people are expected to take care of their own selves and their
people. In work culture, people are expected to be self-dependent and take initiative. In this
kind of work culture, promotions are and recruitments are done based on merit.
Australia is found to be a masculine country and thus, success is based on winning
and gaining. People in this culture are proud of their achievements and it affects the hiring
and promotions. Australia is at a balance uncertainty avoidance, which indicates that they
evaluate situations closely before taking any risky steps. Australia has normative culture and
thus gives importance to traditions and culture while putting much importance to short-term
achievement of goals (Country Comparison - Hofstede Insights., 2020). Australia is an
indulgent country and thus people appreciate chances to realize their impulses and desires, to
enjoy their lives and have fun. They like to have leisure time and spend money as per their
wish.

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Canada
The detailed scores can be seen in appendix. Canada’s scores show that they have
clear interdependence on people of the community and they believe in egalitarianism. In
Canadian work culture, there are less hierarchy and their use is quite similar to Australia.
Canada has an individualistic culture as well and shows the similar characteristics of
depending on self, self-reliant behavior at workplace, merit based promotions (Silva &
Moreira, 2017). Canada has a moderately masculine culture and thus, they value caring for
people and quality of lifestyle rather than winning. They value work life balance and enjoy
pursuits of happiness. Canadian work culture is accepting of uncertainties and thus are open
to new ideas and innovations. Like Australia, Canada is a normative society and this they
have respect for tradition and are likely to have short-term orientation (Country Comparison -
Hofstede Insights., 2020). This country’s culture is indulgent thus people here value leisure
and want to realize their desires.
South Africa
The scores can be seen in appendix. This country has a power acceptance and people
accept organizational hierarchy as natural. The employees are needed to be given direct order
and superiors are expected to exert their power (Nedelko & Brzozowski, Eds.2017). They are
an individualist society and thus people are expected to be able to take care of themselves. In
organizations, merit based promotions, contracts based on mutual advantage and individual
management is appreciated. It is a masculine society like Australia and thus lives for work.
They expect the managers and executives to be decisive and values performance over all.
They have low uncertainty and thus, have more relaxed organizational attitude. Work culture
id flexible and people enjoy more independence (Country Comparison - Hofstede Insights.,
2020). They have a normative culture and like Australia and Canada, they value tradition and
focus on quick results. This country too, values indulgence and have a propensity to realize
their desires and leisure time.
United Kingdom
The scores can be seen in the appendix. Britain is a strong believer of minimizing
power division and hierarchical structure. The country’s work culture does not differentiate
between the class and birth. UK is highly individualistic and thus people are expected to be
able to take care of themselves. They value privacy and unique contribution to society
(Stoermer, Bader & Froese, 2016). They believe in personal fulfillment and they focus

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greatly on self. The British work culture is highly driven and oriented to success, as they are a
masculine society. They have clear performance ambition and thus live for their work. UK
has low uncertainty avoidance tendency, which indicates that that they are open to new
suggestions and ideas. They are willing to take risks for larger success. They believe in fair
play and opportunity while giving importance to getting to the result. The country’s long or
short-term orientation is undetermined and thus, people are likely take on long or short-term
goals depending on their personal philosophy (Country Comparison - Hofstede Insights.,
2020). The British culture too, like the other countries, indulgent and thus favors leisure and
fulfilment of desires.
Summery and Recommendation
The above discussion indicates that all the four countries have some positive and
negative aspects based on corporate culture. It depends upon the person’s personal ability and
preference and their field of work, whether they would be able to survive or not. All four
countries showed individualistic and indulgent culture and thus people wanting to work in
flexible work culture while having time of their own will work better. Freelancing and
working in creative industries are more likely to see success. Majority of the countries
showed masculine and power distance. Interestingly, the developing countries show more
tendency towards high power distance here (Minkov, 2018).
Hofstede’s cultural dimension on these countries indicates that people living in
collectivist cultures will find it quite difficult to work in countries like these and might live in
cultural shock. However, the flexibility that these countries give and their value for getting
the job done helps everyone to adapt to them easily (Skoumpopoulou et al., 2018). People
working in managerial or executives position must evaluate countries they are working in and
create company policies that will benefit to them. Closer look and analysis to the scores also
indicate that countries that have culture that is more diverse are likely to value traditions and
principles more like Australia or Canada.
From the discussion, the following recommendations can be made for working in
different cultures:
 For high power distance countries, acknowledging the status of the leader is
necessary.

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 For low power distance countries taking all the people who would be affected into the
decision making process is ideal.
 In highly individualist culture acknowledging individual achievements, keeping work
and personal life separate and encouraging debates and discussions are ideal way of
working.
 In collectivist culture, maintaining harmony is important and negative feedback and
outright rejection should be avoided. This is also true for high restraint cultures.
 In highly masculine culture, setting goals and targets work best. People like working
longer and have definitive gender roles.
 In feminine cultures, flexibility and work life balance, equal opportunity and mix of
gender roles are necessary to work effectively. This is also true for high indulgence
countries.
 For high uncertainty avoidance clear goals, set cultures and norms are to be accepted
and in low uncertainty avoidance lesser structure and avoiding show off is necessary.
 Modesty, patience and compromise are necessary for long-term oriented countries
while for the opposite, flattery and selling works best.

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References
Beugelsdijk, S., & Welzel, C. (2018). Dimensions and dynamics of national culture:
Synthesizing Hofstede with Inglehart. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 49(10),
1469-1505.
Beugelsdijk, S., Kostova, T., & Roth, K. (2017). An overview of Hofstede-inspired country-
level culture research in international business since 2006. Journal of International
Business Studies, 48(1), 30-47.
Country Comparison - Hofstede Insights. (2020). Retrieved 8 January 2020, from
https://www.hofstede-insights.com/country-comparison/australia,canada,south-
africa,the-uk/
da Silva, P. M. F., & Moreira, A. (2017). National culture and its relationship with innovation
and corruption. In Exploring the Influence of Personal Values and Cultures in the
Workplace (pp. 201-225). IGI Global.
Lo, K. D., Waters, R. D., & Christensen, N. (2017). Assessing the applicability of Hofstede’s
cultural dimensions for Global 500 corporations’ Facebook profiles and
content. Journal of Communication Management, 21(1), 51-67.
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), 231-256.
Nedelko, Z., & Brzozowski, M. (Eds.). (2017). Exploring the Influence of Personal Values
and Cultures in the Workplace. IGi Global.
Skoumpopoulou, D., Wong, A. K., Ng, P. M., & Lo, M. F. (2018). Factors that affect the
acceptance of new technologies in the workplace: a cross case analysis between UK
and Hong Kong.
Stoermer, S., Bader, A. K., & Froese, F. J. (2016). Culture matters: The influence of national
culture on inclusion climate. Cross Cultural & Strategic Management, 23(2), 287-
305.

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Appendix
Image 1: Comparison of four countries on Cultural Dimension
Source: (https://www.hofstede-insights.com/country-comparison/australia,canada,south-
africa,the-usa/)