Figure 3 b. Low power distance: Dutch Educational website.
Related Figures (16)
During 1978-83, the Dutch cultural anthro- pologist Geert Hofstede conducted detailed interviews with hundreds of IBM employees in 53 countries. Through standard statistical analysis of fairly large data sets, he was able to determine patterns of similarities and differ- ences among the replies. From this data anal- ysis, he formulated his theory that world cultures vary along consistent, fundamental dimensions. Since his subjects were con- strained to one multinational corporation’s world-wide employees, and thus to one com- pany culture, he ascribed their differences to the effects of their national cultures. (One Hofstede notes that these differences are hundreds or even thousands of years old. He does not believe they will disappear quickly from traditional cultures, even with powerful global telecommunication systems. Recent research has shown that the dimensions have remained quite stable for the last twenty years. Figure 2. High power distance: Malaysian Unversity website. Figure 3a. Low power distance: Dutch Educational website. Figure 6. Costa Rican website “What's Cool” contents: Political message about exploitation of children. Figure 7. High masculinity website: Excite.com for women in Japan Figure 10. High uncertainty avoidance: Sabema Airlines website from Belgium. Figure 11. Low uncertainty avoidance: British Airways website from United Kingdom. Figure 12 Low Long-term orientation: website form Siemens Germany. This review of cultural dimensions raises Hofstede notes that some cultural relativism is necessary: it is difficult to establish absolute criteria for what is noble and what is disgust- ing. There is no escaping bias; all people develop cultural values based on their envi- ronment and early training as children. Not everyone in a society fits the cultural pattern precisely, but there is enough statistical regu- larity to identify trends and tendencies. These trends and tendencies should not be treated as defective or used to create negative stereotypes but recognized as different patterns of values and thought. In a multi-cultural world, it is necessary to cooperate to achieve practical goals without requiring everyone to think, act, and believe identically. Figure 13: High Long-Term Orientation: website fromSiemens in China.
