Globalization is part of modern business. Managers are constantly urged to resolve the challenges and opportunities that exist in a round-the-clock, boundary-less competitive world. Since we live in this world of extremely high competition it is easy for managers to only focus on the most immediate elements of globalization, while losing sight of long term developments. Management has changed because of globalization.
Globalization is: “The worldwide movement toward economic, financial, trade, and communications integration. Globalization implies the opening of local and nationalistic perspectives to a broader outlook of an interconnected and interdependent world with free transfer of capital, goods, and services across national frontiers”¹.
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This dimension refers to how a culture views the traditional role of men and women. A country with a high Masculinity score, for example Japan with a score of 95, often sees men and woman working in different, gender-defined roles. People in countries with a low score, for example The Netherlands with a score of 14, believe that men and woman are equally capable of doing any task.
The fourth dimension is Uncertainty Avoidance. This defines how well people cope with situations where the outcome is uncertain. Cultures with a high score in this dimension need structure and rules to feel comfortable. Cultures with a low score are more likely to take risks and accept change.
The last cultural dimension is Long-Term Orientation. This looks at how a culture values long-standing traditions and values. Cultures that have a high Long-Term Orientation show respect for tradition. Older people get more admiration, and education and training credentials are important. Cultures with a low score believe more in in equality. They are more creative and expressive.
In appendix 1 all scores created by Hofstede can be found, this way different countries can be
Hofstede measured and compared country scores on initially four, later five cultural dimensions. According to these dimensions: power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism vs. collectivism, masculinity vs. femininity, long-term vs. short-term orientation, countries can hierarchically be ordered on compared (Geert-hofstede.com, 2014).
Based on his research, Hofstede prescribed five dimensions for understanding international differences and similarities of culture, taking into account many macro and micro-level factors affecting culture, like ”demographic, goegraphic, economic and political aspects of society (Kale and Barnes, 1992).” The five dimentstions described by Hofstede are: Individual-collectivism, Uncertainty avoidance, Power distance, Feminitiy-masculinity, and Long-term orientation.
Geert Hofstede, a Dutch psychologist, was hired by the International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) in the 1960s and 1970s to examine the values and concerns of their employees around the world. While performing this task, Hofstede intentionally explored values related to individualism to understand and compare various cultures. By observing significant differences between cultures, Hofstede was able to formulate the cultural dimensions theory in an attempt to understand cultural trends between cultures, incorporate cultural contexts, and compare individual’s ways of thinking socially. Personally the attempt to quantify culture through various dimensions intrigues me, as I believe that it may be possible. However, I believe that Hofstadter’s current model lacks the proper controls necessary to account for the complex nature of culture.
According to World Speaking, after examining the actions between civilizations, Professor Geert Hofstede created the cultural dimensions theory. He constructed the model based on four primary cultural elements: power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism/collectivism, masculinity/femininity, and long-term/short-term orientation. Each of these dimensions holds a different cultural value that is common around the world. Hofstede ranked Indonesia on the first four of these dimensions. Comparing Indonesia with the United States demonstrates two large differences, a similarity, and a small disparity. (Geert Hofstede and Cultural-Dimensions Theory)
Hofstede has identified five different cultural dimensions. These dimensions include power-distance, individualism/collectivism, masculinity/femininity, uncertainty avoidance and lastly long term orientation. According to Hofstede, power distance is the first dimension which translates to how all individuals in a society aren't equal and there is a decent amount of inequality when it comes to the division of power. The second dimension involves the theme of individualism which translates to the degree of interdependence as well as how we identify ourselves in terms of "I" or "We". Additionally, Hofstede states that in individualist societies we tend to look only after ourselves and our blood family, however, in collectivistic societies individuals identify themselves as part of groups and take care of each other in exchange for loyalty. The third dimension would be masculinity/ femininity. A high score would translate to a masculine culture which demonstrates a culture driven by competition, achievement and success. On the other hand, a low score which demonstrates a feminine culture shows that the dominant traits involves caring for others and quality of life. The fourth dimension involves uncertainty avoidance which translates to how a society deals with not knowing how the future is going to turn out. This amount of vagueness brings about anxiety and different cultures deal with this issue differently. The fifth and final cultural dimension according to Hofstede is long term orientat...
Fons Trompenaars developed 'The Seven Dimensions of Culture', a model that gives scope into different cultures and why they are different (Trompenaars, 1993). This framework was chosen as it is a highly relevant theory that allows people to understand different cultures to reduce misunderstandings and allow us to work more effectively. Trompenaars found that cultures differ in very specific and predictable ways, and aren't just randomly different. But that cultures each have specific ways of thinking, values, beliefs and preferences for different factors (Trompenaars, 1993). To identify what distinguishes different cultures from each other Trompenaars developed seven dimensions of culture. Depending on where these different cultures fall in these dimensions, allows us to understand why they differ (Trompenaars, 1993).
Cultural Differences in Hofstede’s Six Dimensions According to Professor Geert Hofstede, dimensionalizing a culture requires a complex analysis of a multitude of categories including differing nations, regions, ethnic groups, religions, organizations, and genders. Hofstede defines culture as "the collective programming of the mind distinguishing the members of one group or category of people from another". Throughout his many years of contribution as a social scientist, he has conducted arguably the most comprehensive study of how values in the workplace are influenced by culture, leading to the establishment of the Six Dimensions of National Culture. From this research model, the dimensions of Power Distance, Individualism, Masculinity, Uncertainty Avoidance, Long Term Orientation, and Indulgence are defined according to their implication on individual countries, which when comparatively examined provide a broad understanding of cultural diversity as it relates to the workplace. Identification and Definition of the Six Dimensions In initially defining each of Hofstede's dimensions, a foundational understanding of the six categories is established, from which a greater understanding of different cultures can be built off of.
The affect the four dimensions by Hofstede, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, masculine/femininity and individual and collectivism have on organizational show in all cultures and cross culture.
Globalization is a widely discussed topic so it is therefore not easy to explain such a complicated word. However the common definition of globalization comes from the word global which means the worldwide coming together of countries and nations. In other words, Globalization is the process of international integration arising from the interchange of values, products, ideas and other aspects of culture.
Countries are given a score based on how much emphasis
This dimension indicates the level of indulgence or restraint in society. Some societies are more restrained than others are.
The dimensions of culture came as a result of a research conducted by Greet Hofstede. The study investigated how culture in a workplace can be influenced by values of the people. In his view, culture is defined as the collective programming of the human brain that helps in distinguishing a group from another one. Moreover, the programming of the human mind influences the patterns, values and perspectives that define a certain community or nation. Hofstede developed a model of the national culture that is made of six dimensions. In addition to that, the cultural dimensions demonstrate the personal preferences on affairs that can be easily distinguished from that of individuals from another nation. Using the model, it is easy to identify systematic differences between the selected nations in terms of values (Hofstede). This paper discusses the cultural dimensions to compare the United States of America and China. The dimensions include Power Distance, Masculinity versus Femininity, Uncertainty Avoidance Index, and Individualism versus collectivism, Indulgence versus Restraint and long-term orientation versus short term normative orientation.
Globalization on a broader scale, is an integration act, involving cultural, mental, political as well as economic aspects of a person, among countries. It is mostly limited to, economic integration, associated with movement of people, exchange of technology and information, trade as well as financial flows. . This is practice is clearly miles ahead, as demonstrated by the ever increasing capital flows in the world economy as well as the level of importance, the world economy has. As a result of globalization, tremendous pressure is on the nations to keep up with its demands and this has had a lot of consequences. Some pundits will tell you that these effects are only economic based,
Globalization is the connection of different parts of the world. Globalization results in the expansion of international, cultural, economic, and political activities. As people, ideas, knowledge, and goods move easily around the globe, the experiences of people around the world become more similar. (“Definition of Globalization“, n.d., ¶ 1)
Globalization has taken place in the past when state and empires expanded their influence far outside their border. However, one of the distinctions of globalization today is the speed with which it is transforming local culture as they took part in a worldwide system of interconnectedness. Through globalization, many cultures in the world have changed dramatically.