Hofstede's cultural

dimensions

McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2011 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
 Introduction

Hofstede is a professor who researched how

people from different countries and cultures
interact based on six different categories of
cultural dimensions :

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 Power Distance

 This dimension expresses the degree to which

the less powerful members of a society accept
and expect that power is distributed unequally.

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 Individualism vs. Collectivism

This dimension focuses on the questions about

whether people prefer a close knit network of
people or prefer to be left alone to fend for
themselves.

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 Masculinity vs. Femininity
Masculinity represents a preference in society
for achievement, heroism, and material reward
for success. Its opposite, femininity, stands for a
preference for cooperation, modesty, caring for
the weak and quality of life.

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 Uncertainty Avoidance

This dimension expresses the degree to which

the member of a society feels uncomfortable with
uncertainty.

People in cultures with high uncertainty

avoidance tend to be more emotional. They try to
minimize the occurrence of unknown and unusual
circumstances and to proceed with careful
changes step by step planning and by
implementing rules, laws and regulations.

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 Uncertainty Avoidance
In contrast, low uncertainty avoidance cultures
accept and feel comfortable in unstructured
situations or changeable environments and try to
have as few rules as possible.

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 Long-term vs. Short-term Orientation

Long-term orientation dimension can be

interpreted as dealing with society's search for
virtue.
Long term oriented societies attach more
importance to the future.

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 What Do These Mean To
Managers?
Knowing these, or at least understanding they
exist, will help a manager adapt to the culture he
or she is working with or living in.
It is a way for you to know not take other
people's actions or viewpoints personally and to
realize that it is cultural norms that you are
dealing with.

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