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Geert Hofstede Quotes

Gerard Hendrik Hofstede is a Dutch social psychologist, former IBM employee, and Professor Emeritus of Organizational Anthropology and International Management at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, well known for his pioneering research on cross-cultural groups and organizations.

His most notable work has been in developing cultural dimensions theory. Here he describes national cultures along six dimensions: Power Distance, Individualism, Uncertainty avoidance, Masculinity, Long Term Orientation, and Indulgence vs. restraint. He is known for his books Culture's Consequences and Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind, co-authored with his son Gert Jan Hofstede. The latter book deals with organizational culture, which is a different structure from national culture, but also has measurable dimensions, and the same research methodology is used for both. Wikipedia  

✵ 2. October 1928
Geert Hofstede: 11 quotes0 likes

Famous Geert Hofstede Quotes

“Individualism implies a loosely knit social framework in which people are supposed to take care of themselves and of their immediate families only.”

Geert Hofstede

Source: Culture's consequences: International differences in work-related values (1980), p. 45.

“What Machiavelli did not write but what the association between political systems and citizens' mental software suggests is that which animal the ruler should impersonate depends strongly on what animals the followers are.”

Geert Hofstede

Source: Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind, 1990, p. 81.

“Collectivism stands for a society in which people from birth onwards are integrated into strong, cohesive in-groups, which throughout people's lifetime continue to protect them in exchange for unquestioning loyalty.”

Geert Hofstede

Source: Culture's consequences: International differences in work-related values (1980), p. 51.

“Power distance is defined as the extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organizations within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally.”

Geert Hofstede

Hofstede (1997, p. 28) Anthony Henry (2008) Understanding Strategic Management. p. 359.

“In most collectivist cultures, direct confrontation of another person is considered rude and undesirable. The word no is seldom used, because saying “no” is a confrontation; “you may be right” and “we will think about it” are examples of polite ways of turning down a request. In the same vein, the word yes should not necessarily be inferred as an approval, since it is used to maintain the line of communication: “yes, I heard you” is the meaning it has in Japan.”

Geert Hofstede

Source: Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind, 1990, p. 106.

“All societies are unequal, but some are more unequal than others.”

Geert Hofstede

Source: Culture's consequences: International differences in work-related values (1980), p. 137.

Geert Hofstede Quotes

“Individualism denotes the relationship between the individual and the collectivity which prevails in a given society.”

Geert Hofstede

Source: Culture's consequences: International differences in work-related values (1980), p. 148.

“Individualism pertains to societies in which the ties between individuals are loose: everyone is expected to look after himself or herself and his or her immediate family.”

Geert Hofstede

Source: Culture's consequences: International differences in work-related values (1980), p. 51.

“Culture is the collective programming of the mind distinguishing the members of one group or category of people from others.”

Geert Hofstede

Source: Culture's consequences: International differences in work-related values (1980), p. 25; as cited in Rüdiger Pieper (1990) Human Resource Management: An International Comparison. p. 130.

“Values are a broad tendency to prefer certain states of affairs over others.”

Geert Hofstede

Source: Culture's consequences: International differences in work-related values (1980), p. 19.

“Cross-cultural studies presuppose a systems approach, by which I mean that any element of the total system called ``culture’’ should be eligible for analysis, regardless of the discipline that usually deals with such elements. At the level of (national) cultures, these are phenomena on all levels: individuals, groups, organizations, or society as a whole may be relevant. There is no excuse for overlooking any vital factor because it is usually treated in someone else’s department at the university.”

Geert Hofstede

Source: Culture's consequences: International differences in work-related values (1980), p. 32; As cited in Low Sui Pheng & Shi Yuquan. "An exploratory study of Hofstede’s cross-cultural dimensions in construction projects." Management Decision 40.1 (2002): 7-16.

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