Hofstedes Cultural Dimensions And How It Relates To Leadership

Question: Explain what combination of dimensions you think would make the most effective leader Answer: Hofstede model of cultural dimensions Social psychologist Geert Hofstede created a framework of cross cultural communication. The five cultural dimensions mentioned in this model are derived depending upon the national cultures and different dimensions of values (Kreitner Kinicki, 2013). The following five values were mentioned in the model: Power distance Uncertainty avoidance Masculinity vs Femininity Individualism vs Collectivism Long vs short term orientation Power distance: According to Hofstede Minkov (2010) power distance is generally seen in the different employee layers of organization. The less powerful employees in an organization will have to report to the medium level managers who in turn reports to the upper or senior level managers. However cultures with low power distance like the US organizational culture is favorable for effective management of the organizational objectives. Uncertainty avoidance: This dimension measures the degree to which the prevailing culture helps the employees to cope of comfortably with the unstructured environments or unknown situations (Chen, 2009). High uncertainty avoidance culture makes the employees emotional and increases the scope of rules, laws and regulations within the organization. However low uncertainty avoidance will make the employees dynamic and they will be able to adapt to any changing situation. Masculinity vs femininity: This dimension measures the organizations personality against masculine and feminine stereotypes. The organizations with assertive, competitive and rules generated culture the masculinity concept is followed. On the contrary the organizations with dynamic, flexibility and creative outlook the femininity are followed. For instance a media company will follow a feminine culture whereas a factory production company will follow a masculine culture (Chen, 2009). Individualism vs collectivism: Individualism is defined as a degree to which the individuals are integrated into groups (McFarlin Sweeney, 2013). The organizations with individualist culture will be identified by employees focusing on personal achievements and rights. The employees will not have any contribution to the achievement of the overall organizational goal. On the contrary in collectivist culture the employees are seen to act cohesively in a group to fulfill the attainment of organizational objectives as well as individual objectives. Long vs short term orientation: The long term orientation measures the long term values like the perseverance, thrift and rewards attached to future prospective. The organizations in China are seen to show long term orientation culture (Kreitner Kinicki, 2013). On the contrary the short term orientation focuses on the short term values like respect for tradition, completion of social obligations and avoidance of personal embarrassment. Organizations with low long term orientation and high degree of short term orientation are seen to have employees who demonstrate personal stability and observe daily customs like giving and receiving gifts. Relation of Hofstede model with leadership According to Lind van den Bos (2013) the role of a global leader is very diverse in respect of managing cross border trade, travel and business and business negotiations. The cultural dimensions of the model helps the leader to understand the type of behavior required from the leader in different cultures. In this regard it may be noted that the leaders in an organization should be collectivist rather than individualist and for a leader to show collectivism the organization should have a low power distance culture. For instance leaders in organizations of UK, USA and Canada are more collectivist and are successful in attaining organizational goals as well as individual goals. Similarly Kreitner Kinicki (2013) opined that leaders in higher uncertainty avoidance societies like Germany, Japan and Spain are seen to be aggressive and individual goal oriented. These leaders tend to be long term oriented and pay no attention to the present necessities of the group members. Hence Hofstede Minkov (2010) suggested that an organization to have a congenial working environment it is necessary that the leaders should also be short term oriented and pay attention to the psychological needs of the group members like gifts, care and friendly attitude. Moreover the leader is required to have low uncertainty avoidance so that the group as well as the leader is able to adapt themselves with any diverse situations. Chen (2009) further added that among the five cultural dimensions power distance is the most important determinant of leadership style. Keeping the cultural dimensions in mind may be suggested that leadership traits like situational leadership, participative leadership style and transformational leadership style should be adopted by the leaders for the purpose of attainment of the organizational goal. Hence with the help of Hofstede model the organizations can generate effective leaders for efficient management of operations. Reference list Books Chen, O. (2009). Organizational behavior and dynamics. New York: Nova Science Publishers. Hofstede, G. Minkov, M. (2010). Cultures and organizations. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill. Kreitner, R., Kinicki, A. (2013). Organizational behavior. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin. McFarlin, D., Sweeney, P. (2013). International organizational behavior. New York: Routledge. Journals Lind, E., van den Bos, K. (2013). Freeing organizational behavior from inhibitory constraints. Research In Organizational Behavior, 33, 79-95. doi:10.1016/j.riob.2013.10.001