3.6 Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions Framework
After a decade of research, Psychologist Dr. Geert Hofstede published his cultural dimensions framework at the end of the 1970s, which became internationally recognized in academic and professional settings. The framework is used to “understand the differences in culture across countries and to discern the ways that business is done across different cultures. In other words, the framework is used to distinguish between different national cultures, the dimensions of culture, and their impact on a business setting.”
Hofstede was working at IBM when he launched the study, and therefore, he studied people who worked there in more than 50 countries. The original theory proposed four dimensions along which cultural values could be analyzed: individualism-collectivism; uncertainty avoidance; power distance, and masculinity-femininity. Later, in cooperation with Drs. Michael H. Bond and Michael Minkov, two more dimensions were added: long term orientation and indulgence versus self-restraint. Hofstede, Bond and Minkov scored each country on a scale of 0 to 100 for each dimension.
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Country Comparisons: Hofstede Insights
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You can check out here how your country ranks on each dimension. You may also choose more countries to see a comparison of their scores.
If you are interested in reading more about the framework, we recommend the following articles:
Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions: Understanding Different Countries