The Hindu Business Line : National cultures: Hofstede's research

Few fundamental ideas in management are as influential and lasting as the notion of culture. Though abstract, the idea is very real and directly impinges on a person's effectiveness in an organisation. Some cultures support, encourage, and even help you to express yourself and give of your very best. Others are less so, and could even stifle you by turning you off. Think about environments where you feel at your best, where you are at home and able to express opinions without fear of being misunderstood, and eager to participate. It might be a club or a voluntary association, it doesn't have to be a business. The key is that there is a fit between your natural behavioural style and the culture of the company. Culture is like the wind; you can feel it in your face but cannot catch it in your palm!

Cultures can be national, or organisational or even the sub-group. The most important work on national cultures was done by Geert Hofstede, who surveyed some 1,600 employees worldwide at IBM. He developed a way of describing the behaviour patterns and preferences of people from different countries, differentiated along five major dimensions each of which was a continuum. Of course, we all carry national stereotypes in our heads, for example, that Italians are temperamental, Germans are precision-oriented and humourless, and so on. These may well be based on some truth, but the research-based findings of Hofstede's work are invaluable in an era of globalisation.

The `power distance' is a factor that refers to the degree of deference shown to the powerful and the importance attached to status and position, and is the opposite end from egalitarianism. For instance, how people address their superiors, how far they physically stand from another, and whether they can openly disagree with someone in a high position in public, are all marks of the power distance. You can work out for yourself how an American typically differs from an Indian or Japanese in this respect.

Some people and cultures are naturally prone to taking risks and trying out something new, and living with ambiguity, which is a hallmark of competitive business situations. `Uncertainty avoidance' is the parameter that measures this aspect of culture. India can tolerate a great deal more ambiguity than many other cultures! The third element is individualism vs collectivism. Here again, we know only too well that some of the Western countries encourage and expect a far more individualistic attitude to life.

Dependence on family and support groups is very little once you are an adult, whereas many Oriental cultures are the exact opposite. Of course, there may be shades in between, and variances even within a culture, but the observations are about broad trends. A fourth cultural differentiator is a bit more metaphorical, "masculinity vs femininity".

As we may understand readily, traits that we instinctively associate with masculine are aggressiveness, ambition, accumulation of wealth and a more objective orientation, while the feminine covers the more soft and emotional behaviours. Finally, there is the attitude to time. Short term or long term orientation is a very significant differentiator, and decides things like thrift, willingness to wait for results, maintaining relationships over a long time and so on. A little introspection will show you that even within a culture there are institutions and individuals who have adopted, through training or exposure, traits closer to a different culture. Nonetheless, Hofstede's work is worth reading about in detail, for it can be a useful basis for understanding partners, colleagues and customers across cultures, which we are increasingly called upon to do.

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