All societies share standards, values and symbols that differ from other societies. That’s why we say that every company has a different culture. There are several studies on cultural differences, and when talking about them it is essential to talk about Hofstede. He is a researcher and author of the model of the five cultural dimensions.
Hofstede has shown that people share characteristics at the regional and national level, these characteristics affect their behavior and persist over time, they are cultural models, also called cultural dimensions.
- As we have said.
- The author has defined five dimensions.
- The first of which is the distance to power.
- The second.
- Individualism against collectivism and the third the long-term orientation against the short term.
- There is always masculinity against femininity and an escape from uncertainty.
- All cultural dimensions have two poles.
- Companies can score high or low in each dimension.
- Either by their characteristics or by their behavior.
Distance to power is how a society accepts power in different institutions and organizations Countries with a small power gap are characterized by a preference for decentralized organizations, while countries with a long distance of power tend to prefer centralized authority This dimension takes into account how less powerful members of society accept or expect power to be distributed , that is, how much equality they expect the distribution of power, the fundamental problem here is how a society manages inequalities between people. .
People living in societies far from power accept a hierarchical order in which everyone has a specific place that needs no justification. In low-power societies, people strive to match the distribution of power and demand a justification for inequality. At the opposite pole are Malaysia, Guatemala and Panama. At the opposite pole are Austria, Israel and Denmark.
In this dimension, individualism can be defined as a preference for poorly structured adherence; individuals should take care of themselves and their nearest family; in turn, collectivism refers to a preference for trade union membership in society; in this context, individuals can wait for their loved ones. individuals and even members of a certain group to take care of each other with unquestionable loyalty. These differences are very clear from people’s point of view about themselves, that is, whether your self-image is defined from “I” or “we”. “
Individualism and collectivism are one of the cultural dimensions that refer to the degree to which citizens value autonomy and adherence to the rules of society, as well as loyalty to a group to which the individual belongs Individualists strongly value their own needs, value personal success and their personal interests prevail over collectives.
On the other hand, collectivists share a sense of belonging to a group, after all, for them, collective interests are more important than personal interests, hierarchy and relationships with others are also very important, studies have examined this issue, the more individualistic. The countries are the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom; the most collectivistic, in turn, are Guatemala, Ecuador and Panama.
Masculinity, in this cultural dimension, represents a preference in society for success, heroism, self-affirmation and the material rewards of success, so that society in general would be more competitive, its opposite, femininity, would be the preference for cooperation, modesty, care for the disabled and concern for the quality of life. The company would be oriented primarily to consensus. Given the implications of these two terms, in some cases, other words are used to represent this dimension: hard versus soft.
The term masculinity was designed for a society in which the social roles of the sexes are clearly different. Men must be assertive, tough, focused on material gains. Women should be modest, sensitive and concerned about their quality of life. The term femininity refers to a society in which gender social roles overlap. Men and women are modest, kind and care about their quality of life. The most male countries are Japan, Hungary and Austria. The most feminine are Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands.
The dimension of the escape from uncertainty expresses the extent to which members of a society are uncomfortable with uncertainty and ambiguity. The fundamental problem here is how a society faces the fact that the future can never be known. Should we try to control the future, or just let it come?
Countries that show a greater degree of flight from uncertainty maintain strict rules of beliefs and behaviors, these societies do not tolerate heterodox behaviors and ideas, on the contrary, less uncertain societies remain more relaxed, so practice would be more important than principles. .
For example, a low score in this index shows that the country’s population is entrepreneurial, entrepreneurial means taking risks and being less dependent, on the other hand, crops with high uncertainty are both stable, this stability is added to the taste of rules, social norms, to avoid the risks as much as possible. It is, of course, another indirect risk: that of slower progress. The countries with the highest level of uncertainty are Greece, Portugal and Guatemala. The title holders are Singapore, Jamaica and Denmark.
Each society must maintain ties to its own past in the face of the challenges of the present and the future. Societies often prioritize these two existential objectives in different ways. Short-term-oriented societies prefer to keep traditions and standards well applied, while seeing change with suspicion. On the other hand, those with a culture of long-term orientation take a more practical approach. This means, for example, encouraging people to invest in savings and modern education to prepare for the future.
The long-term focus is on the virtues of earning rewards in the future. He is willing to delay social success in the short term, until the emotional gratification of the moment, to prepare for the future. If this cultural perspective is adopted, perseverance, perseverance, economics and adaptability are valued.
Short-term guidance focuses on the present or the past and considers them more important than the future, if it is the orientation of a people the tradition, the current social hierarchy and respect for social obligations are valued, immediate satisfaction is more important than Long-term Satisfaction. The countries with the highest degree of long-term guidance are China, Hong Kong and Taiwan; the ones with the most short-term orientation are Venezuela, Uruguay and the United Arab Emirates.
To find out your country’s score, Hofstede has created this page where you can view and compare country scores. Even if a country scores high on one of the cultural dimensions, it doesn’t mean that all its citizens would do it individually.
These characteristics are more uniform in small societies, which share beliefs, so these cultural dimensions apply to societies and large groups, not to the individual level of each person, no matter which group a person belongs to, it is always possible to be different from the whole, that is, to mark differently in some or all dimensions.