Hofstede's Contribution to Our Understanding of Cultures Influence on Global Organizational Practices - Example

Critical evaluation of Hofstede's contribution to our understanding of cultures influence on global organizational practices (GOPs) Name Course Tutor Date Introduction Multi-national organisations and business enterprises always seek to retain their organizational practices across all the nations that they have covered. Diverse nationalities have divergent beliefs that determine the performance of organisations within the environments. Since the globalization of businesses, firms and government entities, there has always been a need to integrate with the various modes of cultures in order to get acceptability. Societal and institutional cultures impact much on the performance of persons in the various entities. It is necessary that the leaders in management, as well as other employees, bear in mind the cultural values in an environment. It has been noted that cultures determine various factors such as promotions, rewards and other important decision-making processes. The dynamics of cultures have to be well comprehended so as to ensure that the organizational processes run smoothly. Some rules and expected patterns have to be bent without affecting the organisations operations in order to attain satisfaction of clients with diverse beliefs and ways of life. Hofstede (1992, pp.29-40) asserts that differences in societal cultures among various nationalities imply much on universal problems in human resource development. Hofstede provided basic grounds that help build knowledge on cultural values relating to international business. This paper critically evaluates Hofstede's contribution of the influence of culture on Global Organisational practices (GOPs). Definitions Culture: Culture is a set of practises that consistently captures the beliefs, social habits, attitudes, myths, values and taboos of a group of people. Global Organisational Practises: These are the duties performed by individuals in various positions in the organisational leadership. These practises are similar regardless of the differences in the societal niche that an organisation is placed. Societal cultures: These are practises, beliefs, attitudes, taboos and values that are regarded highly among a group of people that live in a specific region. Organisational cultures: These are practises that are passed on in an organisation. They always require being constant across the globe and are not changed. They define values and taboos in an organisation. Hofstede (1992, p.4), defines Organisational Culture as a uniformity of the mind that distinguishes the members of an organisation from the rest. Discussion Hofstede (1992, p18) defines culture as a unified programming of the mind that clearly segregates members of a category of people from others. Cultures can be studied as a collective phenomenon across various groups of people that form a collection that identifies them solely from others. Culture is most commonly used to mean ethnic groups or tribes in the anthropology. Culture could mean nations or organisations as well among various groups of scholars. Fields that classify cultures include Political sciences, sociology, anthropology and management. Little study of cultures in occupations has been conducted to date. The term is also well applied to classify gender, social classes and finally generations. Hofstede has over time studied cultures and come up with dimensions of these cultures presented in the following groups: power distance, individualism-collectivism, uncertainty avoidance and masculinity-femininity. Two types of cultures are identifiable in regard to management principles. They include; Societal cultures that define people's primary values more often in the sense of their preferences of specific occurrences in acceptable mannerisms (Hofstede, 2001, p. 5). Organisational cultures in the other hand define the people's perceptions on in their organizational environment. Dimensions of Cultures Many scholars evaluate the dimensions of the cultural view that will prove appropriate for conceptualising and operationalizing culture. In regard to the studies conducted on the organisational structures. Hofstede, (1971.pp 20-26), studies have shown the existence of a classification of the cultures and a descriptive set of dimensions that expound the performances of organisations in various cultures. Power Distance: Power Distance dimension returns the level and consequences of power inequality. It also mirrors authority relations in the society. Power distance influences hierarchy in organisational contexts and dependency in relationships in the family contexts. This dimension eludes the power difference various organizational levels and the acceptability of inferiority by less powerful levels. An example is where children in families will always occupy the lowest place when it comes to decision making. Dependents will always have to submit to their providers. The inequality level in a society endorsed by the followers is as much it is endorsed by leaders. There exists a range between small and high power distance that is characterised by the focus of the dimension from the least powerful. Uncertainty avoidance: Uncertainty avoidance is the reliance of a society on social customs and procedures to lessen the unpredictability of future events (Javidan & House, 2001, p.295).This view deals with the ambiguity tolerance in a society. Societies are classified according to their ability to respond to unusually complex situations. Uncertainty avoidance indicated the extent to which comfort ability is felt in unstructured situations. It however does not imply risk avoidance. Unstructured situations are those that are unexpected, inexperienced and surprising. Cultures that are described as uncertainty avoiding place laws, strict conduct guidelines, unity if the mind and bear a strong belief in absolute truth that they possess. These measures are placed so as to avoid strange occurrences. Summarily, this dimension deals with the need for well-defined rules for prescribed behaviour (Soares, Farhangmerh & Shosham, 2007, p.280). Individualism–collectivism: Individualism-collectivism offers a description of relationships between individuals in each and every culture. In collectivistic cultures, all individuals belong to a group that demands loyalty for it to take care of an individual. Furthermore, people are organized into cohesively strong groups that more often are extended families. Individualistic cultures are characterized by self-care of persons or families. In this case, an individual is only mindful of himself or herself and the immediate family. Performance orientation: This dimension defines the extent to which a society values performance improvement and excellence and rewards are given to the members of the group (Javidan & House, 2001, p.300). In the Societies exhibiting high-performance orientation, a great measure of emphasis is placed on personal training for the development of skills, the display of a sense of urgency and fluency in communication. Contrastingly, societies where performance orientation is low exhibit poor competition and relationships are affected extensively by direct feedback (Javidan & House, 2001, p.137). For a branch office of a global organization placed in high performance oriented, the perceived organizational identity will reflect progressive attributes of winning, resilience, hard work and elevation. This would always be antagonistic when compared with regions with lower performance orientation. Masculinity-Femininity: This dimension takes interest in the distribution of roles between the two genders among various societal environments. Hofstede, (2011, p.223) reveals from research the role of women differ less among societies as compared to men's. Furthermore, he brings out the finding that men's values across the countries contain dimensions ranging from assertive and competitive values. Assertiveness is associated more with the gentlemen while modesty, building of relations and tenderness, on the other hand, is solely spared for the feminine gender. There is an expectation that men are tough, and possess material success orientation. On the other hand, femininity symbolizes societies that gender roles are interchanged. Both men and women are modest, tender and bear concern for the quality of life (Hofstede, 1991, p.6). Future Orientation (Short versus long term orientation): It is the dimension that measures the extent that a society values futuristic behaviours. These behaviours comprise planning, investing and deferring of gratification (Javidan & House, 2001, p.294). Long term oriented organizations are characterized by individuals who have greater plans for the future. The time frames are usually large which eludes patience. Long term oriented organizations demonstrate discipline, have contingency plans and desire to leave a legacy. The opposite is true for short-term oriented organizations; there are neither contingency nor plans. Furthermore, their thinking time frames are always short and high priority is placed on instant gratification. Humane orientation: This dimension is defined as the extent to which human acts are promoted by a society. Rewards are given for kindness, care, fairness and generosity by the societies (Javidan & House, 2001, p. 300). In societies with high human orientation, there is a great amount of emphasis placed on belongingness and protection of the good relations among individuals. A regional office of a global organization placed in the highly humane society will contain better attributes of humaneness as compared to the same branch of the organization in a less humane society. Conceptual Dimensions of Organizational Cultures Hofstede et al., (1990, pp.98-108), carried out research in twenty companies that ranged from toy manufacturers to municipal police corporations. Questionnaires were used ranging from open-ended, fixed answers and also there was the use of informants. Vast differences among units in perceptions were found by this research, this was parameterized by education, gender, age group and nationality. From the research, the following dimension was derived from the consistent findings. Professional versus parochial: Professional oriented cultures identify its members by their profession. The professional persons are typically well educated in the field of work and specialization. An example will be degree holders in disciplines such as management, engineering and other sciences parochial organizations identify members by the company's name. A popular Hofstedian reference among sociologists is the contrasting dimension of local (internal) and cosmopolitan (external). Job-orientation versus employee orientation: Job-oriented organizations have employees who deal specifically with the tasks dictated by their employment terms or job descriptions. On the other hand, employee orientation takes the general unspecified view of the working of the employees. The employees are concerned in every aspect of the company, and an emphasis is placed on the general well-being of the organization. This model is largely affected by historical factors such as the economic crisis and the philosophies of the founders. Tight versus Loose Control: This dimension has a focus on the strictness of organization to implement and enforce their policies. Formal entities pay attention to the punctuality and formality of their members at their places of work. This could be implemented by the technological use of human resource management tools as studied by Hofstede. Tight controls are found among banks and companies that deal in pharmaceutical. From the same research, Advertising agencies and research firms exhibited looser control. (Hofstede, 1997, p.76) Pragmatic versus rigid: The focus on customer orientation is summarized in this dimension. It explores the manner in which an organization handles its environment in general and the level of customer orientation. Organizations that deal with the sale of services appear to be more flexible while on the other hand law enforcement entities are normative (rigid). Open systems versus closed systems: This is the dimension that focuses on identification and classification of the styles used for internal, as well as external communication. It analyses the ease of integration with new personnel, outsiders and above all the customer. (Hofstede, 1997.p.83) Process versus Result orientation: Process orientation is where an organization follows a defined pattern in performing their day to day activities. Process-oriented cultures are routinely, and they are careful not to do anything out of designed pattern of activities in their work. Result oriented organizational cultures prove to be very adaptable and can handle changes comfortably as long as their desired goals are achieved. Each day in result oriented organizations come with new experiences and challenges (Hofstede, 1997, p.85). Critical Literature Analysis Research on organisational practises started long before the 1950's. There was found to be universal categories of culture (Kluckhon, 1962). Kluckhon suggested a framework encompassing all cultures that were analysed to possess explicit answers for each society. Universal circumstances had to be provided for by the societies for factors that proved universal. These factors include the existence of two sexes, the need for gratification of the fundamental biological necessities including food, warmth, and sex; the helplessness of infants; the differences in ages. As well as the presence of the physically challenged in the society (pp. 317-18). During the upper half of the nineteenth century, many writers carried out researches and proposed various ideas on modernity of cultures. Classification of modernity in societies was based on their mental programming for progress from their primitive practises. The evolution in economy and technology however was not deemed to pose any challenge to the variation of cultures. There existed an understanding of the cultural dimensions unrelated to economic evolution as well. In early times, much attention was not given to the cultural influence on management as much is it was in matters such as politics. The discipline of management requires a very critical analysis of the environment that a global organisation is placed. There always exists the need to have a balance between the societal, national and organisational cultures for the sustenance of any entity. There is always a need to hire multinational employees in the nations that an organisation has a branch. It is important to understand the perception of the company. Perceptions of the employees always have a basis on the national and societal cultures that shape the locals. This knowledge possesses a task to the management of any global organisation to understand the dynamics of situations that would befall them. The organisational practises implemented need to be in line with the societal and national cultures of the people. Hofstede (1971, 2011), presents the dimensions of cultures that generalises the groups and behaviours that are segregated into homogenous units. Through the research done by Hofstede, very descriptive classifications of cultures have been derived. An understanding of the cultural practises places organisations in a position to make proper decisions. Global organisational practises tend to be adversely affected by national and societal cultures as companies always want to blend with the prevailing conditions. Understanding the organisational cultures can pose as a stepping stone towards success especially when it is known how to deal with factors that affect it. In the United States, it would be deemed friendly to be called by the first name by your boss (Ghoshal, 2005). However, the same would be very offensive in France. This diversity calls for the management to lay down codes that would guide the conduct that would comply to the comfort of every stakeholder. National cultures affect the organisations in many ways. For example, the Chief Executive Officer of a company in America would be the role model; it would be a consensus builder in Japan and the coalition builder in Germany (Ghoshal, 2005). The diverse responses to the same situations among various nationals of various countries above show that the national cultures influence their responses to the same stimuli. Organisations will have their employees shaped in a desired manner. The code of conduct in an organisation such as defining professionalism will be defined by the virtues of the people. It is automatic that the use of the first name in the society sounds less official; the same is imposed in the organisations structure (Hofstede, 1993). Socio-cultural contexts pose an influence to organisational practises (Hofstede, 2001). Taking the element of power distance in mind, it is evident that power distance is inversely related to open communication as well as participation. Decision-making in high power distance societies is not in any way contributed to by employees. Individualism in an organisation is more likely to lead the company to failure as compared to organisations that embrace group work through means such as departmental working (Miller & Tsang, 2011). Major studies after Hofstede's research have conquered with his findings on the relationship between the cultures and global organisational practises. Most researchers came to agree with the first four dimensions of culture. However, some researchers have failed to agree with Hofstede's study. Baskerville (2003, pp.1-2), denounced three major misgivings and weaknesses where she refutes the outsider's position against the cultures studied, quantification through abstract values and the equating of nation with culture. Conclusion It can be concluded that the management of organisations should never be oblivious of the cultures in the environments that they are set up. The dynamics of the cultures that organisations are based in determine how certain activities will be carried out within the organisations. However, much the organisations will want to keep constant their global activities, they will be prone to the influence of societal cultures. Cultures can be termed very fundamental in the management of any organisation. Cultures affect the decisions and policies that would be implemented in any organisation. The dimensions of organisational culture study the relationships of organisations with the states and other stakeholders and provide an understanding that cuts across all platforms. The concepts derived from the study of the respective concepts of organisational practises by researchers and sociologists such as Hofstede play a major role in the management of organisations. Hofstede's contribution in this study is very vital since it has stood as a blueprint upon which further studies have been delved into. Thus, the understanding of the numerous researches by the various scholars enhances the realisation and understanding of effective organisational practises. References Alavi, M., Kayworth, T. R., & Leidner, D. E., 2006. An empirical examination of the influence of organizational culture on knowledge management practices. Journal of management information systems, 22(3), 191-224. Baskerville, R. F. (2003), Hofstede never studied culture, Accounting, Organizations and Society, Vol. 28 No. 1, pp. 1-14. Brodbeck, F. C., Chhokar, J. S., & House, R. J., 2007. Culture and leadership in 25 societies: Integration, conclusions, and future directions. Delobbe, N., Haccoun, R.R. and Vandenberghe, C., 2002) ‘Measuring Core Dimensions of Organizational Culture: A Review of Research and Development of a New Instrument’, unpublished manuscript, Universite catholique de Louvain, Belgium. Dorfman, P. W., Hanges, P. J., & Brodbeck, F. C., 2004. 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