Talk:Geert Hofstede
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Geert Hofstede originally put the cat amongst the pigeons (on the subject of the international relevance of American management theory - I'm sure there have been other cats, and other flocks of pigeons) in 1980 when he published a paper titled "Motivation, Leadership, and Organisation: Do American Theories Apply Abroad?".
In that paper, the result of an *astonishingly* large research effort, he asserted that there were four dimensions of national culture. Those four dimensions were 'power distance', 'uncertainty avoidance', 'individualism/collectivism' and 'masculinity'.
He probably didn't realise it when he 'posted', but his paper opened a big can of worms, lots of people got stuck right into him, many argued the toss with him (Australian English here, I hope I make some sense!!!)
Anyhow, in 1993, he published another paper on the same subject (actually, he has been a pretty prolific author, there is a *lot* of other stuff by him in the journals)....
... back on track... another paper called 'Cultural constraints in management theories'. Same deal. A natural extension of the first paper, far more entertaining though - he quotes Alice in Wonderland, and Tolstoy... :-) - Who is to be credited with the fifth dimension is dependent somewhat on interpretation. He attributes a Michael Bond with doing the research that highlighted the fifth dimension, so I'm not entirely sure whether we get to call all five as being 'owned' by Geert, or by someone else.... Food for thought I guess.
I have the papers here if anyone wants 'em. geoff wiki - at - sonic blue bear dot com
[edit] Geert Hofstede Article
In his books "Culture's Consequences"(2nd, fully revised edition, 2001) and Cultures and Organizations, Software of the Mind (2nd, revised edition 2005) Professor Hofstede, as stated in the article, identifies the five dimensions of culture. What I am a little confused about is that only two of the dimensions is represented in the article about Hofstede and his work. The other three links to other articles that deals with the same subjects, but not necessarily from Hofstedes perspectives. To make the confusion even worse, only 4 of the 5 dimensions has hyperlinks, whereas one of them links to the exactly same page the link is present in the first place. I think that someone (me?) either should write more about Hofstedes perspectives and research on those dimensions on the Hofstede article, or remove those two that currently are present. — Bagdad-Bob 18:18, 8 November 2006 (UTC)
UPDATE: -Fixed the looplink. -Added capital letters to dimensions.
[edit] Uncertainty avoidance
Myself, being from a "high uncertainty avoidance" culture (Portugal), resent this generalization: "Xenophobia is common and foreigners/minorities tend to be ostracized." I know this is false in my country from personal experience with many foreigners, however I can even supply a quote from the net [1]: "The Portuguese are extraordinarily and charmingly self-critical. Almost everything foreign is viewed as being better. They are extremely welcoming to foreigners: it is the most xenophilic culture I know". Maybe the guy exagerates a bit, but I'd like this generalization to be substantiated, or be removed.193.136.128.14 19:09, 16 August 2006 (UTC)
- No rule without exceptions...Bagdad-bob
