An Analysis of Geert Hofstede's Culture's Consequences

ISBN-13: 9781912127351 / Angielski / Miękka / 2018 / 112 str.

Katherine Erdman

Opis

The Dutch anthropologist Geert Hofstede is recognized as a pioneer in the fields of international management and social psychology – and his work is a perfect example of the ways in which interpretative skills can help solve problems and provide the foundation for strong thinking and understanding both in business and beyond.

Hofstede’s central achievement was setting up an efficient interpretative framework for understanding the cultural differences between one country and another. Working for the international computing company IBM in the late 1960s, Hofstede noted that such cultural differences had huge consequences for international organizations. Up until then, while many inside and outside of business recognized the importance of these differences, little had been done to define precisely what cultural difference was and in what areas of life it was expressed. Hofstede’s insight was that if one could interpret and define the dimensions of cultural difference, it would be possible to measure them and act accordingly.

From a vast survey of IBM’s employees in several countries, Hofstede originally defined five dimensions of culture: every society could be rated for each dimension, providing a useful guide to the kinds of cultural differences at play. As ever, good interpretative skills provided the basis for better understanding.

Culture’s Consequences was the first study took and in depth look at cultural differences using data. Hofstede gathered survey data in 20 languages and across 70 countries to produce a unique study of national values. He introduced an innovative framework for analyzing his data, identifying patterns he called “dimensions.”

Spis treści

Ways in to the text  Who is Geert Hofstede?  What does Culture's Consequences Say?  Why does Culture's Consequences Matter?  Section 1: Influences  Module 1: The Author and the Historical Context  Module 2: Academic Context  Module 3: The Problem  Module 4: The Author's Contribution  Section 2: Ideas  Module 5: Main Ideas  Module 6: Secondary Ideas  Module 7: Achievement  Module 8: Place in the Author's Work  Section 3: Impact  Module 9: The First Responses  Module 10: The Evolving Debate  Module 11: Impact and Influence Today  Module 12: Where Next?  Glossary of Terms  People Mentioned in the Text  Works Cited

O autorze

Katherine Erdman is a visiting scholar in anthropology and archaeology at the University of Minnesota.