Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions - Research Paper Example

Hofstede is almost synonymous with cultural values. The traditional cultural dimensions of Power distance, Uncertainty avoidance, Masculinity, Individualism and Long term orientation propounded by him as bench marks for deciding cultural values of each countries engaged in the international commerce are challenged in this essay as outdated in the wake of globalisation decade which has brought with it, its own values for the one world model. According to this preposition, the one world system has no reservations to forego the cultural heritage or cultural orientation in exchange of economic prosperity. Introduction In Hofstede’s view, nations have separate cultures which an international business has to adapt to, in order to successfully conduct its business in a particular nation. Hofstede’s five dimensions of culture are defined in terms of power distance, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, individualism and long-term orientation. Although Hofstede’s theory of cross cultural dimensions has been subjected to criticisms, his cross cultural dimensions had been of practical applications in the international commerce. However, ever since the advent of globalisation, nations have stopped being watertight compartments with the Hofstede’s cultural dimensions attributable to individual nations in varying degrees having become outdated. It is proposed to place herein evidence based arguments to show that Hofstede’s cultural dimensions for the purpose of international commerce have become irrelevant or outdated in the wake of globalisation. Globalisation Hofstede attempted to explain that cultures are shaped within nations. But when businesses transcends beyond national boundaries, these cultural dimensions become cultural interconnections. Now globalisation has become the order of the day and irreversible. Cultural attributes are likened to an iceberg in that only very few are visible to the eye. They are language, behaviours, customs, and norms. And traditions, beliefs, priorities, assumptions and values are only perceptible (Parker, 2005 p189). Hofstede’s cultural dimensions As already well known, Hofstede (1980) arrived at the above said dimensions based on his study of 88,000 employees of IBM from 72 countries. He expanded his study to ten more countries and three regions in his updated version (Hofstede, 2001).At the time of Hofstede’s original work in 1980, the world was not as complicated a place as it is today. Post Hofstede’s work scenario In the last three decades, nations have become more permeable and heterogeneous besides undergoing disintegration or dismantlement like Soviet Union and integration like European Union. Multinational firms have transformed in breadth, influence and complexity. They hire personnel with bi-cultural and tricultural background with transnational skills without stopping with home country skills (Brannen, 2009). Hofstede’s work as outdated Even while current, Hofstede’s approach to cross-cultural dimensions has been criticised in different contexts. Due to breaking away of the U.S.S.R., Yugoslavia and integration of European Union, the Hofstede’s data may have become outdated. What this paper concerned with is the obsolescence of his cultural dimensions assuming that hey had been valid in the past. As the world has become one unit without boundaries, his theories cannot be applied any longer although Hofstede has answered stating that cross-cultural outcomes have been based on centuries of indoctrination and that cultures would not change overnight (Hofstede,1998). Utility of Hofstede’s work Hofstede’s framework for cross cultural dimensions has been used in the fields of management and marketing (Blodget et al,n.d) to study the cross-cultural aspects of attitudes and behaviours (Alden, Hoyer and Lee,1993), organisational identification and employee turnover intentions ( Abrams, Ando and Hinkle, 1998) and for comparison of stereotypes across different cultures (Soutar, Grainger and Hedges,1999) as also in advertising (McCarty and Hattwick,1992), global brand strategies (Roth,1995) and ethical decision making (Vitell, Nwachukwu, and Barnes 1993; Blodgett et al. 2001). Hofstede’s validity not tested However, Hofstede’s cultural framework had not been tested for validity and reliability as claimed by Churchill (1979) and Schwab (1980). As such, validity assessment was undertaken by an exploratory study across two different samples consisting of 123 undergraduate students and 26 faculty and doctoral students from a university of the U.S.A. The 44 % success rate found in these samples as against the standard success rate of reliability rate of 70%, pointed to a low reliability. Hence, the study concluded that “Hofstede’s scale lacked sufficient face validity for use at an individual level” (Blogett et al, n.d) Aftermath of Globalisation Globalisation has created a set of young people from developed countries coming together and sharing a common set of values though Hofstede resisted this with his premise of culture’s inertia to change (Gooderham and Nordhaug 2003 p140). Hofstede’s invalidity in obsolescence context Traditional criticisms of Hofstede’s applications in today’s world need to be mentioned within the context of obsolescence also. First, the methodology. The attitude-survey questionnaire is not the most appropriate way of studying culture. Hofstede’s deliberate choices of the four factors especially in respect of Individualism-Collectivism (Tayeb, 1996). Bond (2002) stated that Hofstede’s Individualism-Collectivism was an after- thought by subdividing the large factor as part of his original three factor solution. But for individualism and collectivism, the U.S.A, his findings would have been different and the U.S.A. would not have been placed at the extreme end of the scale. Besides, validity of this dimension comprising of six goals such as personal time, freedom and challenge as individualism and use of skills, physical conditions and training is questioned since how the last three could amount to collectivism is not clear. Secondly, the unrepresentative nature of IBM employees’ data base for the entire world is a valid point against the Hofstede’s claim. At best, it could have represented the IT sector of the time. The employees who were interviewed are unlikely to continue in service and they themselves would be replying differently to the same questionnaire. Or it is quite likely their off springs will certainly not share the same reflections. The generation gap even in the absence of globalisation would have impacted on culture and it is inevitable and not necessarily to discredit Hofstede’s works. Moreover, the IT sector employees cannot be representing other industrial sector in which people with different educational and cultural backgrounds different from IBM are employed. IBM’s impact. McSweeney (2000) finds that IBM being a U.S. based organisation might have conditioned its employees to the U.S. culture overtime though Hofstede (1994) has a ready made answer that values of employees cannot be changed having been acquired in their childhood. Hofstede’s contemporaries Hofstede’s cultural dimensions are not hard and fast rules and are not the only cultural index. Trompennaars (1993, 1997), a contemporary of Hofstede conducted surveys among 15,000 managers and administrative staff across twenty eight countries and expanded it to another 15,000 respondents in 1990s. His values were related to work and interpersonal relationships were Universalism vs particularism, Communitariarism vs individualism, Neutral vs emotional, Specific vs diffuse and achievement vs ascription which according to him greatly influenced the business conduct against moral dilemmas. For example, in respect of Universalism and particularism, if a car accident occurs due to the fault of a friend, a North American or British who was a witness to it would not testify against his friend if accident was serious. On the other hand, an Asian or Russian would not do so. The responses are different because of cultural differences. Trompennaars’ findings are considered as supplementing Hofstede’s works rather than duplicating. However, within the context globalisation, Trompennaars’ classification is more relevant than Hofstede’s and therefore his work is now outdated especially because of the data base (Gooderham and Nordhaug 2003 p140). Need to redefine cultural values Even at the time of publication of Hofstede’s work, these dimensions were criticized and after nearly three decades, it is all the more necessary to redefine these factors in the changed atmosphere of globalisation. Culture may remain static for centuries together but human attitudes do change frequently because of new leaders emerging from time to time and ever changing fashion and technology. Information and communication technology in the present form which is almost instant came after the Hofstede’s work and there is no denying the fact that computers, internet and cellular phones have changed radically the day to day routine of the human beings. Internet The advent internet has made the participants faceless and thereby becoming culturally neutral and neutral gender unless one is so curious and wants to be identified or identify the other. Many transactions take place across the internet without national borders and without implicit and explicit application of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions. Openness Contending that there is no precise relationship between culture and business, have introduced a new factor “openness” to Hofstede’s model. The authors admit that though Hofstede’s model had been in use for a long period, users have been frustrated by its limitations. They claim to have introduced the above said new variable to correct the Hofstede’s model. With this new variable, they have contrasted differences between Western culture and east Asian Culture. Their paper recommends to East Asian countries to adopt Western culture not for any reasons of superiority but for the reason that such a change should occur at what they call “catch-up and fast growing stage”. Thus they say Collectivism (low Individualism), bypassing of rules (low Uncertainty Avoidance), Protectionism (low Openness) had been the reasons for their success in the past. However, the same strengths will be obstacles to become major players in the global economy. They explain Openness as characterised by people’s willingness to accept and change according to the need which would take them to a global mindset. This will be achieved through attractiveness and aggressiveness. Attractiveness is inviting foreign capital, business and culture into one’s own country and aggressiveness is going all out to the foreign country and supply goods and services embracing their culture if need be. Lack of these attributes makes people become negative and narrow minded. Acting according to emotions, makes them nationalistic and protective. Comparing north Korea and South Korea, the gap in the economic development of the two can be attributed to the Openness of South Korea by being receptive to western culture. This new variable makes better model for cultural implications thus outdating Hofstede’s model (Moon, 2006) Expatriation Expatriate managers abound in all these foreign cultures and are able to survive without sacrificing their own because of pressure of globalisation and the economic prosperity it brings to the host cultures which do not agitate against foreign cultures because of the Openness. The expatriates also manage to achieve their goals through internet communications without exposing their own cultures. This is also in defiance of Hofstede’s model (Lee and Liu, 2008) Women in mainstream Taking the case of an extreme culture, Saudi Arabia’s women is worth referring. Although women outnumber men in Saudi Arabia, they only form 7 % of workforce restricted to teachers and doctors. They cannot enter any other profession like law, architecture, engineers and cannot also drive. They have to cover themselves head to toe and cannot meet or interact with customers or officials. To cope with this, Saudi American Bank opened branches staffed by women exclusively for banking by women. Pizza Hut has separate rooms for single men and families. Departmental stores have separate floors for men and women. While the country’s unemployment rate is 30%, there is 60 % foreign workforce. When the country’s income was high, it employed foreign workers. Now when its income is decreasing, the country wants foreign workers replaced (Chopra, 2005) Four years later, women are found to have got ascendancy to the ruling elite of the same country Saudi Arabia. Norah Al-Fayez has become the first Saudi woman Minster as Deputy Minister for Education for Women’s education. Lama Al-Suleiman is now a Saudi woman as a director in the board of Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Dr Khawla became the Director of King Fahd Center for children with for cancer. This is evident of women breaking the cultural barriers against them. This can be attributed to globalisation by which women are encouraged to go for higher educations which in turn enables them to break the cultural barriers in their home countries. The women in high positions in Saudi Arabia are quite comparable to the developed western countries of the U.S.A. and the U.K. as shown in the diagram below. (Saudigazette.com) The above developments in Saudi Arabia are demolishing the cultural dimensions of Hofstede mainly due to empowerment of women in globalisation process. . Cultural globalisation Cultural merging as a part of neo-imperialism is eliminating cultural variety.(Tomilnson,1991) While some believe cultures will clash (Barber,1996), others think it will lead to destructive conflict (Huntington,1991).This leads to the question whether globalisation of culture means convergence and compression into a single Western or U.S. culture or cultural options. World Values Survey examined values of 65 societies that formed 80 % of the world’s population results of which showed that economic development was correlated to cultural values. In other words, low income societies differed from high income societies in two respects of traditional vs secular-rational values. While low income societies rely on traditional values such as conforming to religion, submission to authority, male dominance in economic and political life, strong sense of national pride and low tolerance for abortion and divorce, reverse is the case for high income societies. Results show that shifts from agrarian to industrial society are transforming people to embrace more secular-rational values. The survey that has been in operation for more than 25 years now shows there has been a worldwide move towards secular-rational values. Thus, changes in Gross National Product and occupational structures have important bearing on values (Inglehart and Baker, 2000). Where does Hofstede’s claim that culture changes very slowly stand as against the above survey showing that a shift in economic performance can impact on culture and vice-versa.? Therefore, the cultural dimensions of Hofstede lose their sheen in the wake of economic prosperity. Globalisation has brought about economic prosperity which in turn changes cultural values immediately. However, more research is needed to dismiss Hofstede’s works in respect of cultural paradigms in order to capture the shifting of cultural maps which influence and are influenced by globalisation and technology (Jones and Alony, 2007). Conclusion Hofstede no doubt is a pioneer in the field of cultural attributes applicable to international business conduct. Many companies have followed and have still been following biblically his cultural dimensions as the guiding factors to shape their business policies. However, globalisation for the past one decade has made the world a single global village within which many cultures cannot survive. As time and space are considerably reduced due to information technology explosion, change or reaction is immediate or instant and that would apply to culture also. Compulsions of globalisation have made certain attributes in human beings apparent i.e economic prosperity to them readily forego cultural reservations. Women in developing countries now go to nightshift works as they are well rewarded with huge wages. Women sales persons are a new breed in the excusive male domain who does not hesitate to work for extra hours in the evenings to make calls to those who could be accessed only in the evenings. While research is still inconclusive on the obsolescence of Hofstede’s cultural index, it will become apparent when the research has completed one full circle. It is reiterated that this paper is not to discredit or belittle Hofstede but for whose pioneering work, the cultural dimensions would never have been mad available to the business world and the academic community, thanks to the IBM which once was a monolith to reckon with. References Abrams, D., K. Ando, and S. Hinkle (1998). Psychological Attachment to the Group: Cross Cultural Differences in Organizational Identification and Subjective Norms as Predictors of Workers’ Turnover Intentions. 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