Hoefstede’s Model

Understanding workplace values around the world.

 Hoefsted’s Model
 We know that we are living in a global age .
 Technology has bought everyone much closer together. This means that people of different
cultures find themselves working together and communicating more and more.
 This is exciting, but it can also be frustrating and fraught with uncertainty. How do you
relate to someone of another culture ? What do you say or not say, to start a conversation
right? Are there cultural taboos that you need to be aware of?
 Fortunately psychologist Dr Geert Hofstede asked himself this question in the 1970s .what
emerged after a decade of research and thousands of interviews is a model of cultural
dimensions that has become an internationally recognized standards.
 With access to people working for the same organization in over 40 countries of the
world ,hofstede collected cultural data and analyzed his findings. His initially identified
four distinct culture from another .later he added a fifth dimension and that is how the
model stands today.
 Culture

 Culture as “the collective programming of the mind distinguish the members of one group
or category of people from others”.
 The six dimensions of national culture are based on extensive research done by professor
Geert Hofsteds,Gert Jan hofstede,Michael minkov and their research teams.
1. Power distance index(PDI).
2. Individualism vs. collectivism(IDV).
3. Masculinity vs. feminity(MAS).
4. Uncertainty vs. avoidance index(UAI)
5. Long term orientation vs. short term normative orientation(LTO)
6. Indulgence vs. restraint(IND)
POWER DISTANCE INDEX(PDI)

 This dimension express the degree to which the less powerful members of the society
accept and expect that power is distributed unequaly.the fundamental issues is how a
society handles inequality among people.
 In society with high power distance accept a hierahical order in which everybody has
a place and which needs no further justification.
 In society with low power distance people strive to equalize the distribution of power
and demand justification for inequalities of power.