Page 45 - Crossing Cultural Boundaries - Cees den Teuling

Latin countries like Italy and Mexico and is low in Nordic countries and in the Netherlands. Hofstede et al. (2010).
The fifth dimension described in the model proposed by Hofstede and Bond (1984a; 1988) is Long- versus Short-term orientation. This dimension shows the extent to which a society with long-term orientation has a pragmatic and forward-looking perspective, compared to societies with conventional and short-term perspective. Long- term orientation implies investment in the future, whereas short-term orientation includes correct personal fortitude, stability and respect for traditions. Long-term oriented are East Asian countries, followed by Eastern and Central Europe. A medium- term orientation is found in South- and North-European and South Asian countries. Short-term oriented are the USA and Australia, Latin American, African and countries in the Middle-East.
The sixth dimension of cultural differentiation is indulgence versus restraint, which relates to the gratification versus control of basic human desires to enjoy life (Minkov & Hofstede, 2012). According to the authors, this new dimension focuses on aspects known from literature on “happiness research”. Indulgence characterizes a society that allows relatively free satisfaction of basic and natural human desires and needs to enjoy life and have fun. In contrast, restraint describes a society that controls possibilities of need satisfaction and regulates it by means of strict social norms and rules. Thus, indulgence is more typical for individualistic cultures with low level of uncertainty avoidance, while restraint is more typical for collectivistic cultures. Indulgence tends to prevail in South and North America, in Western Europe and in parts of Sub-Sahara Africa. Restraint prevails in Asia, in the Muslim-dominated world and, to some extent, in Central Europe (Minkov & Hofstede, 2012).
Differences in NCs were found by Hofstede in three different research projects conducted in 64, 10 and 23 countries respectively. There are at least three reasons why Nationality is considered as an important issue for cross-border KM: political, sociological and psychological (Hofstede, 1996).
Hofstede’s dimensional model has been criticised by number of researchers. Tayeb (1994) paid attention to the method used by Hofstede for information collection. Hofstede studied NC indirectly with data collected from a global IBM Employees Attitudes Questionnaire, with the collected information on differences as a side effect. The study was not planned as an investigation of the influence of culture on organisations and their members. Culture was used as an explanation for the interesting patterns revealed by the findings. Additionally, according to Myers and Tan (2003) the
43