Analysis Of Hofstede's Five Dimensions Of Culture

Mosaic of Management Styles Management styles differ with each country, region and industry. From varying leadership styles, religious beliefs, geography to social mores to gender differences, there are many challenges facing managers in today’s global economy. I work for a global medical device and software industry where we have offices and regional management structures across the globe. I’ve had the privilege of working with managers and team members in the UK and European markets and have noticed many differences between how we manage staff, resources and clients. While we have commonalities in the product we’re implementing or presenting to clients or even the language we speak, in the end, we conduct business differently depending on the country or region we’re from. In analyzing Hofstede’s five dimensions of culture we can better understand the cultural differences between the U.S. and Europe. (Hall, 2014) “The cultural dimensions represent independent preferences for one state of affairs over another that

Femininity dimension are the roles and behaviors according to gender (Hall, 2014). There are some masculine and feminine cultures that behave differently. Masculine cultures represent “achievement, heroism, assertiveness and material rewards for success”. (National Culture) In comparison the feminine culture represents “cooperation, modesty, caring for the weak and quality of life”. (National Culture) I am unfortunately seeing many similarities between most European business units and the U.S. when it comes to this dimension because there are many males in management and VP positions. I don’t see or interact with many females in upper management or beyond. I’ve found that in our industry of medical software and hardware, the field is currently predominately male. There are many software engineers and field service engineers (working on equipment) helping the company grow the software and service our equipment in the