Analysis Of Hofstede Dimensions Of Culture

Hofstede Dimensions of Culture serves as a vehicle that businesses can use to gain a competitive advantage in the global and domestic marketplace (Hur, Kang, Kim, 2015). This is of interest to this author, as one understands and utilize, the norms, nuances and differences of a given society’s culture to build loyalty from the host country’s employees, increase consumer loyalty and organizational market performance. Therefore, the contributions of Geert Hofstede model of cultural dimensions can be utilized as an essential tool by global managers as a framework to understand the cultural characteristics, mannerisms, mindset, belief and values, when creating an effective productive workplace community stemming from mutual understanding and respect

The first of these dimensions is the power distance index, which describes the distribution of power and one’s relationship to authority. A high-power distance society depicts the power as paternal and autocratic, as oppose to a low-power distance society that shares power equally. The second dimension is individualism versus collectivism. This dimension speaks to the significance that a society places on self-interest and independence as opposed to one’s loyalty to a group. The third dimension is masculinity versus femininity. This construct describes how a society interprets the distribution of roles as a masculine being associated with power and control, and femininity is expressed as being nurturing and caring. The fourth dimension is high uncertainty avoidance, as compared to weak uncertainty avoidance. This concept explores how one deals with tolerance and ambiguity. In a high uncertainty, society leaders will install strict guideline or rules to prevent ambiguity. The fifth dimension is long-term versus short-term orientation. This dimension emphasizes how one’s approach and thinking impacts the past, present and future efforts. Lastly, the sixth dimension is the indulgence

This formidable organization operates in 150 countries with more than, 15,000 service centers worldwide. The researchers used questionnaires that asked a variety of questions to determine the cultural dimensions projections. The findings determined that in Romania and Kazakhstan, they exhibited higher uncertainty avoidance and power distance due to the history as former Soviet countries, as compared to the U.S and Germany. They embrace collectivism, as family, community and work are of optimum importance. In addition, these countries displayed a distrust for people due to their former status as being former Soviet countries, as compared to democratic nations such as United Sates and Germany. Long-term orientation was indicated based on questions regarding the respondent’s purpose in life as it pertains to technology and nature. The Romanians were less interested in long-term plans and interested more in technology and economics as opposed to the respondents from Kazakhstan who favored an involvement with nature. The conclusion of the research indicates based on the results, that when organizations do not understand the cultural environment and adapt their leadership style to accommodate the history, national identity, values, economic and political threats of the host country, failure to be successful is inevitable (Vasile, & Nicolescu,