Hofstede’s Six Dimensions

Cultural Relations and Workplace Beliefs

Cultural relations have a major influence on workplace beliefs. Cultural contexts and norms have an effect on organizational success, both positively and negatively. Community, according to Geert Hofstede, is a collective type of mental programming that distinguishes one group of people from another by modifying their physical and mental perspectives (Tuleja, 2016). Based on their findings, Hofstede and his colleagues developed a six-dimensional model that can be used to compare the effect of culture on various populations (Hofstede, 2017). This paper seeks to use this model to explain the effect of culture on the relationship between the United States and China. Understanding the US culture can help to identify the main factors that drive the efficiency and the accuracy of a workforce. In this case, culture is viewed as a tendency that is common to the whole society. However, it is important to note that people are different in terms of stature and mental capabilities, and they all deviate from the norms in small extents. Furthermore, it is evident that cultural differences exist among countries and people. Notably, these facts apply to both countries under the study.

Power Distance

As stated earlier, people are unique in their own ways. This means that they have different capabilities to affect the action of other people in a workforce. The level of inequality is the power distance. In this case, power is considered as the ability of a person to influence the ideas and the behavioral traits of other members of the workforce. China has a higher index than the United States according to the 6-Dimension. This means that the people of China have more capabilities to influence the activities of a workplace through ideas. This feature implies that power is less unequal in China than in the United States (Hofstede, 2017).

Individualism

This aspect is associated with the ability of a workforce to maintain interdependence among its members. This feature attempts to understand the internal relationship between the members of a workforce. Furthermore, it tries to determine whether the relationship among these members is defined by ’I’ or ’we’ workforce settings. Notably, it is expected that a functional workforce should ensure that there is inclusivity regarding all members of its team, and hence a necessity to ensure that the ’we’ concept is applied and highly encouraged. From the index, it is evident that the United States continues to be one of the most individualist countries in the world. Despite its low performance in power distance, it has far much higher individualist index compared to the Chinese culture. This implies that the USA culture encourages good relationships among its workforce.

Masculinity

The Six Dimension model is clear regarding the United States culture that is higher than Chinese one in terms of masculinity. This high level of indices shows that the U.S economy is driven by high competition, success, and achievement. Furthermore, the success of the workforce is defined by the most masculine or the best in a given field, that is, only the best is considered as the winner. This concept is crucial to the whole economy and the existence of the workforce. The masculinity of the workforce begins with their childhood all the way to the workplace. A low index for the Chinese culture means that their culture is highly dominated in terms of caring for the quality of life. In fact, it is likened to the feminine nature of a woman: they are considered as dominant caring characters. The masculinity of the U.S culture index as was expected (Hofstede, 2017). This culture is associated with individualism and masculinity, and hence the above indices are justifiable. These two qualities are important to the relationship in a workforce.

Uncertainty Avoidance

This feature is associated with the fact that most of the future occurrences are unknown by most countries and individuals. The USA culture has a score that is below average in determining the impact of the future occurrences. Therefore, the occurrence of uncertainty means that the workforce would be negatively affected or disrupted. Furthermore, this trend implies that China’s cultural status is open to new ideas, innovation and has the will to try new inventions.

Long-term Orientation

This feature is associated with the behavior of a state towards its current affairs and performance about its previous challenges. The United States scores a lower index compared to China. This means that the United States culture is normative. Thus, the society is rigid and prefers to maintain its traditions rather than embrace change. Furthermore, it views new challenges with suspicion. This behavior discourages its workforce from reaching solutions to its problems. The workforce is also discouraged to analyze any new information to determine the credibility and the truth of the information.

Indulgence

Lastly, indulgence is concerned with the measurement of people’s ability to control their desires. On the Sixth Dimension model, the United States scores highly in this category compared to China. Although indulgence shows a different score from the other dimensions, it is evident that the USA culture is linked to work persistence. This feature encourages its workforce to work harder, and hence the performance is increased (Tuleja, 2016).

References

Hofstede, G. (2017). The United States - Geert Hofstede. Retrieved from https://geert-hofstede.com/united-states.html.

Tuleja, E. (2016). Intercultural communication for global business. Florence: Taylor and Francis.