Analysis of Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions in Modern Organizations

This report critically evaluates the implementation of Hofstede's cultural model within organizations, focusing on its impact on workplace environments. The report explores the dimensions of individualism/collectivism, power distance, and uncertainty avoidance, providing an analysis of how these cultural values influence employee behavior and organizational strategies. It discusses statements regarding the model, differentiating between those that align and conflict with its principles. Furthermore, the report offers suggestions for influencing a positive organizational culture, emphasizing the importance of internal factors and the potential drawbacks of certain cultural dimensions, such as power distance. By examining the application of Hofstede's model, the report aims to provide a framework for understanding cross-cultural communication and its implications for business operations, especially in a global context. The conclusion summarizes the key findings, reinforcing the significance of organizational culture in fostering a productive and harmonious workplace.

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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Critical evaluation of the implementing Hofstede's culture within the organization..................1
Various statements which can be agreed or disagreed ...............................................................2
Suggestions for influencing the positive culture at workplace...................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................3
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................4

INTRODUCTION
Organisation culture can determine the behaviour aspects of the workforce of the
company. Culture can be termed as the beliefs, values and assumptions of the employees within
an enterprise. This article will be based on the Hofstede's cultural model which helps in deriving
the positive environment at workplace. Also, the document will help in justifying various
positive and negative statements of the article.
MAIN BODY
Critical evaluation of the implementing Hofstede's culture within the organization
Organization culture can be defined as a belief, assumptions, Values and ways of
interacting with internal environment of the business. Culture of the organization influence the
working environment of the business. Hofstede's cultural dimensional theory refers to the
cultural values that can influence the workforce and in his model (Minkov, 2018). Geert
Hofstede describes about four types of culture such as Individualism /collectivism, power
distance, avoidance and masculinity/ femininity.
This article has suggested that Individualism/ collectivism can be helpful in determining
the behavior of self-oriented member of the business. Whereas collectivism is considered as
achievement of the collective goals of team member within industry. Next dimension of this
theory has suggested inequality between the superiors and subordinates as the power between
them is not equally distributed. According to this article, Power distance dimension plays the
important role in influencing the positive environment at workplace. However, this component of
Hofstede's model can not contribute towards the successful development of the organization as
this is not practically approved that giving all the power to subordinates take the company
towards maximized profitability.
Uncertainty avoidance is the thirds dimension of the Hofstede's model in which the
theory states the response of the society towards the ambiguity and uncertainty of the business
(Beugelsdijk, Kostova and Roth, 2017). According to the document, A Canada company believes
that considering uncertainty or risk taking is very important for achieving the successful
outcome. Meanwhile, the organizations who do not consider this type of culture within business
have to make strict rules for the workforce which may or may not be properly followed by the
employees.
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However, it can be suggested that organizations who perform the operations on global
scale need to adjust too many environments as different countries follow different culture. On the
other hand, people living in different countries are used to follow different types of traditions and
also cultures. So in this situation, working culture of the employees in global businesses are
generally different from the national culture of national country. However, Hofstede's culture
cannot justify the argument that global business have to change the cultural strategies according
to the national culture of the country where business is operated.
This document also describes that Culture of any organization is based on the policies
and procedure formulated by the top management of the company. Whereas, individual behavior
plays the important role in retaining the cultural changes of the enterprise such as technological
changes like social media and social sharing (Desmarchelier and Fang, 2016). This change in the
internal environment of business would ultimately impact on the working abilities of the
workforce. On the other hand national culture of the country only impacts on the marketing and
consumer behavior of the organization. Various globalized are known for their delicious tastes
and fashionable items across the world so, so different culture of the country do not affect
consumer behavior in this case (French, 2015). As the cultural factor have a significant
effect on the buying decision of the individual. But in case of global business, production of the
goods and services vary according to the tastes and preferences of the people across the world.
On the other hand, various global businesses posses great image and value of the brand. Indeed,
it impacts on the overall profitability of the business.
Various statements which can be agreed or disagreed
Following are the various suggestions that helps in determining the the positive or
negative statements from this article:
Agree
 Those organizations which are globally expanded in different countries of the world need
to follow different cultures according to the national culture of the country.
 Self oriented employees focus on individual strengths and also performs better
collectively.
 Organizational values are specific to a main objective that guides the employee in
building the strong relationship with different stakeholders.
 Individual and organizational values are different from each other.
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Disagree
 Companies who adopt high degree uncertainty avoidance have to bind with more strict
rules than any other organization. Risk taking is one of the important factor which need to
be considered at every point in the business.
 Power distance culture where equal power need to be distributed. As all the employees of
the company have to perform different task (Halder and et.al., 2016). So the
responsibilities and authorities allows them to provide different powers to superiors and
subordinate. If, the same power will be allotted to the employees then every employees
will be a superior then no one will going to perform the operations.
Suggestions for influencing the positive culture at workplace
 Organization need to concentrate more on the internal factors of the business which
impacts on the performance of the employees.
 Also, the company need to avoid the power distance dimension of the Hofstede's cultural
model because equal power to subordinate and superiors may leads to the exploitation
and misuse of the power.
 The organizational culture can be greatly influenced by the national culture of the
country. An enterprise performs business operations with the main objective of satisfying
the needs and requirements of customers. So tastes and preferences of consumer can be
determined by the national culture of the country.
CONCLUSION
From the above article, it has been concluded that organizational culture plays the
important role in influencing the positive environment at workplace. This study has helped in
understanding the organizational culture using Hofstede's model and this provides the framework
for the cross cultural communication within business.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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). pp.231-256.
Beugelsdijk, S., Kostova, T. and Roth, K., 2017. An overview of Hofstede-inspired country-level
culture research in international business since 2006. Journal of International Business
Studies. 48(1). pp.30-47.
Desmarchelier, B. and Fang, E.S., 2016. National culture and innovation diffusion. Exploratory
insights from agent-based modeling. Technological Forecasting and Social Change. 105.
pp.121-128.
Halder, P. and et.al., 2016. The Theory of Planned Behavior model and students' intentions to
use bioenergy: A cross-cultural perspective. Renewable Energy. 89. pp.627-635.
French, R., 2015. Cross-cultural management in work organisations. Kogan Page Publishers.
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