Communication and Culture

Hofstede’s Value Dimensions

Of the theoretical frameworks that have been used to guide cross-cultural communication research, the most influential one is Geert Hofstede’s value dimensions theory, which has inspired thousands of empirical studies. Hofstede’s value dimensions framework was developed using data from over 88,000 IBM employees in 72 countries between 1967 and 1973. Four value dimensions emerged from his original study: (1) individualism-collectivism, defined as the degree to which individuals in a society prefer to act as individuals or members of a group; (2) power distance, defined as the extent to which a society accepts the fact that power is distributed unequally; (3) uncertainty avoidance, defined as the extent to which a society feels threatened by uncertain and ambiguous situations; and (4) masculinity-femininity, defined as [Page 160]the extent to which the dominant values in society are “masculine” (values such as assertiveness, the acquisition of money and things, and not caring for others). As the IBM survey questionnaires evolved from work by U.S., British, Dutch, French, and Scandinavian researchers—all of them from Western countries—they were criticized for not adequately reflecting Eastern cultural perspectives. A fifth dimension, Confucian dynamism (also called long-term vs. short-term orientation), was later added to this framework based on another large-scale study conducted by Michael Harris Bond in the 1980s, using survey questionnaires developed from Eastern philosophies. Long-term orientation refers to future-oriented values such as persistence and thrift, whereas short-term orientation refers to past- and present-oriented values such as respect for tradition and fulfilling social obligations.

...