The Hofstede Studies

The Hofstede Studies The Dutch management scholar Geert Hofstede conducted studies in 40 countries and drew some conclusions about the relationship between national character and employee motivation. He concluded that people vary a great deal, and those variations seriously challenge the rules of effective managerial practice based on West ern theories and peoples. Hofstede cites four dimensions he feels describe import ant aspects of a national culture. . !ndividualism versus collectivism measures an individual"s relationship with other people and the degree to which the desire for personal freedom is played off against the need for social ties. #. $ower distance evaluates the way a particular society handles ine%uality among people. &n one end of the scale are countries and people that play down e%uality as much as possible. ' t the other end are cultures that accept and support large imbalance in power, status, and wealth. (. )ncertainty avoidance measures how a society deals with the uncertainty of the future. ' wea* uncertainty avoidance society is one that does no t feel threatened by the uncertainty of the future, but is generally tolerant and secure. ' strong uncertainty avoidance culture, on the other hand tries to overcome future uncertainties by developing legal, technological and religious institutions that create security and avoid ris*. 4. +asculinity versus femininity refers to the rigidity of se roles. Hofstede defines a society as masculine if there are etensive divisions of social roles by se and as feminine if these divisions are relatively small. 'nother way of loo*ing at it is that masculinity versus femininity refers to differences in approaches to the %uantity versus %uality of life- +asculine refers to a national orientation towards assertiveness and ac%uisition of money and material goods, while feminine refers to an orientation towards caring for others and the %uality of life. !n light of the differences he found between nations. Hofstede feels that it is unrealistic to epect any single management approach to be applicable worldwide. 'pplying apanese 'pproaches 'broad- While Hofstede has epressed serious doubts about applying 'merican/We stern management practices in other countries, some observers have become very ecited about the effectiveness of apanese practices. The study of apanese manage ment1 en2oyed significant popularity in the 30s. Will iam G &uchi is among those who have studied apanese business in the hope that it might provide solutions to some 'merican problems. These differences in organi5ational characteristics are associated with differences in managerial behavior. 6aturally , there are wide variations in how individual apanese

The Hofstede Studies

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