Question

explain the value of fhe Hofstde cultural modle

Answer 1

National culture has been investigated and defined in many studies. One of the most widely used definitions of national culture is the one suggested by Hofstede who defined national culture as the collective mental programming of the people of any particular nationality. He said that people share collective mental programming which distinguishes their culture from others. This mental programming shapes the attitudes, values, behavior, competences, and perceptions of priority of that nationality. Many researchers used this view to define culture because it is a very comprehensive definition However, there are other definitions of national culture. For example, Fukuyama identified national culture as the inherited ethical habits which consist of ideas and values which are characterized by repetition and the European Journal of Social Sciences – reinforced by habits, images, and social opinions. Researchers, regardless of their differences in defining national culture, agree on the fact that national culture is a collection of habits, traditions, and beliefs which differentiate one culture from anotherHofstede's cultural dimensions theory is a framework for cross-cultural communication, developed by Geert Hofstede.

It describes the effects of a society's culture on the values of its members, and how these values relate to behavior, using a structure derived from factor analysisHofstede proposed that national culture and its values affect the work environment and its management. It was classified into four dimensions by which organizations and social structures can be shaped. These dimensions are classified as power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism-collectivism, and masculinity-femininity and future orientation. However, most of the previous studies which discussed this model focus on the first four dimensions that represent the national culture. Hofstede used the first four dimensions and argued that these dimensions represent the national culture and make one particular culture distinct from another.