Business 101: Principles of Management

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Dimensions of culture are an important aspect of international business. Knowing how cultures view different aspects of business can help a manager navigate through the international business market.

Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions

You know, dogs are interesting animals. If you have ever watched a group of different breeds of dogs together, you see that there are dogs who are aggressive, those that are mellow, some want to be the alpha male and some are content just playing and having a good time. These different dimensions are very similar to Geert Hofstede's Cultural Dimension theory, a theory that looks at unique aspects of cultures and rates them on a scale for comparison. Now, I am not trying to say dogs to humans are the same, but the way they interact is quite similar.

The Six Different Types of Hoftede's Dimension

Geert Hofstede is a professor who researched how people from different countries and cultures interact based on six different categories of cultural dimensions. Those categories are:

• Power Distance: This dimension expresses the degree to which the less powerful members of a society accept and expect that power is distributed unequally.
• 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.
• Masculinity vs. Femininity: Masculinity represents a preference in society for achievement, heroism, assertiveness and material reward for success. Its opposite, femininity, stands for a preference for cooperation, modesty, caring for the weak and quality of life.
• Uncertainty Avoidance: This dimension expresses the degree to which the member of a society feels uncomfortable with uncertainty and ambiguity.
• Long-term vs. Short-term Orientation: Long-term orientation dimension can be interpreted as dealing with society's search for virtue. Societies with a short-term orientation generally have a strong concern with establishing the absolute truth.

What Do These Mean?

As we look at the different aspects and definitions of these dimensions, we can begin to see how a manager would have to deal with them and interpret them in an international setting. Just looking at individualism verses collectivism shows us that there are societies, or people, that accept working alone and look at their existence in terms of being an individual rather than part of a group. However, a collectivist would look towards the group's success more so than their own personal satisfaction or accomplishments. Would it surprise you that the U.S. is high on the individual scale while Japan is more on the collectivist side? This means we Americans think more 'I' than 'we,' while Japan is exactly the other way around.

Staying with this example, the U.S. has a low score for uncertainty avoidance. Basically, we are okay with ambiguity and not knowing everything for certain. On the other hand, Japan is very high on this scale, and they do not want uncertainty; they want facts.

By now, you are likely thinking that one country compared to another; one will be high and one will be low. That is not the case though. Take, for example, power distance. Japan and the U.S. are almost equal when it comes to their acceptance of the distribution of power.

Knowing what you do now about these two countries, where do you think they land on long-term verses short-term orientation? This, like the other dimensions, directly relates to their culture and societal norms. To that point, the U.S. is lower in the masculinity versus femininity scale, while Japan is much higher. Thus, Japan looks for a more harmonious world where everyone works together, but Americans are fine being the hero.

It is easy to see that different cultures have different views of the world based on their culture and history. Understanding these areas and being able to identify them will help you to work with and understand people of varying backgrounds and cultures. If you know the areas we have discussed so far, you at least have a starting point to understand the person.

Hofstede was trying to point out that we are all really not the same; different cultures have different views of life and business. They are not right or wrong, just different. These dimensions have shaped cultures, and these cultures are shaped by these dimensions. It's a revolving cycle. To illustrate that point, the U.S. is an aggressive culture. We strive for success, are driven to succeed and thrive on competition. That is our culture, and that culture helps shape and promote those aspects of our society. They are forever linked in a revolving door.

Lesson Summary

To be effective in a global sense, one has to understand the dimensions Hofstede identified and weighed on his scale. Once again, they are:

• Power Distance: This dimension expresses the degree to which the less powerful members of a society accept and expect that power is distributed unequally.
• Individualism vs. Collectivism: Do people prefer a close knit network of people or do they prefer to be left alone to fend for themselves.
• Masculinity vs. Femininity: This dimension represents a preference in society for achievement, heroism, assertiveness and material reward for success. Its opposite, femininity, stands for a preference for cooperation, modesty, caring for the weak and quality of life.
• Uncertainty Avoidance: This dimension expresses the degree to which the members of a society feel uncomfortable with uncertainty and ambiguity.
• Long-term vs. Short-term Orientation: Long-term orientation dimension can be interpreted as dealing with society's search for virtue. Societies with a short-term orientation generally have a strong concern with establishing the absolute truth.

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.