Product Description

The landmark study of cultural differences across 70 nations, Cultures and Organizations helps readers look at how they think—and how they fail to think—as members of groups. Based on decades of painstaking field research, this new edition features the latest scientific results published in Geert Hofstede’s scholarly work Culture’s Consequences, Second Edition. Original in thought and profoundly important, Cultures and Organizations offers vital knowledge and insight on issues that will shape the future of cultures and nations in a globalized world.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #37311 in Books
• Published on: 2004-06-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 300 pages

From the Back Cover

The revolutionary study of how the place where we grew up constrains the way we think, feel, and act, updated for today's new realities

The world is a more dangerously divided place today than it was at the end of the Cold War. This despite the spread of free trade and the advent of digital technologies that afford a degree of global connectivity undreamed of by science fiction writers fifty years ago. What is it that continues to drive people apart when cooperation is so clearly in everyone's interest? Are we as a species doomed to perpetual misunderstanding and conflict? Find out in Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind.

A veritable atlas of cultural values, it is based on cross-cultural research conducted in seventy countries for more than thirty years. At the same time, it describes a revolutionary theory of cultural relativism and its applications in a range of professions. Fully updated and rewritten for the twenty-first century, this edition:

• Reveals the unexamined rules by which people in different cultures think, feel, and act in business, family, schools, and political organizations
• Explores how national cultures differ in the key areas of inequality, collectivism versus individualism, assertiveness versus modesty, tolerance for ambiguity, and deferment of gratification
• Explains how organizational cultures differ from national cultures, and how they can--sometimes--be managed
• Explains culture shock, ethnocentrism, stereotyping, differences in language and humor, and other aspects of intercultural dynamics
• Provides powerful insights for businesspeople, civil servants, physicians, mental health professionals, law enforcement professionals, and others

Geert Hofstede, Ph.D., is professor emeritus of Organizational Anthropology and International Management at Maastricht University, The Netherlands. Gert Jan Hofstede, Ph.D., is a professor of Information Systems at Wageningen University and the son of Geert Hofstede.

About the Author

Geert Hofstede (Netherlands) is professor emeritus of organizational anthropology and international management at the University of Limburg, in Maastricht, where he is the founder and director of the Institute for Research on Intercultural Cooperation.

Gert-Jan Hofstede (Netherlands) is a Ph.D. and a professor at Wageningen University.

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Customer Reviews

Wonderful framework for thinking about cultural differences
A must-read for anyone interested in the subject area.

The new and revised content also relate Hofstede's original groundbreaking research to the more recent work of other renowned scholars in the field (such as Ronald Inglehart of the Univ of Michigan and the World Values Survery). These links make his work even more compelling and make you start to think that we may be inching closer to a more universally agreed upon framework for thinking about cultural differences.

A must have resource for highly effective multicultural / multinational leadership...
As a combat tested USAF E3 AWACS command pilot (over 1900+ hours of total flight experience), this book is a potent resource for anyone seeking to gain insights on how best to manage a multicultural / multinational workspace.

Excellent insights while entertaining to read
Having just survived a merger of two companies, I was searching to find the right words to explain the differences in cultures I was experiencing. Although this book focuses on national cultures, I found the explanations of the dimensions of culture and how they manifest themselves in different behaviors appropriate for corporate situations. The last few chapters deal explicitly with corporate culture, but I found these chapters less insightful than the others. The book is very well written and organized, with tables summarizing key concepts and entertaining anecdotes to illustrate the points. Because I've traveled internationally for business, I was familiar with other works on culture, but none were as helpful as this book. I now have the vocabulary to articulate the differences I see.