CULTURAL DIMENSION OF COMPARATIVE MANAGEMENT AND

ADMINISTRATION

The focus of study session 5 is on organizational culture and its dimension.

Organizational culture simply refers to a system of shared values widely held by

members of the same organization which differentiates it from other organizations. It

consists of components that make up how people behave, act towards each other and

get work done. It is a total system of learned beliefs, values and customs which

regulate the behaviour of members of a particular society.

The elements of culture include language, technology and social institutions. As well,

the characteristics of culture include: observed behaviour; norms; dominant

philosophies; rules; moores and so on.

The following models have been used to explain the concept of culture.

Hofstede’s Dimension Of Culture:

i. Power Distance: This describes the extent to which members accept the unequal

distribution of power

ii. Uncertainty Avoidance: This describes the exytent to which members of culture

feel threatened by ambiguous situations and the extent they try to avoid it.

iii. Individualism and Collectivity: In individualistic society, the ties between

individuals are loose, while in collectivist society, people from birth integrate into

strong cohesive in-groups.

iv. Masculinity-Femininity: In a masculine society such as competitiveness,

assertiveness and aggressiveness are observed or are more pronounced, while

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 feminism is the extent to which dominant values of the society such as concern

for others, quality of work and so on are more observed.

On the other hand, Robbins and Judge (2009) classified cultural dimensions by

including short term orientation to the above. In essence, the classification by

Robbins and Judge is an extension or modification of Hofstede’s dimension of

culture.

Other models include Trompennars model of cultural dimension which relates to how

people deal with one another. Its variables include universalism vs particularism,

individualism vs collectivism, neutral vs emotions, specific vs diffused, achievement

vs ascription, attitude to time and attitude to environment.