Geert Hofstede first published his scholarly book Culture's
Consequences in 1980. In hindsight, it represented a paradigm shift
in the comparative study of cultures. Since then, the amount of use
made of his work, as well as the amount of research carried out in
the area of culture, has continually been on the increase. Today,
several dimensional frameworks of culture exist as well as various
other conceptions of what culture is. Judging from the frequency of
application, as well as from the continued validity of the Hofstede
dimensions against other kinds of data, the Hofstede model is still
the most valid, practical one to date. But new developments are
happening.
Geert stresses that dimensions of cultures do not exist in
a tangible sense. They are constructs. A construct is "not directly
accessible to observation but inferable from verbal statements and
other behaviours and useful in predicting still other observable
and measurable verbal and nonverbal behaviour" (Teresa Levitin,
1973). Culture itself is a construct, so are values. It makes no
sense asking how many dimensions of culture there are. This
is like asking how many types of cloud exist - it is a matter of
definition, and practical significance should be the
criterion.
Many researchers have followed Hofstede's paradigm. Some
have developed new research instruments for comparing country
samples; the best known are Shalom Schwartz and Robert J. House
with the GLOBE team. Note that GLOBE use some of the same dimension
names as Hofstede, but for different constructs! Others have
replicated Geert's research, using updated versions of the
IBM questionnaire on which his original study was based. These
are known as Values Survey Modules (VSM) ; there has
been a VSM82 and a VSM94; the most recent version is the VSM08.
The VSM calls for professional research expertise. The VSM
has been useful in estimating country scores for countries not part
of the original research, by comparing carefully matched respondent
samples between the new countries and one or more countries covered
before. The usefulness of replications increases with the number of
countries included. One-country replications are meaningless
because they have no match to compare with: the VSM is is like a
thermometer that has to be re-calibrated at each
use. Those considering two-country replications on countries
studied before should rather search the literature. Anybody wanting
to use the VSM should study the 2001 edition of Geert's scholarly
book Culture's Consequences first.
Researchers have translated VSM versions into various
languages, and copied us on their translations. All available
translations of the VSM08 and the VSM94 are accessible via this
website. We neither doubt nor guarantee their quality;
users should always check their tools. We will be happy to
publish additional translations.
The Hofstede dimensions of culture are group-level
constructs. Dimensions of national culture are about societies;
dimensions of organizational culture about organizational units.
Neither is about individual differences between members of society
or organizations. Comparing survey responses between individuals
does not yield similar patterns to the cross-population comparisons
on which the Hofstede dimensions are based. This kind of issue is
known among scholars as the distinction between levels of analysis.
In the attached article on "multilevel research", Geert refers to
distinguishing among flowers, bouquets and gardens.
The Hofstede dimensions do not directly predict any
phenomena or dynamics. Applying them to make sense of what happens
in the world always has to take into account other factors as well
as culture - notably national wealth, history, personalities, and
coincidences. There is no quick fix to understand social life after
taking a dose of Hofstede. But the dimensions, when well
understood, do allow to predict a little better what is likely to
happen. And they become more useful as you go from the specific
case to the trend, average, or expectation. For instance, knowing
about culture hardly helps to predict what car you will buy - but
the trend among your compatriots to buy certain types of car in the
coming years can be predicted fairly well.