Gert Jan Hofstede

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The cultural biology of organization

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Dimensions

Remember the five big issues in societies nicknamed CHAOS. Here are the corresponding names of five bipolar dimensions of values:

This stuff is well known from:

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you really want to know what these five dimensions are about, read the book.

C: collectivism versus individualism
H: large vs small power distance
A: masculinity versus femininity
O: strong vs weak uncertainty avoidance
S: short vs long-term orientation
The rules of chess are simple, but how many people can play well? By analogy, understanding what complexity is created by just these five dimensions is a life's task. Most people have no clue. This leads to consequences that range from vexations to full-blown wars.
You may wish to leave my site for a US-based site affiliated to culture trainers and consultants ITIM that has bar charts with country scores on the five dimensions, or another site created by I do not know whom that shows coloured world maps with some of the scores. Or check out Luke Greer's smart graphs with dimension scores across the world.

P.S. I get loads of emails that the book "Cultures and Organizations" answers. Please consult it first before emailing; that's what we wrote it for! Some frequent errors:

bulleta country is mono-cultural (no, but we often have no data about smaller regions. We have them for some, e.g. Belgium, Switzerland, former Yugoslavia; and it shows variation)
bulletindividuals have culture scores (no, only populations do)
bulletit makes sense to come up with new dimension scores for one population at a time (no, only comparing matched samples works)
 

updated 03-08-2008 by Gert Jan Hofstede