Austin Woerner's Memory Palace
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EAP102 Spring 2019

Class notes and homework assignments

Day 19

M-Tu Mar 25-26

Homework

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Hofstede, Hofstede, and Minkov, "Cultures and Organizations"
Hofstede, Hofstede, and Minkov, "Cultures and Organizations"

A sweeping study of cultural differences between the world’s societies that attempts to explain these differences in terms of different “cultural dimensions.”

➤ Read Hofstede Chapter 4

Note: There’s a lot of technical stuff in this chapter, particularly toward the beginning, that isn’t very interesting. Use the questions below to focus your reading. Skim the stuff that seems too technical or not relevant to these questions.

I expect you’ll find the content on pages 106-130 (common characteristics of individualist and collectivist societies) most interesting and illuminating. If I were you I would budget time to read these parts pretty carefully.

➤ Speaker tasks

Summarize the main points of this chapter. Divide the content however you like between the three of you. Focus your summaries on the answers to Questions to guide your reading.

Remember you do not have to tell us everything Hofstede says. Tell us just the things you think are most important, interesting, and necessary.



Questions to guide your reading:

  • How does Hofstede define the terms "collectivism" and "individualism"?

  • How were individualism and collectivism measured in Hofstede's IBM studies?

  • What's the relationship between individualism/collectivism and power distance? Why does Hofstede consider these two dimensions and not one?

  • According to Hofstede, what are some common characteristics of individualist and collectivist societies when it comes to:

    • Family?

    • Language and communication?

    • Individual personality?

    • School?

    • Work?

    • Government and politics?

    • Ideas?

  • According to Hofstede, what is the relationship between individualism/collectivism and wealth?

Compare countries - Hofstede Insights

Please select a country in the dropdown menu below to see the values for the 6 dimensions. After a first country has been selected, a second and even a third country can be chosen to be able to see a comparison of their scores.

➤ Experiment with Hofstede’s national cultures comparison tool

Play around with this nifty tool Hofstede’s website. Try comparing some countries you imagine to be culturally similar to each other and culturally different. (Note that the PRC, Hong Kong, and Taiwan were surveyed separately, so you can make comparisons within the Chinese-speaking world as well as between it and other countries). Be ready to tell us one interesting thing you noticed, or one thing that surprised you.

day-19Austin Woerner