Differences between India and

Colombia: An analysis using Hoftede’s

Method of Cultural Dimensions.

Differences between India and Colombia: An analysis using Hoftede’s Method of

Cultural Dimensions.
Santiago Catellar

María Serrano

Class Section (ENG: 5543)

Universidad del Norte

Differences between India and
Colombia: An analysis using Hoftede’s 1
Method of Cultural Dimensions.

Humans are social creatures for nature, this is to say, is a necessity for people to be

around other individuals, learning from them, following them and conforming groups (Lachelier,

2013), because as humanity has started to form groups and creating common treats within the

people around you and create an identity for that group, these differences make an impact on

how people perceive their lives, it means a way of seeing morals, beliefs and even

communication within the members of the culture itself. For these reasons communication

between people that are from different countries and cultures can be difficult and it may seem

impossible sometimes due to all the barriers that this can put into us, but with methods as the

Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions, which is the method that is going to be used in this essay,

people can understand how other cultures behave and why they do it. This method categorizes

cultures in different dimensions and scores them according to how people think or behave in

their daily lives. This essay intends to demonstrate that India and Colombia are different

countries in many aspects, making these two countries almost opposites.

Firstly, according to (Barroso, 20202) this method allows us to visualize our own cultural

characteristics that people associate with a space or territory, features known as cultural

dimensions, which demonstrate how cultural values affect human behavior. Understanding these

patterns shows tolerance towards inequality and helps people to understand others in an easier

and resumed way which allows communication to be more comfortable for both parts of the

dialogue. In the present world where globalization is a reality we interact with several people

during our lives, that are from different nationalities and cultures and since this is our present
methods as Hofstede allow us a successful communication, even when two countries are as

different as India and Colombia.

According to (Hofstade, 2001) with scores of 64 (Colombia) and 56 (India) on

masculinity both cultures are driven by competition and success on the other hand 67 (Colombia)

and 77 (India) on power distance these two countries believe that society is a hierarchy and it is

well accepted that inequality is a fact of life. We can agree that even if the differences are bigger

in this case, there is always a point in which the cultures can collide.

Even though Colombia and India have similar scores on masculinity and power distance,

differences between these cultures become more noticeable in the rest of the estimated scores,

just like we can notice on the uncertainty avoidance, Colombia with a score of 80 is a nation

where people avoid ambiguity and people is conservative that follow norms and rules that are the

“normative”, on the other hand India with a score of 40 is far from the Colombian way of dealing

with situations like this, mostly because of their beliefs on karma which is part of one of the

most characteristic traits in Indian culture, spirituality (Thakur, 2010).

Another dimension we can analyze is individualism, in this dimension India has a score

of 48, which describes a society with collectivistic and individualistic traits (Hofstede, 2001). In

contrast, Colombia has a very low score of individualism, 13, and this number can tell a lot about

how Colombian people interact with each other, because it means that Colombia has a pretty

collectivist culture, which is a common trait on Latin American countries (Schwartz, 2009), and

all this means that Colombian society attributes importance to being part of a group and

emphasizing the importance of having relationships and to share time and space with other

people (Ardila, Gouveina, de Madeiros, 2012).

In conclusion, the difference in both cultures is very important and is a really interesting case to

observe, because it is pretty clear that the cultural history of these two countries have an impact

on how they behave on the Hofstede’s Dimensions, the difference between religions and beliefs

is a strong trait in these cultures which change almost drastically the way they see life and

relationships between two or more individuals. Due to this India and Colombia are different

countries, making them opposites.

As social creatures it is very important to humans to understand the differences that exist

between us, to success on communication no matter if the culture or language is different, we can

always put those barriers down and create a safe space for people from any place in the world

where people can be comfortable enough to create bonds and relationships with each other and

start new and diverse communities. Hofstede’s Method of Cultural Dimensions is a helpful tool

to achieve this, this kind of method is very helpful to develop better communication skills,

because it makes easier to understand other people and how they understand life so this means a

better understanding with someone who may not have the same cultural background as us, India

and Colombia share big differences and a few similarities but those differences are the one that

made us who we are today, so Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions are the kind of instrument that

can be used on many ways.

 References

Ardila, R., Gouveia, V. V., & Diógenes de Medeiros, E. (2012). Human values of

Colombian people. Evidence for the functionalist theory of values. Revista

Latinoamericana de Psicología, 44(3), 105-117.

http://www.scielo.org.co/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0120-0534201200030

0009

Barroso Álvarez, J. A. (2020). Análisis de las 6 dimensiones culturales de Hofstede en la

Armada Nacional de Colombia.

https://repository.unad.edu.co/bitstream/handle/10596/36333/jabarrosoa.pdf?sequen

ce=1

Hofstede, G. (2001). Culture’s consequences: Comparing values, behaviors, institutions,

and organizations across nations. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Lachelier, P. (2013, 31 julio). Humans are Inertial, Social Creatures: Social Science for

Incidental Learning. Learninglife. Recuperado 20 de noviembre de 2021, de

http://learninglife.info/social-science-insights-for-incidental-learning/

Schwartz, A. L. (2009). Latinos' collectivism and self-disclosure in intercultural and

intracultural friendships and acquaintanceships. P. 16

https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1456&context=etd

THAKUR, M. (2010). Indian Cultural Analysis Using Hofstede’s Cultural Dimension

Analysis and Schein Modelling. Toronto: Schulich School of Business – York

University.

https://dokumen.tips/documents/india-cultural-analysis-using-hofstedes-cultural-di

mension-analysis-schein-modelling-by-mikael-thakur.html