For the past five days, «The Grey Chronicles» presented a series of posts tackling Geert Hofstede™ Cultural Dimensions of the Philippines in relation to
ASEAN5, BRIC, East Asia, the top five OFW destinations and the top host countries of permanent Filipino immigrants.
The Philippines, based on these five cultural dimensions, is somewhat unique and the Filipinos are adaptable. The posts described that the Philippines and the other countries reviewed have similarities in some particular cultural dimensions; while dissimilarities in others highlight the Philippines’ uniqueness. Geert Hofstede™ Cultural Dimensions show that there are no two countries exactly alike. Hofstede cautions:
“The functioning of international business organizations hinges on intercultural communication and cooperation. Managing international business means handling both national and organizational culture differences at the same time. Organizational cultures are somewhat manageable while national cultures are given facts for management; common organizational cultures across borders are what keep multinationals together. … Organizations moving to unfamiliar cultural environments are often badly surprised by unexpected reactions of the press, the authorities or the public to what they do or want to do. Mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures and alliances across national borders have become quite frequent, but they remain a regular source of cross-cultural clashes. Cross-national ventures have often turned out to be dramatic failures. Cultural integration takes lots of time, energy, and money.” (Hofstede, 2005) [Emphasis added.]
Lothar Katz, founder of Leadership Crossroads, in his review of the first version of Cultures and Organizations (1991) writes:
“Some critics argue that many of the author’s findings and observations are too dated, the world having changed much over the last thirty years. While the point has some validity, the speed at which cultures change usually gets overestimated. In my view, most of Hofstede’s observations are still valid, and his suggestions remain applicable to a large degree.” (2004).
«The Grey Chronicles» agrees with Katz’ argument. Moreover, it should be noted that the averages of a country do not relate to individuals of that country. Even though Hofstede model has proven to be quite often correct when applied to the general population, one must be aware that not all individuals or even regions with subcultures fit into the mold. As always, there are exceptions to the rule. Also, in the past 15 years, most cultural studies have—more often than not—referred to Hofstede’s pioneering work, or improved on it [see Michael Minkov’s What Makes Us Different and Similar—A New Interpretation of the World Values Survey and Other Cross-Cultural Data (2007)]. The question these studies should also focus: How much does the culture of a country change over time, either by internal or external influences? Minkov believes that the view of converging cultural values in the developed countries, especially in the First World, and possibly all over the world is likely to be misleading. Some cultural transformation might occur because of changes in the environment, but Minkov argues that there is no evidence that they are converging substantially with respect to core values.
There were also concerns on the data accuracy. Any researcher worth his salt is cognizant of the fact that data collected through questionnaires have their own limitations. One argument: “In some cultures the context of the question asked is as important as its content. Especially in group-oriented cultures, individuals might tend to answer questions as if they were addressed to the group he/she belongs to. While on the other hand in the United States, which is an individualistic culture, answers will most likely be answered and perceived through the eyes of that individual.” Apparently, these critics forget one essential fact: although a Master’s degree holder in Mechanical Engineering from the Technical University of Delft, Hofstede obtained a cum laude Doctorate in Social Psychology at the University of Groningen. As a social scientist—researcher, Hofstede have accumulated decades of international experience in research, methodology and actual field work.
Yet, culture is not the be-all, end-all of any country. Several other factors comes into play especially in this era of globalization and integration. In Dominic Wilson & Roopa Purushothaman’s paper (2003) offer the following insight:
“A set of core factors—macroeconomic stability, institutional capacity, openness and education—can set the stage for growth. Robert Barro’s influential work on the determinants of growth found that growth is enhanced by higher schooling and life expectancy, lower fertility, lower government consumption, better maintenance of the rule of law, lower inflation and improvements in the terms of trade. These core policies are linked: institutional capacity is required to implement stable macroeconomic policies, macro stability is crucial to trade, and without price stability a country rarely has much success in liberalizing and expanding trade.”
In simple terms, everything is connected; linked. Including us to one another?
Notes:
Hofstede, Geert (1991). Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind . New York: Mcgraw-Hill, September 1991. 296pp. back to text.
Hofstede, Geert (2005). The Business of International Business is Culture. Denmark: MIB Research Seminar, October 2005. back to text.
Katz, Lothar (2004). Book Review: Geert Hofstede: Culture and Organizations — Software of the Mind. Dallas, TX: Leadership Crossroads, September 2004. back to text.
Minkov, Micahel (2007). What Makes Us Different and Similar—A New Interpretation of the World Values Survey and Other Cross-Cultural Data. Sofia, Bulgaria: Klasika Stil Publishing House Ltd., 2007. back to text.
Wilson, Dominic & Purushothaman, Roopa (2003). Dreaming With BRICs: The Path to 2050. Global Economics Paper No: 99. New York: Goldman Sachs Financial Workbench, 01 October 2003. back to text.
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