Hofstedes Five Dimensions

Matthew Miller

BA440

2/28/14

Short Paper #2

An analysis of Hofstede’s Five Dimensions of National Culture on India and the implications of the Compensation and Retirement Policy.

Geert Hofstede was an anthropologist who conducted one of the earliest empirical studies on national culture traits. The data on values and attitudes was collected from 116,000 employees that worked for the multinational corporation IBM. The studies he conducted revealed the values that are deeply embedded in people from different cultures, how these values effect how people behave and how they will behave in work environments. From his studies Hofstede identified four independent dimensions of national culture; individualism versus collectivism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance and masculinity versus femininity. Hofstede would later add a fifth dimension; long-term versus short-term orientation. Individualism versus collectivism describes whether a person functions primarily as an individual or as part of a group. People from individualistic cultures portray themselves individual, and accomplish goals and needs on their own. How a society deals with the inequalities in power that exists among people is power distance. Cultures, which have low power distance, include people who expect power to be distributed equally even if people that are viewed as lower hold power. On the other hand high power distances tend to accept steep hierarchies. The extent to which people can tolerate risk and uncertainty in their lives is uncertainty avoidance. People who live in a culture with high uncertainty avoidance will usually feel uncomfortable because they are not used to situation. When there is a low degree off uncertainty avoidance will strive whether they are accustomed to the situation. Masculine versus femininity refers to a societies orientation based on traditional male and female values. These values help describe how people are motivated in these cultures. The degree to which...