Geert Hofstede's Big Idea

Geert Hofstede undertook what is probably the most famous study of how culture relates to values in the workplace. Through his research in the late 1960s and early 1970s, he was able to isolate four dimensions that he claimed summarized different cultures: power distance, individualism vs. collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity vs. femininity, and, later, Confucian dynamism.

How a society's culture affects the values found in the workplace is considerably important to an international business with operations in different countries. Management processes and practices may need to vary according to culturally determined work-related values.

This activity is important because both employees and leaders within an organization are impacted by the workplace culture, which can positively or negatively influence the overall reputation, growth, and financial stability of the company. By identifying and understanding which cultural workplace dimension that is exhibited by the employees, management can communicate more effectively to creeate an integrated and inclusive environment within the organization.

The goal of this exercise is todemonstrate your understanding ofGeert Hofstede's Big Idea of the four dimensions of workplace culture by analyzing a case and identifying the workplace culture represented in each situation.

Read the case and answer the questions that follow.

WiTalk Corporation is a telecommunications company in France that provides Internet service to its customers all over the European Union. An advocate for diversity and inclusion,WiTalk employs 10,000 people from a widerange ofbackgrounds and cultures such as the following:

- Michelle is concerned with personal stability. He has a high degree of respect for tradition and will go to great lengths to protect his reputation.

- Galina has worked at the same company for more than 15 years. She parks in the same parking spot each day and values routine and predictability.

- Manolis is extremely driven and assertive. His goal is to become the most powerful man in the company.

- Ming is intellectually gifted and from a very powerful family in China. Due to the wealth and power of her family, she is expected to be extremely successful in the workplace.

- Ben has very loose ties with his family and enjoys wearing provocative t-shirts to express a sense of freedom and uniqueness. He shows no interest in joining the family business.

1)According to Geert Hofstede's Big Idea, power distance is one of the cultural dimensions within a workplace, which indicates the strength of societal social hierarchythe extent to which the lower ranking individuals of a society accept and expect that power is distributed unequally. Who best represents this characteristic?