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Culture Frameworks 77 more the norm. Contrast both these approaches with the Buddhist goal to live in the present moment. The fourth value that Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck’s framework provides is the culture’s understanding of time. LC cultures tend to focus on the future, whereas HC cultures tend to focus on the past and be more influenced by tradition, as in Asia. Contrast that with an understanding of time that focuses on the future or present, found in many LC cultures. The final value is the culture’s belief about the basic nature of people. Are people inherently good, or do they need controls and structures to be protected from their inherent evil? Does the culture predominantly reflect Theory X (the assumption that people do not like work, require structure, and avoid risk) or Theory Y (the assumption that people naturally like to work, are creative, and seek responsibility)? HOFSTEDE’S SIX DIMENSIONS Geert Hofstede, a Dutch researcher and consultant trained in anthropology, initially developed his framework from surveys of global IBM employees in the late 1960s and later added to it and modified it. He is concerned primarily with work values, and he presently identifies five dimensions to help managers understand how national-level cultural differences affect organizations and management methods. His dimensions are empirically derived and have received significant attention from both managers (because they apply easily) and scholars (because they raise methodological issues). Some scholars have been critical of Hofstede’s work, largely because of methodological survey issues: his analysis is done on the organizational level and then extrapolated to the national level; his data are dated; and his dimensions oversimplify the complexities of culture—six dimensions are not robust enough to describe a culture. While these are important issues, managers have found his work helpful. We look forward to continued refinement in this area. There were originally four dimensions: individualism-collectivism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and masculinity-femininity. Recently, in collaboration with the anthropologist Michael Minkov, Hofstede added two dimensions, one that measures indulgence vs. restraint and another that measures pragmatism vs. normative behavior. You can see the latest version of his work on the Hofstede Center website.23 These dimensions support the assertion that management skills are culturally specific; that is, “a management technique or philosophy that is appropriate in one national culture is not necessarily appropriate in another.” 24 They overlap and resemble Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck’s values, which is not surprising, since social organization is a major concern for all cultures. In fact, we should expect some redundancy among all the frameworks. Now to the dimensions. Individualism-Collectivism25  The individualism-collectivism dimension measures the degree to which people in the culture are integrated into groups. People in highly collectivistic cultures belong to strong, cohesive in-groups that look after them in exchange for loyalty. In contrast, people in highly individualistic cultures are more loosely connected and look after themselves and their immediate family. The United States is highly individualistic; the culture rewards independence; the education system rewards outstanding individuals. This dimension plays out strongly in employee motivation and decision making. Countries with predominantly individualist cultures include the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, France, and Germany. Cultures that are collectivist include Guatemala, Ecuador, Panama, Indonesia, Pakistan, Taiwan, China, Japan, and West and East African countries. Power Distance  Power distance is the extent to which members of a society expect power to be distributed unequally and accept that it is. Power “With CULTURAL DIFFERENCES, FOCUSING on SIMILARITIES IS TEMPTING, BECAUSE IT IS EASY. WHAT WE NEED to DO IS BRIDGE DIFFERENCES to CREATE SHARED VALUES AND MOVE toward COLLABORATION. —Jeanne McNett, ” Northeastern University


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