Essay: Applying Hofstede's Model to Global Business Environments

This essay provides a critical evaluation of suggestions made in an article regarding the application of Hofstede's model to global business environments. It examines the dimensions of individualism/collectivism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and masculinity/femininity, analyzing their impact on consumer behavior, marketing, and organizational culture. The essay agrees with the importance of national culture in understanding consumer behavior and the significance of values, norms, and behavior in organizational culture. It disagrees with the power distance dimension as it can lead to high employee turnover. The essay further suggests the importance of considering all five cultural elements (thought process, rituals, values, beliefs, and symbols) and the need to treat males and females equally, while also emphasizing the importance of strategic decision-making for international businesses, including understanding Hofstede's cultural dimensions. The essay concludes by highlighting the importance of aligning with national culture for both domestic and international business growth.

Individual Essay

Table of Contents
Q1. Critical evaluation of the suggestions that are made in the article........................................1
Q2. Agreeing and disagreeing with the suggestions and their justification.................................1
Q3. Other suggestions that should be mentioned.........................................................................2
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................4

Q1. Critical evaluation of the suggestions that are made in the article
In Hofstede model four different dimensions are analysed that helps to aaaess business
environment of the organisations. These are individualism/ collectivism, power distance,
uncertainty avoidance and masculinity/ femininity (Beugelsdijk, Maseland and Van Hoorn,
2015). From the article it has been analysed that global organisations are required to adjust to
different environments. Following suggestions are made in the article:
 National culture is important to understand consumer behaviour and marketing for
companies. This suggestion have negative as well as positive aspect because national
culture is important but there are several other factors that are required to be focused to
understand behaviour of customers and marketing of the products. These are market
knowledge, preferences of clients etc.
 The culture of the organisation is based three different aspects. These are values, norms
and behaviour. These three elements are essential for an organisation but apart from them
some other factors should also be considered by companies. These are rituals, symbols
and belief of the society. For all the business entities it is very important to focus on all
these elements so that they can establish an ethical environment within the country where
business is operated (Goodrich and De Mooij, 2014).
 Power distance dimension refers to the power inequality among employees and their
superiors and it is adapted by most of the companies in USA. It has negative and positive
points that are required to be considered by the organisation. Now a days both are treated
equally by the business entities equally. When this type of culture is followed in the
enterprises then it results in high employee turnover as they doesn't feel good at the
workplace due to autocratic behaviour of leaders.
Q2. Agreeing and disagreeing with the suggestions and their justification
Three different suggestions have been analysed from the article and the investigator is
agreeing with two of them and disagreeing with one.
Agree:
“National culture is important to understand consumer behaviour and marketing
for companies.” According to the investigator it is very important for the organisations to focus
on national culture so that business can be operated appropriately. For those businesses that are
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willing to become global it is also very important for them because it can guide them to identify
such elements that can help them to sustain in international market.
“The culture of the organisation is based three different aspects. These are values,
norms and behaviour.” The investigator is agree with this suggestion because these three
elements may lead an organisation toward success. For small as well as large business entities it
is vital to take all of them in to consideration so that all the operations can be executed
appropriately on international level. If the culture of the company does not focus on values,
norms and behaviour then it is not possible to establish an ethical environment within the
country. For such organisations that are willing to become global it is vital to take all of them in
to consideration so that business can be executed properly.
“Power distance dimension refers to the power inequality among employees and
their superiors and it is adapted by most of the companies in USA.” The investigator of the
article disagrees with this suggestion because currently businesses are implementing other
cultures rather then power culture because it results in high employee turnover which is not good
for the organisations. According to the investigator the companies which are implementing this
culture should replace it with others so that a good working environment can be established in
the organisation. Certain rules and regulations are set by the managers and all the subordinates
are bound to follow all of them. Main reason behind disagreement is that power culture does not
help to gain trust of workforce and also lead towards various issues such as conflicts among
leaders and subordinates and lack of employee engagement. In order to reduce such type of
problematic situations business entities may prefer to replace power culture with task or other
(Maleki and de Jong, 2014).
Q3. Other suggestions that should be mentioned
A few suggestions that should be mentioned within the article are as follows:
 All the business entities should focus on five cultural elements that are thought process,
rituals, values, beliefs and symbols. All these components may lead towards an ethical
environment which can help to operate business on national or international level.
 Business entities which are adapting power culture should replace it with other so that
employees can feel good at workplace and work effectively and productively.
 There is no suggestion is provided regarding masculinity/ femininity that refers to
characteristics and traits of human beings. In some of the organisations males and
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females are not treated equally and there is a huge difference between their pay scale. In
order to accomplish all the tasks successfully it is vital for companies to treat both of
them equally so that work quality of them can be enhanced.
 For all the organisations that are going to be introduced on international level it is very
important to analyse the factors that may affect their growth and then form strategic
decision so that their negative impact can be reduced for the betterment if the company.
 For international businesses it is vital to understand Hofstede's Cultural dimensions so
that they can establish an appropriate culture within the company and then try to enhance
engagement rate of workforce (Hur, Kang and Kim, 2015).
 One of the main suggestion according to the investigator is that whether a company is
willing to grow within a country or globally it is very important to follow the national
culture. It helps to adjust with the environment of other nations easily as they understand
the important of it.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Beugelsdijk, S., Maseland, R. and Van Hoorn, A., 2015. Are Scores on H ofstede's Dimensions
of National Culture Stable over Time? A Cohort Analysis. Global Strategy Journal.
5(3). pp.223-240.
Goodrich, K. and De Mooij, M., 2014. How ‘social’are social media? A cross-cultural
comparison of online and offline purchase decision influences. Journal of Marketing
Communications. 20(1-2). pp.103-116.
Maleki, A. and de Jong, M., 2014. A proposal for clustering the dimensions of national
culture. Cross-Cultural Research. 48(2). pp.107-143.
Hur, W. M., Kang, S. and Kim, M., 2015. The moderating role of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions
in the customer-brand relationship in China and India. Cross Cultural Management.
22(3). pp.487-508.
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