Hofstede dimensions, Apuntes de Administración de Empresas

¡Descarga Hofstede dimensions y más Apuntes en PDF de Administración de Empresas solo en Docsity! Int. Studies of Man. 8 Org., Vol. XIII, No. 1-2, pp. 46-74 M.E. Sharpe, Inc., 1983 NATIONAL CULTURES IN FOUR DIMENSIONS A Research-based Theory of Cultural Differences among Nations Geert Hofstede (the Netherlands) This report summarizes a large research project, in- volving 116,000 questionnaires, about the work-related value patterns of matched samples of industrial employees in 50 countries and 3 regions at 2 points in time. Hali of the variance in the countries! mean scores can be ex- plained by four basic dimensions, here labeled power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism versus collectivism, and masculinity versus femininity, These dimensions are offered as a framework for developing hypotheses in cross-cultural organization studies, Index scores of the countries on the 4 dimensions correlate significantly with the outcomes of about 40 existing com- parative studies, The four dimensions considered here relate to very fundamental problems which face any human society, but to which different societies have found different answers, They are used to explain (1) different ways of structur- ing organizations, (2) different motivations ol people within organizations, and (3) different issues people and organizations face within society. On the basis of com- bined scores, the countries studied can be grouped by cul- Dr. Hofstede is Director of the Institute for Research on intercultural Cooperation, Arnhem, the Netherlands. 46 Copyright O 2001. All Rights Reserved. National Cultures in Four Dimensions 47 tural clusters, The data also allow some conclusions about trends in value shifts over time, The Cultural Relativity of Organization Theories A certain U.S, business organization has a policy that salary - increase proposals should be initiated by the employee's direct superior. In its French subsidiary, this policy is interpreted in such a way that the superior's superior's superior — three levels above the employee — is the one who initintes salary - increase proposals. Why the difference? Because the French managers and their employees share some basic values about the exercise of authority that differ from the values that pre- vail among their U.S, colleagues. These basic values are fos. tered in the majority of French and U.S, families, and are rein- forced in French and U.S. schools. Organization theorists are also products of a national cul- ture: they were reared in families and trained in schools, and they absorbed the values prevailing in one particular society. They usually collect their life experience and their research data in the same society. Organization theories are therefore culturally bounded, The task of eross-cultural organization research is to broaden both the data bases available to re- searchers/theorists and their awareness of value systems dif- ferent from their own, If organization theory is to transcend national boundaries, it should go beyond statements such as "In the USA..., butin France...'' In this case we treat names of nations as resi- dues of undefined variance, For theories to be truly universal we should attempt to replace names of nations by explicitly defined variables. When we find that societies difter with re- gard to a particular characteristic, we should try to specify what it is about these societies that causes this difference (Przeworski and Teune, 1970, P, 29), A Multicountry Data Base (1) Replacing country names by variables that explain differ- Copyright € 2001 Ali Rights Reserved. 50 Geert Hofstede (the Netherlands) Questionnaire items were grouped according to ecological dimensions, based upon (1) theoretical relevance, and (2) statis- tical relationships. Four such dimensions were identified. There were labeled power distance, uncertainty avoidance, in- dividualism versus collectivism, and masculinity versus femi- ninity. The positions of each of the 40 countries on each of these four dimensions were expressed by an index. A factor analysis of the country scores for 32 questionnaire items and 40countries showed that 3 factors explained 49 percent of the total variance: one factor combined high power distance and low in- dividualism, one corresponded to uncertainty avoidance, and one, to masculinity. No other meaninglul factors were found, The two dimensions of power distance and individualism, al- though negatively correlated (1 = 0,67 across 40 countries), have been maintained as separate dimensions for conceptual reasons. When, later, ten more countries and three regions were added, the index scores for these supplementary units were calculated according to the formulas derived rom the first and larger 40 units, Adding these new units did not substan- tially change the structure of the dimensions (Hofstede, 1983). Power Distance A power distance index (PDI) has been composed of the coun- try scores on the following three questionnajre items, which are intercorrelated with coefficients between 0,54 and 0,67 (see also Hofstede, 1977, 1979a). (1) the percentage of subordinates who perceive that their boss makes his decisions in an autocratic or paternalistic (per- suasive) way; (2) subordinates' perceptions that employees in general (their colleagues) are afraid to disagree with superiors (mean score on a five-point scale rom 1= very frequently to D = very seldom, multiplied by 25 to make it comparable with the per- centage scores for questions l and 3); (3) the percentage of subordinates who do not prefer a boss Copyright O 2001. All Rights Reserved National Cultures in Four Dimensions 51 who makes his decisions in a consultative way, but who prefer a boss who decides either autocratically or paternalistically or, on the other hand, who does not decide himself, but goes along with the majority of his subordinates (for the rationale of combining the latter categories, see below). The index is computed according to the formula; PDI = 135+ a - b+ c, which brings it into a range between 11 and 104; its theoretical range is from -90 (no power distance to + 210 (su- preme power distance). The index values for the 50 countries and 3 regions can be read in Table 1. The term power distance has been inspired by the work of Mulder (1976, 1977). The country-level correlation of the pre- ferred type of decision making in the superior with the percep- tion of the behavior of both superior and colleagues reveals a fundamental fact about power distance in a hierarchy, namely, that a society's way of dealing with power relationships is €s- tablished through the values of superiors as well as of subordi- hates, It appears in the Hermes data that subordinates in a system in which superiors maintain considerable power dis- tance respond by preferring such superiors (dependent reac- tion) or by going to the other extreme and preferring superiors who do not decide at all, but govern by a majority vote of their subordinates, This latter type of decision making is rather unlikely to be practiced in complex work organizations: it would be feasible only if departments were autonomous and indepen- dent of other departments, whereas in fact modern work or- ganizations are complex interdependent systems, Therefore, the preference for a majority -vote type of decision making in a complex work organization is unrealistic; I interpret it as a collective counterdependent reaction to a situation of great power distance. So we see that in systems in which superiors maintain a great power distance, subordinates tend to polarize toward dependence or counterdependence, On the other hand, where superiors maintain less power distance, subordinates tend to prefer the consultative decision style, which can be in- terpreted as a compromise solution, an interdependence of superior and subordinate, Copyright O 2001. All Rights Reserved 52 Geert Hofstede (the Netherlands) Table 1 Index Values and Rank of 50 Countriesand 3 Regíons on Four Cultural Dimensions Power Uncertainty | Individu- e Pr Distance Avoidance — | alien Masculinity 4 . Abhrev-Iindex index Index [Endex cant on leo | PE | | A [on | A [pas Rank Argentina ARG 4 | 18-19) 86 | 36-41 | 46 | 28-29 | 56 | 30-31 pustralia AUL 36 13 | 51 17 | 9 49 6l 35 Austria AUT 4 11 7 j 26-27 | 55 | 33|79 49 Belgium BEL 65 3394 | 4a5-46 175; 43[54 29 Brazil (BRA 69 32176 ] 29-30 38 | 25149 7 25 Canada ¿CAN 39 15 | 48 | 12-13 | 80 | 46-47 | 52 28 chile CH 63 | 29-30] 66 | 36-41 | 23 15 128 B Colombia Cal 67 36 | 80 ni o 5] 64 | 39-40 * Costa Rica [008 35 | 10-12 | 86 | 36-41 | 15, 8/21 | 5-6 Denmark DEN 19 3123 3? 02316 4 * Equador EQA 78 | 43-44 | 67 221 8. 2 [63 | 3738 Finland FIN 33 el s9 | 20-21 163 1 34 | 26 7 France FRA $e | 37-38 | 86 1 36"41 | 71 | 40-41 | 43 | 17-18 Germany (P.K. )| GER 3s | 10-12 | 65 2316 1%] 665 | 0-42 Great Britain [GBR 3s | 10-12 | 35 6- 7139. 48/66 | 41-42 Greece CRE so | 26-27 |112 50 | 35 22 | 57 | 32-33 * Guatemala — |CUA as | 48-49 |101 4816 1] 37 1 ¡ Hong Kong HOR 68 | 37-38] 29 4 5|25 16 57 | 32-33 * Indonesia | IDO 78 | 4-4 | 48 | 12-13 | 14 6-75 46 22 Indía TND 7 42 | 40 3] 48 30 | 56 | 30-31 Iran RA se | 24-25 | 59 | 20-21 | 4 2,43 1117-18 Treland IE 28 5| 35 65-717 39 | 69 | 43-34 Israel ISR 13 2/81 32 | 54 310 23 Italy LITA, so 20| 7 217 46 170 | 06-47 * Jamaica JAM 45 m|1 2 | 39 26,68 | 43r44 Japan JAP 54 2] 9 44 | 46 | 28-29 ' 95 50 * Korea (S.) [HOR so | 26-27) 85 | 30-35( 18 1; 39 1 * Malaysia MAL [104 50 | 36 8 | 26 17 1 50 | 26-27 Mexico MEX 81 | 45-46 | 82 33 | 30 20 | 69 45 Netherlands — | NET 38 14 | 53 18 | 80 |] 36-47 | 14 3 Norway OR 31 6-7| 50 16 | 69 3008 2 Naw Zealand — |NZL 22 a| 49 | 19-15 | 79 45 58 34 Pakistan PARK 55 22170 | 26-27 | 14 6- 7150 | 26-27 * panama PAN 195 | 48-49 | 86 | 36-41 | 11 3744 19 Peru PER 6 | am-32| 27 42 16 a laz | 15-16 Philippines — | PHI 94 aja | vw 2 21 | 68 | 39-40 Partugal | POR 63 | 29-30 1104 4927 | 18-19 | 32 9 South Africa |SAP as | 18-19, 49 | 14-15 | 65 316 |93 * Salvador SAL 66 | 34-35) 94 | 45-06 | 19 12 | 40 14 Singapore SIN 74 10; 8: 1120 ; 13-14 | 48 24 Spain SPA s7 23 | 86 * 36-41] 51 214 15-16 Sweden ME 31 712] 45171 | 00-41 | 5 1 Switzerland | SI 34 9| 58 19.68 | 37 | 7 | 36-47 Taiwan TAr s8 | 24-251 69 2517 1 JO [45 | 20-21 Thailand THA 64 | 31-32 | 64 22 | 20 13-14 | 34 19 | Turkey "UR 66 | 34-35 ESPERE | 2 [as [20-21 * Uruguay URL 6L 28 ¡100 7 | 36 23,38 12 U.S.A, USA 40 16 | 46 1|a so | 62 36 Venezuela VEN 81 | as-46] 76 29-301 12 4173 48 Yugoslavia — | YUS 76 41] 88 23 | 27 | 18-19 | 21 5-6 Reglons: * East Africa | EAP sl jua] se |ar-18] 27 [08-19] 41 ,(14-15) 7 * West Africa | WAP alo en ss |íde-19] 20 |(03-10( 46 (0 22) * arab Ctos. | ARA so tasas! 68 |ízac2s)] de [1 2511 53 le28-29) | * Based un data addod later Copyright 6 2001. All Rights Reserved National Cultures in Four Dimensions 55 Latin European countries France, Belgium, and Italy and mar- ginally for Spain and South Africa. In order to show clearly the unique values pattern of Hermes employees in these Latin Euro- pean countries, I have maintained the PDI and IDV as separate indices and not collapsed them into a single index. The Latin European values pattern means that people in Hermes subsidi- aries in these countries have a need for dependence (or counter- dependence) on hierarchical superiors but, at the same time, stress their personal independence from the organization to which they belong: they are dependent individualists. Masculinity (MAS) indicates the relative importance in the country of the job aspects earnings, recognition, advancement, and challenge and the relative unimportance of (relation with) manager, etooperation, desirable (living) area, and employment security. These tend to be also the job aspects on which, with- in countries, Hermes men, in tbe same jobs, score significantly differently from Hermes women, This is in line with the domi- nant pattern ol sex roles found to exist in nearly all societies, even nonliterate ones (Barry, Bacon, and Child, 1957): boys are socialized toward assertiveness and self-reliance, and girls, toward nurturance and responsibility, The Hermes data show that not only do men and women in the same jobs emphasize different job aspects but that coun- tries also differ along these same lines: in some countries all respondents (both men and women) emphasize job aspects usually associated with the male role; in others, all emphasize job aspects usually associated with the female role. Moreover, il appears that in more "masculine" countries, the gap between the values for the men and for the women in Hermes is wider, whereas in the most "feminine" countries this gap is reduced to zero (Hofstede, 1980, P, 282), Relevance of the Hermes Dimensions for National Cultures in General Employees in Hermes subsidiaries are, of course, an ex- tremely narrow and specific sample of their countries" popu- Copyright O 2001. All Rights Reserved 56 Geert Hofstede (the Netherlands) lations, They belong to the middle class of their society rather than to the upper, working, or peasant class. They have doubl- less all been socialized, to some extent, to the international perspective a corporation like Hermes maintains. Valid comparisons among countries in the study of cullural differences can use two strategies: a broad sample strategy, or a narrow sample strategy. Broad samples should be repre- sentative of entire populations; they are typically used in pub- lic-opinion research and consumer market research, Narrow samples use respondents who are very well matched: they should be similar in many aspects, except nationality, añ be- long to functionally equivalent categories in each country. Most cross-cultural studies use narrow samples, such as students or industrial managers, The Hermes subsidiary re- spondents are also such narrow, but well-matched, samples: they share the same company superstructure and policies; they are selected to belong to the same occupational categories, so they do very much the same kind of work; they are of the same education level and vary only marginally in age and sex composition; they differ systematically only in nationality. Because the data analyzed are differences between Hermes employees in one country and another, they paradoxically tell us nothing about the Hermes corporate culture, because this is shared by all employees. Systematic and stable differences among the Hermes respondents irom different countries can be explained only by country culture; in fact, the differences within Hermes because of the shared corporate structure should be a conservative estimate of differences to be found in organizations outside Hermes. The validity of the Hermes indices (PDI, UAI, IDV, MAS) for characterizing countrywide culture patterns can be checked with other data, 1f the dimensions they measure are meaning- ful for national cultures at large, not just within Hermes, the indices should correlate with measures found in other narrow samples, in broad samples, and with country -level indicators. The last represent characteristics of countries as total sys- tems not measured by aggregating data collected frora indi- Copyright 6 2001. All Rights Reserved. National Cultures in Four Dimensions 57 viduals, but measured for the country as a whole, such as its per capita gross national product (GNP) or its traffic accident death rate, In an extensive search of theoretically relevant other data, i found 13 comparative survey studies, covering between 5 and 19 countries at a time, whose results are significantly corre- lated across the particular countries with one or more of the Hermes indices (Hofstede, 1980, Pp. 326-277). ] also found 31 country-level indicators, available for between 5 and 40 coun- tries, that were significantly correlated with at least one of the dimensions (Ibid. Pp. 32831), Few of these studies and indicators had ever been related to each other before. Often the sets of countries for which data are available overlap only very partially from one study to another. The four Hermes indices provide a framework for fitting these disparate studies together; they drop into place like pieces ina large Jigsaw puzzle, Here are a few examples of the correlations found: With the Power Distance Index (PDI) -— The country's political system since 1950: the presence or absence of periods with autocratic or oligarchic govern- ments, cross-tabulated against the PDI above or below the mean, yields a chi=square of 16,9*** with one degree of free- dom. (2) — Results obtained with translated versions of Gordon's (1976, P, 55) survey of interpersonal values among students from 17 countries: r= 0,80*** for conformity, r = —0,79+** for independence, and r = -0,70*** for "support" (expecting to be treated with understanding). With the Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAJ): — A "neuroticisim” factor found in the data of 12 medical and related indices for 18 developed countries hy Lymn and Hampson (1975, P, 237): Spearman rank correlation coefficient rho = 0,73*+*x*, Copyright O 2001. Ali Rights Reserved 60 Geert Hofstede (the Netherlands) Table 2 Connotations of the Power Distance Dimension Low PDI Inequality in society should be mini- mized. AU should be interdependent, Hierarchy means an equality of roles, established for convenience. Subordinates are people like me, Superiors are people lixe me. The use of power should be legiti- mate, and is subject to the judg- ment between good and evil. Ai should have equal rights. Powerful people should try to look less powerful than they are. Stress on reward and legitimate and expert power, (1) The system is to blame for things that go wrong. The way to change a social system is by redistributing power, People at both high and low power levels feel less threatened and more prepared to trust people. There is latent harmony between the powerful and the powerless. Cooperation among the powerless can be based on solidarity, 1 French and Raven (1959). High PDI There should be an order of in- equality in this world in which everybody has his rightiul place; high and low are protected by this order. A lew should be independent; most should be dependent. Hierarchy means existential inequality. Superiors consider subordinales as different from themselves. Subordinates consider superiors as different from themselves, Power is a basíc fact of society and antedates good or evil. lts legitimacy is irrelevant, Power -holders are enlitled to privileges, Powerful people should try to look as powerful as possible, Stress on coercive and referent power. 0) The underdog is to blame for things that go wrong. The way to change a social system is by dethroning those in power. Other people are a potential threat to one's power and can rarely be trusted. "There is latent conflict between the powerful and the powerless. Cooperation among the powerless is diffícult to achieve because little faith in people isthe norm, Copyright O 2001. All Rights Reserved National Cultures in Four Dimensions 61 Table 3 Cannotations of the Uncertainty Avoidance Dimension Low UAI _— The uncertainty inherent in life is more easily accepted and each day is taken as it comes. Ease, lower stress Time is iree. Hard work is not a virtue per se, Weaker superegos Aggressive behavior is frowned upon. Less showing of emotions Conflict and competition can be con- tained on the level of fair play and used constructively, More acceptance of dissent Deviance not felt as threatening; greater tolerance Less nationalism More positive attitude toward younger people Less conservatisim More willingness to take risks in life Achievement determined in terms of recognition Relativism, empiricism There should be as few rules as possible, Hf rules cannot be kept, we should change them. Belief in generalists and common sense The authorities are there to serve the citizens. High UAI The uncertainty inherent in life is felt as a continuous threat that must be fought. Higher anxiety and stress Time is money. Imner urge to work hard Strong superegos Aggressive behavior of selí and others is accepted. More showing oí emotions Conflict and competition can un- leash aggression and should therefore be avoided, Strong need for consensus Deviant persons and ideas are dangerous; intolerance Nationalism Younger people are suspect Conservatism; law and order Concern with security in life Achievement defined in terms of security Search for ultimate, absolute truths and values Need for written rules and regu- lations lf rules cannot be kept, we are Sinners and should repent. Belief in experts and their knowledge Ordinary citizens are incompe- tent compared with the author- ities. Copyright O 2001. All Rights Reserved 62 Geert Hofstede (the Netherlands) Table 4 Connotations of the Individualism-—Collectivism Dimension Low DV in society, people are born into ex- tended families or elans that pro- tect them in exchange for loyalty. "We" consciousness Collectivity-orientation (1) Tdentity is based in the social system. Emotional dependence of individual on organizations and institutions Emphasis on belonging to organiza- tion; membership ideal Private life is invaded by organiza- tions and clans to which one belongs; opinions are predetermined, Expertise, order, duty, security pro- vided by organization or clan Friendships predetermined by stable social relationships, but need for prestige within these relationships Belief in group decisions Value standards differ for in-groups and out-groups; particularism (1) "Jen" philosophy oí man (2) Gemeinsc halt (community -based) social order (3) Involvement of individuals with organizations primarily moral (4) 1) Parsons and Shils (1951) 2) Hsu (1971) 3) Tónnies (1887) 4) Etzioni (1975) High IDV In society, everybody is supposed to take care of him/herselKí and his/her immediate family. "J" consciousness Self-orientation (1) Identity is based in the individual. Emotional independence of indí- vidual from organizations or institutions Emphasis on individual initiative and achievement; leadership ideal Everybody has a right to a pri- vate life and opinion. Autonomy, variety, pleasure, in- dividual financial security Need for specific friendships Beliei in individual decisions Value standards should apply to all; universalism (1) "Personality" philosophy of man (2) Gesellschaft (society -based) social order (3) Involvement of individuals with organizations primary calcu- lative (4) Copyright O 2001. All Rights Reserved. National Cultures in Four Dimensions 65 have meaning only to the initiated. It is not surprising, there- fore, that the functioning of organizations in a country and the way of thinking about organizations in that country are related to the country's position on the power distance and uncertainty avoidance scales. Across the 40 countries surveyed, the PDI and UAI are weakly correlated (r = 0,28*), We nevertheless find countries in all four quadrants of a PDI x UAI plot. In interpreting the meaning of the countries' positions on the indices, l use con- cepts from two sources, One is the "Aston" approach to the study of organizations (Pugh, 1976; Pugh and Hickson, 1976), The Aston researchers found empirically that different organi- zations within one country (Great Britain) varied mainly ac- cording to two dimensions: "concentration of authority" and "structuring of activities" (not counting a third and weaker di- mension). 1t is obvious that the first is conceptually related to the PDI, and the second, to the AL. This suggests that the Aston typology of different organizations in one country applies mutatis mutandis, also to similar organizations in different countries, The second source of concepts is an unpublished study by a former colleague, O. J. Stevens (3), about the im- plicit models for well-functioning organizations that he found among British, German, and French management students at the INSEAD school in Fontainebleau, France, Hermes subsidiaries with a low PDI and a low UAI (mainly Anglo and Nordic countries) are characterized by smaller power distances and weak uncertainty -avoidance tendencies, The Aston typology refers to organizations in the low concen- tration of authority, low structuring of activities quadrant as "implicitly structured,” Stevens finds that British INSEAD students see the effective organization as a "village market": equality of partners and few rules, In these countries we can expect relative sympathy for decentralized and flexible struc- tures, such as participative management and matrix organiza- tion, and theories that defend the effectiveness of such struc- tures, Hermes subsidiaries with a low PDI and a high UAI (mainly > Copyright O 2001. All Rights Reserved 66 Geert Hofstede (the Netherlands) German-speaking) combine smaller power distances with strong uncertainty avoidance. The corresponding quadrant in the As- ton typology shows ""work-flow bureaucracies,' and Stevens finds for the German INSEAD students a model of the effective organization as a "well-oiled machine." For these countries we can expect relative sympathy for decentralized structures, which will, however, be somewhat rigid; there is a greater need for creating rules and living by them, Job content, pro- motion criteria, and decision competencies will tend to be strictly codified. Rules will rarely be broken, because they have been internalized in people's superegos. A typical theory tror one of these countries is Weher's theory of bureaucracy as an impersonal system (Weber, 1970 [1921]. P. 196). Hermes subsidiaries with a high PDI and a high UAT (a Latin countries, European as well as Latin American, and some Asian countries) show greater power distances plus strong uncertainty avoidance tendencies, The Aston studies place in this quadrant the "full bureaucracies,' and Stevens finds that French INSEAD students model the ideal organiza- tion as a "pyramid" of people. The tendency toward centrali- zation is strong. The combination of strong uncertainty avoid- ance with great power distances means that in these countries one will look to powerful people for resolving uncertainties, There is a need for formal rules, too, but powerful people can break them — and so will less powerful people if they can get away with it when there are no powerful people around. Rules are personal, not impersonal, Typical theories from these countries are Pareto's (1976 [1896]) thoughts about elites and Crozier's (1964) analysis of the French bureaucratic phe- nomenon. Bermes subsidiaries with a high PDI and a low UAI (most Asian and all African countries) combine great power distances with weak uncertainty avoidance, The Aston studies place in this quadrant "personnel bureaucracies” that have rules for status relationships among people, but not to the same extent for daily work activities, Stevens's study at INSEAD did not cover Indían students, but discussions with Indian colleagues Capyright € 2001. All Rights Reserved. National Cultures in Four Dimensions 67 have led me to fill in the "family" as an implicit model of the organization among them, with a father-type manager of un- questioned authority, but no deep-seated need for working ac- cording to formal rules, Implications for Motivation MecCleliand (1961, P. 461) has published scores by country for need for achievement (nAch), need for affiliation (RAf£), and need for power (nPow). These scores were based on a content analysis of children's stories from two periods in time: from about 1925 (for 25 countries) and from about 1950 (for 41 coun- tries), McClelland's scores for nAch around 1925 appear to correlate strongly with the combination of low uncertainty avoidance and high masculinity in the Hermes indices (across 22 countries represented in both sets; multiple correlation coefficient R = 0,74***), It is remarkable that McClelland!s 1925, but not his 1950, data correlate with the (1970) Hermes scores; 1 explain this by the assumption that the 1925 stories, collected in the 1950s, were largely traditional and therefore more representative of fundamental cultural themes than the 1950 stories, which were more affected by conscious selection by contemporary educators, who at that time were more sensi- tive to nontraditional fashions, The correlation of MeClelland's country scores with Hermes country scores shows that need for achievment as a traditional theme as defined by McClelland corresponds to a willingness to take risks (low uncertainty avoidance) plus a masculine de- sire for visible success (high masculinity). The countries showing this combination are all Anglo-Saxon countries (Aus- tralia, Canada, Great Britain, breland, New Zealand, South Africa, the United States), plus a number of their former colo- nies (Hong Kong, India, Jamaica, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore). A remarkable fact is that nearly all these coun- tries speak English; the word achievement is hardly translat- able into any other language, The discovery that the "achievement motivation" pattern Copyright O 2001. Al Rights Reserved 70 Geert Hofstede (the Netherlands) through Jamaica from Austria through Finland. A further breakdown shows, for example, a Belgium-France cluster (No, 6), three Asian clusters (Nos, 3, 8, and 9), an Anglo-Saxon cluster (No, 11), and a Nordic-Dutch cluster (No, 13), Japan (No. 4) is the most different from any other country, It should be realized that the computer that produced this figure knows neither geography nor history. We see that, nevertheless, in most cases, geographically or historically close countries cluster together. This illustrates lo what extent the mean an- swers of Hermes employees on certain paper-and-pencil ques- tions do reflect basic cultural patterns. Trends over Time "The fact that the Hermes data were measured twice, around 1968 and around 1972, allows some conclusions about world- wide shifts on the four dimensions during this period. The dimension showing the largest universal shift is individualism. An increase in individualism was found in all countries except Pakistan. The data suggest that the increase in individualism followed an increase in wealth, rather than the other way around. On the dimension of individualism, there was some reduction in the distance between extreme countries, so that we can speak of a certain convergence over time. On the dimension of masculinity -femininity, there was, On the average, a shift toward the masculine side; but this by no means affected all countries, In general, the trend was for masculine countries to become more masculine and for femi- nine countries to become more feminine, so that there was a divergence rather than a convergence on this dimension over time. On the dimension of power distance, the trend was more complex, In nearly all the countries, Hermes employees' preference for a more consultative or democratic manager increased; but only in the countries in which power distances were already relatively low was this preference matched by a corresponding shift in perceived actual behavior of the man- Copyright O 2001. Ail Rights Reserved, National Cultures in Four Dimensions Ti agers. In countries with great power distances, there was 2 marked increase in employees' perceived fear of disagreeing with superiors. All in all, this dimension, too, showed diver- gence among countries rather than convergence, On the dimension of uncertainty avoidance, only the question of stress (feeling nervous or tense at work) showed a distinct worldwide trend: an increase in the vast majority of countries, However, here again the tendency was toward divergence rath- er than convergence of countries at the extremes, Et is possible (Hofstede, 1980, Chap. 8) to relate these vari- ous trends to the age groups of the respondents; it can be shown that the shifts affect all except sometimes the oldest (over 40 or 50) age groups and that there is no evidence for a generation effect in values that would move along like a wave over time. Four years, of course, is a very short time for measuring worldwide value shifts. In Hofstede (1980, Pp. 367 ff.), evi- dence from other sources is used to speculate on longer-term trends. Thus, there seems to be little doubt that since 1965 there has been a worldwide trend toward increased stress, anxiety, intolerance, and other uncertainty-avoidance -related attitudes, which may be part of an oscillating movement with a wavelength between 25 and 40 years. In power distance, the longer-term trend is probably one of decrease, and in individu- alism, very clearly of increase; but for masculinity and femi- ninity, the shifts vary from one country to another, Notes 1) The research project described in this paper was carried out in 1973-79 at the European Institute for Advanced Studies in Management at Brussels, Belgium, and continued in 1981 at the Institute for Research on Intercultural Cooperation (IRIC), Arnhem, the Netherlands. 2) Significance levels are indicated as follows: *x*x* = 0,001 level; **= 0,01 level; « = 0,05 level, 3) O. J. Stevens (1976) "Negotiation, Arbitration, Organiza- Copyright O 2001. All Rights Reserved. 72 Geert Hofstede (the Netherlands) tion: Planned Intervention Styles in Three European Countries." Notes for draft paper. Fontainebleau, France: INSEAD. References Barry, H., Bacon, M. K., and Child, I. L, (1957) "A Cross- cultural Survey of Some Sex Differences in Socialization," Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 55, 32732. Bass, B. M., and Burger, P. C. (1979) Assessment of Man- agers: An International Comparison, New York: The Free Press. Crozier, M. (1964) The Bureaucratic Phenomenon. Chicago: University oí Chicago Press, Cyert, R. M., and March, J. G. (1963) A Behavioral Theory of the Firm, Englewood Clifís, N. J.: Prentice-Hall. Etzioni, A. (1975) A Comparative Analysis of Complex Or- ganizations (Rev. ed.), New York; The Free Press, Forst, H. T., and Vogel, F. (1977) Hierarchisch-agglomera= tive Klassifikation von Merkmalstraegern bzw. 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