Geert Hofstede - Development of Research Model

Development of Research Model

Geert's analysis defined four initial dimensions of national culture that were positioned against analysis of 40 initial countries. As a trained psychologist, he began his analysis of the survey data at the individual respondent level. At the end of two years, he realized he needed an “ecological” analysis, in which respondents were contextualized by their countries. By aggregating individuals as societal units, he could examine national cultures rather than individual personalities.

Geert’s model, when introduced in 1980, came at a time when cultural differences between societies had become increasingly relevant for both economic and political reasons. Although using scientific data to back his claims, practitioners embraced the model, especially after the publication of his 1991 book, “Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind.”

However, some critics have argued that his conceptualization of culture is not static and as essential as he mentions. The most cited criticism of his work is by Professor Brendan McSweeney (Royal Holloway, University of London and Stockholm University) who argues that Hofstede's methodology is fundamentally flawed Hofstede replied to this critique (see details in the list of Hofstede's publications below). McSweeney responded to this reply. Another key critique which largely focuses on level of analysis is by Professor Barry Gerhart (University of Wisconsin-Madison) and Professor Meiyu Fang (National Central University, Taiwan) who point out that amongst other problems with Hofstede's research (and the way it is widely interpreted) is that his results actually only show that around 2 to 4 percent of variance in individual values is explained by national differences – in other words 96 percent, and perhaps more, is not explained. And that there is nothing in Hofstede's work that pertains to individual-level behaviours or actions. In a 2008 article in the Academy of Management’s journal, The Academy of Management Review, Galit Ailon deconstructs Hofstede’s book Culture’s Consequences by mirroring it against its own assumptions and logic. Ailon finds several inconsistencies at the level of both theory and methodology, and cautions against an uncritical reading of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions.

In 1980, Geert co-founded and became the first Director for the IRIC, the Institute for Research on Intercultural Cooperation, located at Tilburg University since 1998. Much of Geert’s research on the basic dimensions of nations came through the IRIC. In 2001, Geert published an entirely re-written second edition of "Culture’s Consequences". In 2010, a third edition of "Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind" was published with Gert Jan Hofstede and Michael Minkov listed as co-authors. In this book, there were two new dimensions that were added, and the number of countries covered to between 76 and 93. This book also introduced the topic of organizational cultures as a separate and different phenomenon.

Geert’s books have appeared in 23 languages. World Wide Web’s citation indexes between 1981 and 2011 listed more than 9,000 articles in peer-reviewed journals citing one or more of Geert’s publications. This makes him the currently most cited European social scientist. He holds honorary doctorates from seven universities in Western and Eastern Europe.