International Dimensions of Organi-zational Behaviour
The international dimensions of organizational behaviour can be understood with the help of Hofstede Model. Geart Hofstede conducted a research at IBM from the year 1967 to 1973 in which he collected the data from employees of about 40 countries. On the basis of this data he gave a framework of cross cultural differences among the employees of different na-tions and how it affects their values, ethics and beliefs. Originally the model consisted of four
dimensions which has refined later resulting in total six dimensions.
The original Hofstede model and its four dimensions are mentioned below:
1. Individualism - Collectivism: The indi-vidualism and collectivism dimension of cultural diversity refers to the attachment or detachment of an individual to the groups from which he or she belongs. The individualistic culture is the one in which the people are not attached with their groups in a deeply rooted manner. Here people rely on themselves only, they want to be inde-pendent, free and form their own identity. They do not want to be known because of the group to which they belong. People in this culture are innovative and risk takers.
On the other hand collectivist culture in-cludes those people who are quite attached to their groups and feel proud to be a member of a particular group. Here, people associate their identity with their groups and are strictly binded to the group norms and rules. In collectivistic culture people are closely attached to their fami-lies and religious groups. Thus, their working style and decision making patterns all are in-fluenced by the groups to which they belong. In this culture every individual finds himself ac-countable for his/her family. Decisions such as choosing a spouse, selecting a career or going to abroad for work opportunities are all taken with the consent of family.
2. Power distance: Power distance deals
with distribution of power among people in a country. It refers to the extent up to which people in a culture find the unequal distribution of power acceptable. Cultures with high power distance accept the unequal distribution of power. People in this culture give importance and respect to those with high power. These cultures are hier-archical in nature and people with more power act as superiors and are expected to get re-spect from people with low power. For example, Thailand is a country with high power distance therefore, people here recognise the power sta-tus right since their childhood. Professions like managers, teachers and interviewers etc.
3. Uncertainty avoidance: Uncertainty avoidance refers to 'fear of unknown'. It refers to the concept of how much people are afraid of ambiguity, unseen conditions and unknown situations. Cultures with high uncertainty avoid-ance easily accept conditions that are predict-able and less risky. The people in this culture are very much afraid of high risk, uncertainty and confusion. In order to work better, people here want a clear set of instructions, work pro-cedures, rules and regulations. They want to know clearly what the managers expect from them and how they should complete their tasks. In high uncertainty avoidance culture people always tend to reduce the risk and uncertainty around them. They work better in bureaucratic organizational structure where the line of com-mand and authority is clear and every individual has predefined jobs, duties, responsibilities and rules and regulations.
Whereas cultures with low risk and uncer-tainty avoidance accept risk and uncertainty as a part of their lives.
4. Masculinity - Femininity: Masculinity cultures are those which prefer performance, achievement, competitiveness and money. In this culture people give little importance to re-lations or other formalities rather, they just want to become successful, wealthy and powerful in life. In masculinity cultures there is also a gen-der gap between male and female. In this cul-ture men are given more importance as com-pared to women. Men are considered inferior to them. Men are thought to be more competi-tive and thus are given more opportunities and challenging work at the workplace. Whereas the primary job of the women is considered to be at home and raise kids.
On the other hand femininity cultures are those in which humanity, kindness and main-taining good relationships are more important than being successful and wealthy. The people in femininity cultures value society and its well being more in comparison to the materialistic things. They believe in charity and helping the weaker section of the society. Also in feminin-ity culture the men and women are treated as equal. They are considered to be equally com-petitive and get the opportunities at the work-place on the basis of their performance and talent rather than gender. And thus, they always maintain good relations with mutual respect and harmony.
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