Hofstede
Geerte Hofstede analysis
Globalization is nowadays evidential in nearly every aspect of life. It can be shortly described “as the world is getting smaller”[1]. “The term describes the growing political, social, cultural, economic and technological interconnectedness and interdependence of the world today. As communication technologies advance, cultures continue to overlap and influence each other.”[2] What are the differences especially in cultural dimensions in countries like Germany and the United States? Geert Hofstede, Professor for Organizational Anthropology and International Management[3], already tried to define cultural difference in the 1970s with a survey among IBM employees. The interesting thing about that was that the survey was not answered by IBM employees but by the citizens of the country. This experiment let Hofstede to the conclusion that cultural differences can be defined in four different cultural dimensions: Power Distance, Masculinity vs. Feminism, Individualism vs. Collectivism and Uncertainty Avoidance.
Power Distance describes the gap between bosses and subordinates; Masculinity refers to the difference between emotions and facts, the third dimension deals with the behavior in groups and as individualists and finally the culture of avoiding uncertainty which can result in strict rules and many laws of a country.
Can this survey of Hofstede also be applied nowadays? Is his approach to cultural differences still up to date? This assignment chapter tries to identify Hofstede’s cultural dimensions in today’s situation as the new jobholder in the United States and try to apply them on the contents of them.
Differences between Germany and United States
As on Hofstede´s homepage stated the biggest difference between the German and the United States culture are Power Individualism (IDV) and Uncertainty Avoidance (UAI) as seen in the charts below.
[pic]
|Country |PDI |IDV |MAS
Globalization is nowadays evidential in nearly every aspect of life. It can be shortly described “as the world is getting smaller”[1]. “The term describes the growing political, social, cultural, economic and technological interconnectedness and interdependence of the world today. As communication technologies advance, cultures continue to overlap and influence each other.”[2] What are the differences especially in cultural dimensions in countries like Germany and the United States? Geert Hofstede, Professor for Organizational Anthropology and International Management[3], already tried to define cultural difference in the 1970s with a survey among IBM employees. The interesting thing about that was that the survey was not answered by IBM employees but by the citizens of the country. This experiment let Hofstede to the conclusion that cultural differences can be defined in four different cultural dimensions: Power Distance, Masculinity vs. Feminism, Individualism vs. Collectivism and Uncertainty Avoidance.
Power Distance describes the gap between bosses and subordinates; Masculinity refers to the difference between emotions and facts, the third dimension deals with the behavior in groups and as individualists and finally the culture of avoiding uncertainty which can result in strict rules and many laws of a country.
Can this survey of Hofstede also be applied nowadays? Is his approach to cultural differences still up to date? This assignment chapter tries to identify Hofstede’s cultural dimensions in today’s situation as the new jobholder in the United States and try to apply them on the contents of them.
Differences between Germany and United States
As on Hofstede´s homepage stated the biggest difference between the German and the United States culture are Power Individualism (IDV) and Uncertainty Avoidance (UAI) as seen in the charts below.
[pic]
|Country |PDI |IDV |MAS