5-D model

Although we focus on organisational culture and not national culture, those using our tools should also be knowledgeable about national cultural differences. After all, national culture is one of the many factors shaping organisational culture. E.g. it is possible that one has to attribute different meaning to similar findings in different subsidiaries around the world being part of the same multinational.

Managing in an intercultural environment is a complicated issue, requiring a lot more than a list of do's and don'ts. What international managers need is a general conceptual framework which can help them to understand how, on average, people from different nations view and solve basic problems. Geert Hofstede, Professor Emeritus in Organisational Anthropology and International Management at the University of Limburg, was able to do a large scale research in which over 116.000 respondents in more than 70 countries participated. After many years of analysis, complemented with correlating research, he was able to deduce four basic dimensions of culture.

Subsequent research in the Far East has identified a fifth cultural dimension. The dimensions represent elements of common structure in the cultural systems of the countries. They are based on very fundamental issues in human societies to which every society has to find its particular answers.