Making Sense of Cross Cultural Communication

9 Jun 2009

by admin

2 Comments »

Individualism

Individualism is the one side versus its opposite, collectivism, that is the degree to which individuals are integrated into groups. On the individualist side we find societies in which the ties between individuals are loose: everyone is expected to look after him/herself and his/her immediate family. On the collectivist side, we find societies in which people from birth onwards are integrated into strong, cohesive in-groups, often extended families (with uncles, aunts and grandparents) which continue protecting them in exchange for unquestioning loyalty.

For example, Germany can be considered as individualistic with a relatively high score (67) on the scale of Hofstede compared to a country like Guatemala where they have strong collectivism (6 on the scale).

In Germany people stress on personal achievements and individual rights. Germans expect from each other to fulfil their own needs. Group work is important, but everybody has the right of his own opinion an is expected to reflect those. In an individual country like Germany people tend to have more loose relationships than countries where there is a collectivism where people have large extended families.

The United States can clearly been seen as individualistic (scoring a 91). The “American dream” is clearly a representation of this. This is the Americans’ hope for a better quality of life and a higher standard of living than their parents’. This belief is that anyone, regardless of their status can ‘pull up their boot straps’ and raise themselves from poverty.

Power Distance Index | Individualism | Masculinity | Uncertainty Avoidance Index | Long-Term Orientation

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Individuality
1-20 21-40 41-60 61-80 81-100 101-120

Country PDI IDV MAS UAI LTO
United States 40 91 62 46 29
Australia 36 90 61 51 31
United Kingdom 35 89 66 35 25
Netherlands 38 80 14 53 44
New Zealand 22 79 58 49 30
Italy 50 76 70 75
Belgium 65 75 54 94
Denmark 18 74 16 23
France 68 71 43 86
Sweden 31 71 5 29 33
Ireland 28 70 68 35
Norway 31 69 8 50 20
Switzerland 34 68 70 58
Germany 35 67 66 65 31
South Africa 49 65 63 49
Finland 33 63 26 59
Poland 68 60 64 93
Czech Republic 57 58 57 74
Austria 11 55 79 70
Hungary 46 55 88 82
Israel 13 54 47 81
Spain 57 51 42 86
India 77 48 56 40 61
Argentina 49 46 56 86
Japan 54 46 95 92 80
Iran 58 41 43 59
Jamaica 45 39 68 13
Brazil 69 38 49 76 65
Egypt 80 38 52 68
Iraq 80 38 52 68
Kuwait 80 38 52 68
Lebanon 80 38 52 68
Libya 80 38 52 68
Saudi Arabia 80 38 52 68
United Arab Emirates 80 38 52 68
Turkey 66 37 45 85
Uruguay 61 36 38 100
Greece 60 35 57 112
Philippines 94 32 64 44 19
Mexico 81 30 69 82
Ethiopia 64 27 41 52 25
Kenya 64 27 41 52 25
Portugal 63 27 31 104
Tanzania 64 27 41 52 25
Zambia 64 27 41 52 25
Malaysia 104 26 50 36
Hong Kong 68 25 57 29 96
Chile 63 23 28 86
China 80 20 66 40 118
Ghana 77 20 46 54 16
Nigeria 77 20 46 54 16
Sierra Leone 77 20 46 54 16
Singapore 74 20 48 8 48
Thailand 64 20 34 64 56
El Salvador 66 19 40 94
South Korea 60 18 39 85 75
Taiwan 58 17 45 69 87
Peru 64 16 42 87
Costa Rica 35 15 21 86
Indonesia 78 14 46 48
Pakistan 55 14 50 70
Colombia 67 13 64 80
Venezuela 81 12 73 76
Panama 95 11 44 86
Ecuador 78 8 63 67
Guatemala 95 6 37 101

2 Comments

 
 

  • Armando Silva
    1 Nov, 2009

    Good Afternoon Team of ClearlyCultural.com

    First, I would like to congratulate you for your great site and tools that helps us to understand more easily the cultural differences using Hofstede cultural dimensions.

    I am a Mexican undergraduate student in an abroad experience in Japan, your site has proved really helpful in our Japanese Business Culture course, being able to access the Hofstede rankings for many countries (around +15 nationalities) and making quick connections during class discussions.

    The webpage´s presentation and content is hardly improvable, nevertheless, I found it would be really usefull if the system provided the ranking and THE POSITION of every country inside the Index (Example: Individualism Index, #1 America 91, #2 Australia 90, etc. ).

    These in order to identify in the big picture in which position is every country.

    Once again thank you for these excellent tool.

    Armando Silva

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