Geert Hofstede
Geert Hofstede was a prominent Dutch social psychologist known for his groundbreaking research on cross-cultural organizations and his influential theory of cultural dimensions. Born on October 2, 1928, in Haarlem, the Netherlands, Hofstede's early experiences traveling and working in diverse cultural settings sparked his interest in cultural differences. He earned a Master’s degree in mechanical engineering before transitioning to social psychology, ultimately completing his PhD in 1967. His tenure at IBM Europe provided a unique platform for his research, where he analyzed employee behavior across various cultures, leading to his landmark publication, *Culture's Consequences*, in 1980.
Hofstede's theory identifies key cultural dimensions, including individualism versus collectivism, masculinity versus femininity, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, long-term orientation, and indulgence versus restraint. These dimensions have been widely utilized in international business and cross-cultural psychology to enhance understanding and communication among different cultures. Despite facing critiques regarding the applicability of his framework, Hofstede's work remains influential and is recognized globally, with his texts translated into numerous languages. He passed away on February 12, 2020, leaving a lasting legacy in the study of cultural diversity and organizational behavior.
Geert Hofstede
Social psychologist
- Born: October 2, 1928
- Place of Birth: Haarlem, Netherlands
- Died: February 12, 2020
- Education: Delft Technical University, Groningen University
Significance: Social psychologist Geert Hofstede was well-known for his research on cross-cultural organizations and groups as well as his theory of cultural dimensions.
Background
Geert Hofstede was born in Haarlem, the Netherlands, to Evertine and Gerrit Hofstede on October 2, 1928. Graduating from high school in 1945, Hofstede took advantage of the end of World War II to travel, getting a job as an assistant ship’s engineer and traveling to Indonesia. He also met a woman from England and went to visit her there, recalling later that he was particularly impressed with the cultural differences between England and the Netherlands, considering how close they are geographically; the differences between the two countries helped inspire his later research in cultural studies. Back in the Netherlands in 1947, Hofstede enrolled at Delft Technical University, earning an MSc in mechanical engineering in 1953. He then joined the Dutch military and served as a technical officer for two years.
After leaving the army, Hofstede worked in industry for about a decade, intentionally starting at the bottom as a factory worker in Amsterdam before moving into management. Hofstede later said his time in management was helpful to him as a social psychologist working with organizational culture. In 1965 he began doctoral research at Groningen University, and he also joined IBM Europe as a manager of personnel research, a position he held until 1971. He finished his PhD in social psychology in 1967.
Life’s Work
Hofstede’s position with IBM, and his graduate studies, allowed him to effect a career transition from engineering to social psychology. Traveling across the world for IBM, Hofstede used employee surveys to document peoples’ behavior and collect data, especially in working conditions that required collaboration. After collecting a huge amount of data, he took a sabbatical from his position at IBM to conduct research and to take a look at the data.
One of the major things that Hofstede noticed was the striking difference in behavioral patterns between cultures. After becoming a visiting lecturer at the International Institute for Management Development (or IMEDE) in Switzerland, he conducted further research on his international students. These individuals were from both private and public associations that had no relation to IBM. With these surveys, Hofstede was able to conclude that the differences between the individuals at IBM were not due to the work environment, but to cultural differences between countries.
After his findings, Hofstede returned to IBM and encouraged the company to allow him to do more research with their database. He was refused, but then began work at the European Institute for Advanced Studies in Management in Belgium and also began teaching at the INSEAD business school in France. He was able to work on the data during a period from 1973 until 1979, using existing studies in political science and sociology to expand his results. He published his findings in a landmark book titled Culture’s Consequences in 1980.
Based on data from some forty countries, Culture’s Consequences laid out Hofstede’s theory of cultural dimensions, according to which major cultural differences could be quantified across four dimensions (he later added two more). Evaluating cultures (or organizations) according to these dimensions was intended to facilitate cross-cultural communication. The first four dimensions were: individualism, or whether the culture focuses on the individual or the group; masculinity, or whether the culture focuses on traditionally defined masculine values of achievement, competition, and control, or traditionally defined feminine values of cooperation and care; the power distance index, or how accepting the culture is of hierarchy, especially on the part of the less powerful (that is, how willing people are to question authority); and the uncertainty avoidance index, which measures the culture’s tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity. Later research in Asia led Hofstede to add a fifth dimension, long-term orientation, or how focused a culture is on tradition and patience versus quick change. In 2010 Hofstede added a sixth dimension, indulgence, or how willing a culture is to fulfill human urges and desires, or whether it restrains them through strict social norms.
Hofstede’s theory attracted a good deal of attention in the business world and came to influence the nascent field of cross-cultural psychology. Some have questioned the theory, however, most prominently British business professor Brendan McSweeney, who found, among other things, that the national scope of Hofstede’s approach was inadequate to account for regional variations in cultural temperament. Hofstede welcomed and responded to all such critiques.
On February 12, 2020, Hofstede died at the age of ninety-one.
Impact
Hofstede’s work made him an international name in social psychology. His books have been translated into over twenty languages and over nine thousand of his articles from 1981 to 2011 have been peer-reviewed. In 2004, Hanze University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands established the Geert Hofstede Lecture, an intercultural communication conference. Two years later, Maastricht University, where Hofstede taught organizational anthropology and international management from 1985 until his retirement in 1993, created the Geert Hofstede Chair in cultural diversity. He held honorary professorships in China, and in 2011 he was knighted by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands.
Personal Life
Hofstede married Maaike A. van den Hoek in 1955. They had four sons and ten grandchildren. Though retired from academia, Hofstede continued to work and publish in the area of cultural studies with his son Gert Jan Hofstede, a population biologist and social scientist.
Bibliography
"Geert Hofstede." The Economist, 28 Nov. 2008, www.economist.com/news/2008/11/28/geert-hofstede. Accessed 18 Sept. 2024.
"Geert Hofstede's Biography." Geert Hofstede, geerthofstede.com/geert-hofstede-biography/geert-hofstede-cv/. Accessed 18 Sept. 2024.
"Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions Theory." Corporate Finance Institute, corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/management/hofstedes-cultural-dimensions-theory/. Accessed 18 Sept. 2024.
Hoppe, Michael H. "An Interview with Geert Hofstede." Academy of Management Executive, vol. 18, no. 1, 2004, pp. 75–79.
"In Memoriam Geert Hofstede (1928–2020)." Maastricht University, www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/memoriam-geert-hofstede-1928-2020. Accessed 18 Sept. 2024.
Jackson, Terence. "The Legacy of Geert Hofstede." International Journal of Cross Cultural Management, vol. 20, no. 1, 2020, doi:10.1177/14705958209150. Accessed 18 Sept. 2024.