Hofstede's value Orientations

Figure 1: Results from Hofstede's original study

A social psychologist named Geert Hofstede led a study of personnel working in IBM branches in over 50 different countries. In 1984, Hofstede published his work, identifying 5 distinct sets of cultural values of which solutions were different among various cultures. The values or problem types are individualism vs collectivism, power distance, femininity vs masculinity, methods for dealing with uncertainty, and long-term vs short-term. Individualism is the cultural emphasis on the person or individual, while collectivism is placing cultural importance on families, teams, or communities. Power distance deals with the distribution of power in a setting, and having people with less power accept that they cannot make decisions. The masculinity/femininity cultural difference is the assignment of gender specific roles or the label of gender oriented values. The uncertainty avoidance difference notes how different cultures deal with ambiguous and less structured meetings, whether it be in a work or personal setting. The final problem type is the long term vs short term orientation. This describes a societies outlook, focus and goals and whether they are to solve current or future problems.

This topic is very interesting as it is a very dynamic observation about different cultures and is likely highly affected by location. The original study was done in only IBM branches, which brings a sampling bias into the study. That sampling bias would probably only affect judgments created about a sub group of people working in an IBM branch and would not affect the cultural value theory that was created. The results of the study primarily affect how one should be aware of cultural differences. It could be a poor decision to talk with somebody about what your culture considers an important masculine value if the other person's culture led them to believe that the solution would be more of a feminine value. This might not create angst but most likely produce some sort of confusion or reevaluation and require clarification. An example of this could be if you were to mention gender equality (labeled feminine) to somebody that believed in strong gender roles (labeled masculine).

I have personally not had a great number of interactions between opposite sides of the cultural difference. Recently, however, I was talking with my academic adviser (in the college of engineering). We were talking about life goals and he mentioned that he had always wanted to get a Masters in Business Administration and how it would have been ideal to work towards while (or shortly after) he earned his Ph.D, especially since he was going to school in Chicago. He then continued to say that he felt as if it were too late now because he is very busy with research and classes, his wife is pregnant, and once he turns 40 he will have to start preparing to die. While this was all said in a very lighthearted manner, it made me think about how different this man's life was to mine. We have relatively similar academic and personal goals, but he had spent his childhood and created his foundation for his life in the country Jordan, and was raised in a Muslim household while I have never lived for an extended period outside of Nebraska, and have not had any formal religious education.

Studying Hofstede's theory of cultural differences will probably make me take a closer look at how people are raised and try to connect that to their actions: even  if they were raised in just different parts of the United States, Nebraska, Omaha, or even the same school district I grew up in. Most likely anything can be the cause of a persons belief as a collectivist or an individualist, and it seems important that these values are not overlooked or underestimated. Finally, while considering the cultural differences described by Hofstede's theory, I found an interview with Geert Hofstede himself, talking about a 6th cultural dimension.

Video: Hofstede - example of the 6th dimension

References

Hofstede, G. (2012, January 05). Professor emeritus - geert hofstede. Retrieved from http://geert-
          hofstede.com/index.php

Kanzler, S. (2010). Knowledge sharing in heterogeneous collaborations - a longitudinal investigation of a
          cross cultural research collaboration in nanoscience.Journal of Business Chemistry, 2010(1), 111.
          Retrieved from http://www.businesschemistry.org/article/?article=111

Martin, J. N., & Nakayama, T. K. (2009). Intercultural Communication in Contexts. McGraw-Hill
          Higher Education.