2 HOFSTEDE
Geert Hofstede’s Culture’s Consequences(1980, 2001) explores the differences ‘in
thinking and social action’ at the country level between members of 50 nations
and three regions. Hofstede originally used IBM employees’ answers to a com-
pany attitude survey conducted twice, around 1968 and 1972. The survey
generated more than 116,000 questionnaires, with the number of respondents
used in the analysis being approximately 30,000 in 1969 and 41,000 in 1973.
Hofstede identified and validated four cultural dimensions from respondents’
patterned answers. For each dimension, he presented possible origins as well as
predictors and consequences for management behavior.
Hofstede’s cultural dimensionsHofstede’s first two dimensions echo the theories of ‘Power Distance’ (Mulder,
1977) and ‘Uncertainty Avoidance’ (Cyert and March, 1963). The third and
fourth dimensions are ‘Individualism versus Collectivism’ and ‘Masculinity versus
Femininity’. The fifth dimension, ‘Long-term versus Short-term Orientation’ was
subsequently developed from research conducted by Michael Bond to accom-
modate non-Western (Confucian) orientations and has been adopted from the
Chinese Culture Connection (1987) study. For each dimension, Hofstede con-
structed an index that enabled countries to be mapped according to their scores
(see Table 6.1 and Figures 6.1 and 6.2).
In the management context, the first dimension Power Distancerefers to
the relationship between supervisors and subordinates. It reflects ‘the extent to
which the less powerful members of organizations expect and accept that
power is distributed unequally’. In organizations, an illustration of a high
Power Distance score is generally represented as a highly vertical hierarchical
pyramid. Subordinates are often told what to do and do not feel entitled to dis-
cuss their superiors’ decisions. High Power Distance also means that the higher
a person is in the hierarchy, the more difficult this person is to approach.
Barriers can be in the form of persons such as secretaries who serve as ‘gate-
keepers’ preventing access to the manager, or symbols such as the executive
dining room which is separate from the staff cafeteria. Low Power Distance
would be found in organizations with a flatter hierarchical pyramid.
Subordinates and superiors are in a more collaborative relationship and hier-
archy tends to be perceived as a distinction of task rather than of persons.
Uncertainty Avoidance. From the IBM employees’ responses, Hofstede found
that some questions provided an indicator of employees’ (in)tolerance of ambi-
guity. Hofstede defined this dimension as ‘the extent to which the members of
a culture feel threatened by uncertain or unknown situations’. He argued that
144 International Human Resource Management