Hofstede Cultural Dimensions (HL IB Psychology)
Revision Note
Written by: Claire Neeson
Reviewed by: Lucy Vinson
Hofstede Cultural Dimensions
What are Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions?
Between 1971 and 1973 Geert Hofstede, a professor from Maastricht University conducted a huge, global survey of IBM employees focused on cultural attitudes and behaviours
The survey was in the form of a questionnaire to which over 60,000 people from over 50 countries responded
Hofstede came to the conclusion that cultural dimensions could be used universally to describe the norms for behaviour within cultures
From the results of the survey Hofstede was able to categorise cultural dimensions, initially into four broad categories:
It is possible to visit Hofstede’s website to compare cultural dimensions between countries: just visit this link: Country comparison tool
When you land on the site just choose four countries to compare – the list of cultural dimensions will then be shown as percentages with an explanation as to what this means per country underneath the graph
A fifth cultural dimension was added – Long-term orientation, which is the extent to which a culture values behaviours which contribute to long-term achievements e.g. persistence, perseverance as opposed to short-term gains
The dimensions are revised frequently i.e. in 2010, Indulgence vs. restraint was added to describe the extent to which a culture enjoys pleasurable experiences as opposed to denying pleasures and delaying gratification
Evaluation of Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions
Strengths
A large-scale, global survey produces a huge amount of quantitative data which means that the results should be reliable and generalisable
The research is constantly reviewed and updated which means that it is unlikely to suffer from temporal validity
Limitations
The findings could be said to be overly reductionist as they attempt to explain complex behaviours via rather rigid and inflexible categories
Although the sample of IBM employees is large it does not equally represent all countries and cultures - e.g. more employees from the USA and developed countries
Which research studies investigate cultural dimensions?
Smith & Bond (1996) – conformity may be higher in collectivist cultures
Levine & Norenzayan (1999) – pace of life may be different in individualistic and collectivist cultures
Smith & Bond (1996) and Levine & Norenzayan (1999) are available as separate Key Studies – just navigate the Cultural Origins of Behaviour & Cognition section of this topic to find them (Two Key Studies of Cultural Dimensions)
Examiner Tip
You do not need to know studies for each of the cultural dimensions for the exam: you only need to be able to use research on ONE of the cultural dimensions. The most popular (and widely researched) cultural dimension is Individualistic vs. collectivist so it would be wise to focus on this dimension as you can also use studies on this dimension for other, more general questions on culture and its influence on behaviour
Worked Example
ERQ (EXTENDED RESPONSE QUESTION) - 22 marks
Evaluate research into cultural dimensions. [22]
The question requires you to assess the relative strengths and weaknesses of the theory and relevant research. Here is an exemplar paragraph:
The cultural dimension of individualism-collectivism as measured in Levine & Norenzayan (1999) appears to support the idea that cultures may operate a different pace of life i.e. collectivist cultures have a slower pace. However, there are several limitations in the way that these observations were obtained, and which question the validity of the findings. For example, the measurement of the time it took for the person serving in the post office to complete the transaction did not account for waiting time or for individual differences e.g. the postal worker may simply always work at a certain speed whilst their colleagues may be quicker or slower. Plus, the speed of transaction could have been the result wanting to clear a long queue rather than a general measure of the pace of life. Conditions of pavements and crowdedness at certain times of the day could also be extraneous variables that affected walking pace. As the observations were only conducted once per place then it is impossible to ascertain the extent to which the observed pace of life is generally representative of that country/culture.
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