Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions: A Critical Evaluation

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
1. Critically evaluate the suggestions made in the article on Hofstede’s cultural dimensions........3
2. Which do you agree with and which do you disagree with? Justify your position.....................3
3. Are there any other suggestions you would like to make?..........................................................4
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................6
Reference list...................................................................................................................................7
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Introduction
People’s culture highlights their moral value and it is reflected through their behaviour. In this
context, Geert Hofstede had developed a cultural dimensions theory, which is comprised of six
dimensions such as individualism vs collectivism, short-term vs long-term orientation, power
distance index, femininity vs masculinity, restraint vs indulgence and uncertainty avoidance
index. By using concept of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, critical evaluation will be conducted
of the provided article. In addition to this, justification of the suggestion and recommendation on
the article will also be included throughout the study.
The thesis statement of this study is to analyse the Hofstede’s cultural dimensions theory for
getting a better understanding on it.
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1. Critically evaluate the suggestions made in the article on Hofstede’s cultural dimensions.
In the article, the main highlighted suggestion was that America is considered as the
individualistic country. In addition to this, behaviour of people is influenced by their culture and
it controls their thinking process. It is also found that people’s culture leads them to cope with
other cultures and vice versa. Global ventures try to develop their own culture in different
countries, otherwise, due to cultural issue, it affects on their achievement (Hofstede, 2010).
It is observed that culture is comprised of various symbols, rituals, values and many others. In
case of American people, they focus on their personal goals and try to achieve it for achieving
success (Cateora, 2011). Therefore, it can be stated that America follows individualistic culture
and it assists the country to uplift their position in global context. Self-centric value of American
people makes them strong for doing any kind of work.
On the other hand, Mazanec et al. (2015) mentioned that global organisations try to adopt the
culture of the specific country, where they are going to operate their business. It helps the
organisation to understand the requirement of customers for the specific market based on which
they can design their products or services. It assists to increase the organisational sale in the
market. Culture of people is influenced by their religion also. For example, in Christianity,
people do not have any kind of barriers related to their eating habits, whereas in Hinduism, they
do not have beef. However, by maintaining this difference, Subway and McDonald introduce
diversity in their food products for attracting all types of customers. They bring variation their
products for attracting customers. Thus, they are able to operate their business successfully in
various countries.
In another perspective, it is noticed that Hofstede tried to establish cross-cultural communication
in business for getting proper results (Wang et al., 2016). In case of business, if employees share
their viewpoints with other members, it brings improvement in the quality of work. Thus,
organisation can develop their position in global context. On the contrary, if the organisation
does not control the power of supervisor and subordinates, it can leave negative impact on
business. Therefore, organisational structure can be followed in the venture for maintaining a
friendly atmosphere in the organisation.
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2. Which do you agree with and which do you disagree with? Justify your position.
Most of the people in America are self-dependent and they focus on their personal goals for
achieving it. In this context, I agree with the suggestion that America follows individualistic
culture. It helps the country to develop their position in the global context. However, in case of
Britain, it is found that organisations do not want to take risk for their business. As per
Hofstede’s theory, this activity is followed the uncertainty avoidance index. I disagree with this
concept as Brexit left huge impact on Britain and their economic stability was ruined. However,
after that, Britain was also able to develop their economic status by establishing various
organisations (Block and Walter, 2017). Therefore, it can be stated that proper culture is able to
develop the organisational position in the market.
As argued by Mazanec et al. (2015), not only economic investment, but also organisations
should focus on the requirement of customers. It helps them to the venture to fulfil the demand of
customers. In this context, it is suggested that employees should share their concept with the
members for taking appropriate business related decision. Hofstede’s theory highlights the
concept of femininity vs masculinity and organisations try to follow equality among workers. I
agree with this culture as it provides a friendly and collaborative atmosphere in the workplace.
Therefore, it can be deduced that though culture affects our achievement, cross-cultural
dimension helps to increase the success rate in context of business. In time of introducing
products, organisation should focus on the culture of people and design the products accordingly.
If cultural diversity is noticed among the workers, it helps to achieve success in the specific area.
It provides positive outcome to the venture.
3. Are there any other suggestions you would like to make?
It is found that culture leaves impact on the behaviour of consumers. Therefore, if the global
organisations follow their own culture, they would not be able to earn success for the market. In
order to remove this difficulty, I suggest that organisations should follow collectivism dimension
along with long-term goals. Thus, organisation would be able to gather opinion from their
existing employees of various branches in time of taking business related decision. It helps them
to take proper and effective decision so that they can enhance their business position in market.
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As culture reflects on the behaviour of the people, group discussion can be arranged in the
venture for analysing the nature of people.
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Conclusion
In order to draw the conclusion of this essay, it can be stated that proper culture helps to achieve
success in case of an individual or in case of an organisation. If people follow the individualistic
culture, self-dependency is increased among them and they try to achieve their goal within
deadline. It is found that American people follow individualistic culture and it helps to develop
the country in global context. I disagree with the suggestion that organisation in Britain avoids to
take risk. If it is so, they could not be able to develop their position after Brexit. It is suggested
organisations to design products based on the culture for getting fruitful outcome. Thus, using
Hofstede’s cultural theory, entire analysis has been conducted appropriately.
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Reference list
Block, J.H. and Walter, S.G., 2017. Hofstede’s cultural dimensions and modes of entry into
entrepreneurship. In Exploring the Entrepreneurial Society. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Cateora, P. R., M. C. Gilly,, and J. L. Graham (2011). International Marketing, 15th edition. New
York, NY: McGrawHill/Irwin.
Hofstede, G., 2010. Geert hofstede. National cultural dimensions.
Mazanec, J.A., Crotts, J.C., Gursoy, D. and Lu, L., 2015. Homogeneity versus heterogeneity of
cultural values: An item-response theoretical approach applying Hofstede's cultural dimensions
in a single nation. Tourism Management, 48, pp.299-304.
Wang, Q., Peng, C.H., Sia, C.L., Tong, Y. and Ku, Y.C., 2016, July. Website location strategies
review under Hofstede’s cultural dimensions. In International Conference on HCI in Business,
Government, and Organizations (pp. 258-269). Springer, Cham.
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