Product Description

The Second Edition of this classic work, first published in 1981 and an international bestseller, explores the differences in thinking and social action that exist among members of more than 50 modern nations. Geert Hofstede argues that people carry "mental programs" which are developed in the family in early childhood and reinforced in schools and organizations, and that these programs contain components of national culture. They are expressed most clearly in the different values that predominate among people from different countries.

Geert Hofstede has completely rewritten, revised and updated Cultures Consequences for the twenty-first century, he has broadened the book's cross-disciplinary appeal, expanded the coverage of countries examined from 40 to more than 50, reformulated his arguments and a large amount of new literature has been included. The book is structured around five major dimensions: power distance; uncertainty avoidance; individualism versus collectivism; masculinity versus femininity; and long term versus short-term orientation.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #39224 in Books
• Published on: 2003-02-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 616 pages

Review
"An important, sophisticated and complex monograph... Both the theoretical analysis and the empirical findings constitute major contributions to cross-cultural value analysis and the cross-cultural study of work motivations and organizational dynamics. This book is also a valuable resource for anyone interested in a historical or anthropological approach to cross-cultural comparisons." -- PERSONNEL PSYCHOLOGY

"An important, sophisticated and complex monograph. . . . Both the theoretical analysis and the empirical findings constitute major contributions to cross-cultural value analysis and the cross-cultural study of work motivations and organizational dynamics. This book is also a valuable resource for anyone interested in a historical or anthropological approach to cross-cultural comparisons." 

-- Review

Review

"An important, sophisticated and complex monograph. . . . Both the theoretical analysis and the empirical findings constitute major contributions to cross-cultural value analysis and the cross-cultural study of work motivations and organizational dynamics. This book is also a valuable resource for anyone interested in a historical or anthropological approach to cross-cultural comparisons." 

(PERSONNEL PSYCHOLOGY )

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Customer Reviews

Culture traits in broad strokes
I grew up speaking a minority language of a rural culture in the Netherlands. In my teenage years I became part of the hippie counterculture. Later I met my Malaysian wife (with an Iban-Tamil-Chinese cultural mix) in England, where we lived for a while. We lived or spent considerable time in a number of other countries, including the US and (mostly) Canada. In Canada we worked with First Nations people and lived for a while in a small fly-in community in the subarctic north. We studied the culture and wrote papers on aspects of the culture (qualitative research). (Perfect it was not, but it was immensely helpful.) We speak or studied a combined total of 15 languages. This is all to say, I do not have a simplistic view of culture -- I am fully aware how quickly cultural norms can change (as it did in the sixties and seventies in the West).
At every level--whether at clan level within a small Native group such as the one we worked with in Canada, whether it is at a village level in the rural setting I grew up, whether it is at urban level, whether it is at regional or provincial level, whether it is at ethnic or subcultural level, or whether it is at national or other macro-geographic regional level--we can generalize certain culture traits. This is not an exact science, but helpful nevertheless. Hofstede's research infers such generalities through the aggregate of responses from individuals (quantitative research) who all work in the same multinational company. It is just a way to analyze a glimpse of reality. (Perfect it is not, but it is immensely helpful.)
I read Hofstede's material after I had read Brendan McSweeney's full rejection of Hofstede's research, methodology and conclusion. McSweeney's article, which appeared in Human Relations Vol. 55(1), goes well beyond constructive academic critique, but I bought into his reasoning and consequently was thoroughly prejudiced against Hofstede's approach... until I actually started to read his material and discovered that McSweeney, though scoring some points, made Hofstede into a caricature. It is easy to shoot heavy artillery at hugely inflated monsters -- monsters McSweeney unjustifiably pumped up out of Hofstede's material. Did he hit the target? Absolute. How can one miss inflated distortions? As for me, I find Hofstede's approach helpful as giving another view of the hugely complex reality of people and their behavior.
Does Hofstede's approach give a complete picture? No, nor does it claim to be--it gives culture traits in broad strokes, and that within a context of work. The massive project of House, Hanges, Javidan, and Dorfman (2004) with the involvement of numerous peers builds on Hofstede in Culture, Leadership, and Organizations: The GLOBE Study of 62 Societies. At the very least one can say that Hofstede's research has been broadly accepted. This does not make a methodology infallible, but at the very least one has to give it considerable more respect than Nemesis can muster.

A map to understanding culture
I am currently an expatriate in France, and have also lived in the United States, Mexico, Spain. Hofstede's book is a good guide to better understand culture. As with a map, we recognize that it is not (nor is it intended to be reality) rather a tool to help guide us. The information on cultures in this book is our "first best guess" to understanding business norms in that culture, and then once we get to know the individuals we are working with, we can adapt. We recognize that these "norms" may change depending on the industry, the region, sub-culture, or other various factors. This book is extremely helpful in creating our "first best guess."

Valuable? - Perhaps for somebody who has never had a real eye for other cultures
Hofstede's work was and is not really helpful; perhaps fascinating for those who deal with the issues from the comfortable space of their warm home of office in a western country.
For all who want to get a fundamental insight to understanding espec. Asian behavior and cultural differences, I highly recommend to start with: "The Geography of Thought : How Asians and Westerners Think Differently...and Why -- by Richard Nisbett".
That's the stuff that will bring you where Hofstede could never dream to be.