Customer Reviews

Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Hofstede is, of course, the pioneer of culture studies in business and organizations. This book is a simpler and more accessible version of the more comprehensive - but also more difficult, 'Culture's Consequences'.

He begins with an excellent overview of culture and its levels and explains the concept of cultural `dimensions' - aspects of culture that can differentiate and measure differences among different cultural groups. The book then proceeds to present the four dimensions of culture that he identified as a result of a massive survey he conducted on IBM employees in 72 countries in 1968 and again in 1972. Additional data was later collected from other countries and populations, outside IBM, and used to verify and enhance the original results.

However, in this book, Hofstede discusses his four original dimensions of culture: Power Distance; Uncertainty Avoidance; Individualism & Collectivism; and finally Masculinity & Femininity. The fifth dimension which was later added based on results from the Far East and Asia - Long- versus Short-Term Orientation - is not discussed in this book. Despite that, it remains a very valuable and highly readable introduction to the topic from the man who pioneered the field and popularized it among business people, multinationals and business researchers alike.

Hofstede also uses these dimensions of culture to 'classify' organizations to different types according to where they fall on the Power Distance vs. Uncertainty Avoidance grid. The discussion is highly informative and touches on Mintzberg's theories as well typical models of organization in different cultures. In Part Four, he discusses how intercultural encounters are affected by these dimensions and how awareness and acceptance of these differences can yield more effective results.

Geert Hofstede is Emeritus Professor at Maastricht University in The Netherlands. He was Professor of Organizational Anthropology and International Management at the University of Limburg (which was later re-named Maastricht University). He is the founder and first director of the Institute for Research on Intercultural Cooperation (IRIC), where a lot of the research used in this book comes from. This paperback version was published 3 years after the hardcover and includes some updated references to political events. This book is largely an extension to Hofstede's 1980-book `Culture's Consequences'. The book consists of 4 parts.

Part I - Introduction, consists of one chapter, and lays the foundation for the remainder of the book by introducing the meaning of `culture' and a small vocabulary of essential terms. He also discusses the objective of the book: "to help in dealing with the differences in thinking, feeling, and acting of people around the globe. It will show that although the variety in people's minds is enormous, there is a structure in this variety which can serve as a basis for mutual understanding." With reference to the definition of culture, we need to understand the book's subtitle first. `Software of the mind' is patterns of thinking, feeling and acting (which were learned throughout a lifetime). Hofstede's definition of culture is "the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from another." It is important to note that he believes that culture is learned and not inherited. He continues with a brief discussion on the 3 levels in human mental programming: 1. Human nature (universal; inherited); 2. Culture (specific to group/category; learned); and 3. Personality (specific to individual; learned and inherited).

Part II - National Cultures - is the largest section of this book with 6 chapters and deals with differences among cultures at national levels. Chapter 2-to-5 describe the four dimensions empirically found in research across more than 50 countries: (1) to wit power distance; (2) collectivism versus individualism; (3) femininity versus masculinity; and (4) uncertainty avoidance. Each of these 4 chapters follows the same structure: description of dimension, the scores of the various countries, the consequences of the dimension for family life, school, workplace, organization, state, and the development of ideas. Chapter 6 looks at the consequences of the national culture differences in the way people in a country organize themselves, combining the dimensions from the previous chapters. The next chapter introduces a fifth cross-national dimension, which is long-term versus short-term orientation. This reveals deep differences between Eastern and Western thinking.

Part III deals with differences in organizational culture and consists of only 1 chapter in which the author describes the insights collected in IRIC's research project across 20 organizational units in Denmark and the Netherlands between 1985-1987.

Part IV - Implications - consists of 2 chapters and discusses the practical implications of the culture differences and similarities. The first chapter of this part discusses what happens when people from different cultures meet. It discusses phenomena, such as culture shock, ethnocentrism, stereotyping, differences in language and in humor. It also discusses the development of intercultural communication skills. The final chapter of the book summarizes the message of the book and translates it into suggestions for parents, managers and the media. There is also a speculation on future political developments, based on the cultural processes.

Yes, this is a monumental book on the `software of the mind'. I believe that this book is a fantastic piece of work on this subject, based on strong research, and is probably the starting point for anybody interested in this subject. I must warn people that the book is not a simple, fast read, since the information is very intense and the wide range of information covered. However, the writing style is good and there are plenty of tables, diagrams, figures to make the reading somewhat `easier'. Highly recommended to all people interested in this subject, from parents through to managers. (Where is the 6-star button?)

I found this book to be of tremendous value. I have had some experience with different cultures -- Italian, French and East African. This book helped me understand all of them better, and gave me a much deeper understanding of the problems I had encountered.

Each of the cultural difference dimensions is based on real research -- not just a theoretical idea. Each of them is introduced with a telling anecdote, that is almost as powerful as the statistical study.

I found lots of new information here, lots of new understanding. Most amazing to me is the fact that relatively close cultures have profound differences -- such as France and Sweden. Also amazing is the fact that these differences are of extreme duration -- reaching back thousands of years.

The author recognizes the problems that these differences bring to business and politics in an international setting. There do not appear to be any easy answers.

I highly recommend this book!

This is a slow read, but take heart, read it all and also read "Corporate Culture and Performance" by Kotter and Haskett. The tools for making your organization run smoother, more efficiently and be more fun to work in are documented here. It is not a cookbook of how-to's. It is the research report into how cultural differences underlay everything you want to accomplish. If you are in the international arena or have a diverse workforce you absolutely need to read this book.

Knowing the differences in cultures and how to use them to everyone advantage is critical to your company's success. Ignore this one at your own peril, because at least one of your competitors is starting to implement the knowledge already. We started using the information by the time I got through the second chapter. Our Executive Coaching business is highly successful in changing corporate culture to produce the maximum benefits and returns with the resources available to top management because we factor in these differences. This book has become an indispensable reference for several of our programs.

The father and son team of Geert and Geert Jan Hofstede have done a remarkable job breaking down the (measurable) elements of the world's cultures, usingt the somewhat antiquated IBM studies combined with more recent (less comprehensive) studies. The end result is that nations can be evaulauted on the basis of criteria such as "uncertainty avoidance," "individualism" and "power distance from superiors."

The work is enlightening and helpful to anyone who works internationally. It is also useful to break down one's own nation (for example, some Americans lean toward the British way of thinking while others are more German-like). The same criteria that divide nations also divide families within a society.

Businessmen, missionaries, pastors, counselors, journalists, and social scientists should devour these materials!

This should be required reading for anyone planning to live overseas or anyone who deals with internationals. In short, this book is relevant to our modern "shrinking" world and quite well done.

Like most significant works, this volume has its weak points.

Although the authors claim to espouse a "values neutral" position (which I have always argued is an impossible and illogical position), their Dutch/Swedish preferences ring out loudly and clearly (humanistic, environmnetalist, etc.). Although the authors do make a serious attempt to look at things from other perspectives, they simply cannot divorce themselves from their own cultural preferances. This is not bad -- they simply need to be above board and stop pretending to take the role of the neutral outsider (at least to better influence those of us who are American conservatives; we are big into distinguishing between fact and evaluation of fact; these evaluations are always done through a person's own personal gridwork).

The authors also have occasional trouble connecting a few dots. For example, on the bottom of p. 355, the Hofstedes are tactfully scolding the U.S. for its lack of foreign aid (again, showing their own bias), but on the top of p. 356 they add, "Looking back to half a century of development assistance, most observers agree that the effectiveness of much of the spending has been dismal." They then say those countries which did improve did so because of their cultural values, not foreign aid. But they seem incapable of concluding that good intentions (and even money) is not the most effective way to solve these problems. They just don't get it.

The same is true with contributions through governments to Tsunami relief. It should be expected that individualistic countries would be more prone to give as individuals, not as collective societies. Rather than look at total giving (or perecentage) OF A SOCIETY, they authors confuse a society with its government. Lots of missed "dot connections" in this work.

Despite the books weakspots, it is overwhelming strong and rich with fascinating content. It is a "mind opening" work -- well worth the read. You simply must read this one!

An important book for developing the skills needed for an individual for working in a multi-cultural environment. Through the course of reading the book i realized a few things (in fact a lot of things) that will help me work better in a global organization. It is also useful as a tool if one plans to work with people from different cultures. In all, this book gives you revelent information in uderstanding this topic!

The third edition of Cultures and Organizations manages to significantly improve a great book. As a professor I have become deeply cynical of new editions -- I see shameless textbook producers make trivial changes every 18 months to kill off competition from used books. Fortunately this is not a text and the changes are real improvements from the previous edition.

If you are interested in globalization or comparative cultures you will want to buy and read this book even if you have already devoured the second edition. The most obvious changes: the expanded chapter (2) on studying cultural differences, the new proposed cultural dimension of indulgence (8), and the new chapter on evolution of cultures (12) are more than worth the time and effort of acquiring the new book.

This new edition resolves a dilemma for me: I was always torn between recommending Cultures and Consequences or Cultures and Organizations as an intro to Hofstede's ideas for someone who wanted a deep understanding of the research. I would now recommend that everyone, academic, business person, or curious reader, start with the third edition of Cultures and Organizations.

Hofstede's Culture and Organizations is a classic in cultural literature and is definitively worth reading. It contains numerous insights which are interesting yet also practical. A must read for anyone interested in national cultural differences.

The book consist of about 400 pages and is fairly dense in text. It consists of three different parts. The first part describes Hofstede's famous dimensions of national culture, the second discusses cultures in organizations and lasts the implications of all the earlier chapters.

In this book, Hofstede makes a lot of generalizations. I found it sometimes difficult to accept these and put my mind to "in general, statistically x is true" instead of "all people from population x are so and so." Especially when reading a book like this, it is important to keep in mind that generalizations are... exactly that. They are statistically true, but not per definition true.

Part 1 summarizes Hofstede's long research in cultural differences. His work started many years ago when he did cultural surveys in IBM and started to look at different cultural dimensions. He discovered four dimensions which he called: 1) power distance, 2) individualism/collectivism, 3) masculinity/femininity, 4) uncertainty avoidance. After a couple of years, working with a professor from the Hong Kong university, he discovered a fifth category which he called: long-term/short-term orientation. Each of these dimensions has its own chapter in which he shows the results of all countries on this particular dimension. After which he discusses how this influences the individual, family, organizations and state.

Part 1 was very insightful, yet at times the author seemed to be a victim of confusing causes and effects. At points he drew conclusions which were arguable. For example, he equated having a detached house with individualism, yet earlier he showed that individualism correlated with wealth. He leaves open whether wealth correlates to detached houses or individualism. Several times, the author jumped to conclusions where I felt he shouldn't yet. (perhaps part of his Dutch culture :P)

Part two discusses culture an organizations. The first chapter (chapter 7) argues that management theories are always limited to the culture of the creator. He makes a convincing case about this, yet I felt he went a little too far. When reading this, he seemed to argue that the management theories from one culture *never* apply to other cultures, where I'd expect a little more caution in the conclusions (similar comment as above). He especially seems to enjoy criticizing American management theories :) The second chapter in this part talks about organizational cultures. It looks at difference practice dimensions that can be identified in different organizational cultures.

Part three consist of two concluding chapters of which the first discusses intercultural encounters and culture shocks. I enjoyed how the clarifications of how different cultures encounter other cultured (ethnocentrism/xenophilia). The final chapter consist of suggestions to the world from the author. Suggestions on how to take culture into account at work, family, in the press, etc.

Cultures and Organizations is a very insightful work on cultural differences, yet I also found it limiting? Howcome? I noticed that the author especially focuses on differences in cultures in Europe and between Europe/US, yet rarely had good insight in Asian, Latin American, or African cultures. He does mention them every now and then, but still, almost all detailed examples and explanation are from Europe. Of course, this reflects the authors own experiences, but because of that (and because I've been living in Asia for many years) I felt his comments on Asian cultures was every now and then not subtle enough, which annoyed me.

Another point on which I disagreed with the author was the speed of cultural change. Hofstede is of opinion that culture does *not* change or that it takes a very very long time before it changes (relative to each other). I've lived in China for a couple years and frequently discussed cultural changes there, I think everyone will say that cultural *values* (not just practices) have changed a lot over the last 20 years. For example, on Hofstede's individualism/collectivism dimension, China was the top on collectivism. Based on my experiences, I wouldn't believe that anymore. Yes, this was true perhaps when he did the IBM survey, but not now. Similarly, Singapore scored lowest on uncertainty avoidance, which according to his explanation, shouldn't be as Singapore is the country with perhaps the most strict laws of all countries. My experience is that cultural values are changing, whereas Hofstede feels they are not (and they are perhaps even diverging more). Of course, only the future will tell us which is true, from a cultural perspective, Hofstede only surveyed a very small time-frame :)

All the comments aside, this book is definitively worth reading. I'd rate it 4.5 stars (due to some of the quick conclusions made) and decided to go for 4 Amazon stars. Definitively worth it though.

The greatest value that comes out of this book is the ability to articulate exactly what we mean by culture, what are its various dimensions, & how a culture is manifest at the macro or national level- while stressing every now & then to separate a national culture from the individual value system of its citizens.

The first seven chapters elucidate on the meaning of culture, its dimensions, & the comparative scores of various different countries in each of these dimensions - what these scores mean in terms of the family, school, workplace, the state, & ideas. This consistent structure gives the reader a very nuanced point of view on different cultures & the way they manifest. In the latter chapters, Hofstede also considers scores on two cultural dimensions & explains the combined effect of these as a whole.

Chapter 8 does a great job of differentiating Organizational cultures from National ones & clearly articulates that values do not differ across organizations in the same country; what differs are the practices these values translate into. The book did not have as extensive research on Organizational cultures, but manages to establish what is, or should be, understood by Organizational cultures. And it also has interesting notes on how some of these Organizational culture dimensions corelate with national culture dimensions.

The final two chapters are notes on implications of these differences & the elements of culture shock & how to go about handling these at the level of family, school, etc.

So while this was one of the great books I read this year, I still think that the title of book is misleading - for organizational cultures is not the mainstay of the book; national culture is.

But Hofstede's very organized & structured prose adds a great deal to a very intangible soft topic like culture. I think I understand the world a little more having read this book & can try to differentiate the broad national culture traits in the people I work with from their own individual value systems.

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.