The EBF site is dead. If you click through you will be taken to the Internet Archive site to find an archived copy.
Don’t let the title fool you – this is an excellent article for those who are not even especially interested in Europe. That is because it offers a good overview of the work of Professor Geert Hofstede, who between 1967 and 1973 surveyed over 100,000 IBM employees in 49 different countries about their preferences in terms of work-related values. The result was a number of seminal works on cultural values and differences published during the 1980s and 1990s. Here the authors specifically review Hofstede’s four basic dimensions:
1. Power Distance
2. Uncertainty Avoidance
3. Individualism-Collectivism
4. Masculinity-Femininity
If you are not familiar with this work already, read this article.
Editor’s Note: see the EBF follow-up with a new critique of Hofstede’s methodology from Professor Brendan McSweeney and a personal commentary from Professor Mikael Søndergaard at:
Odd Nordhaug, Paul Gooderham
Source: European Business Forum (EBF)
Subjects: International – Europe, Management
