Hofstede was one of the first scientists to create a comprehensive theory that helped to understand differences across cultures. His model describes cultures in terms of 4 dimensions: power distance, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity and individualism. Trompenaars capitalised on Hofstede’s work and developed 7 distinct dimensions that together form a cultural profile: universalism/particularism, individualism/collectivism, neutral/emotional, specific/diffuse, achievement/ascription, attitudes towards time, attitude towards environment. Hall viewed national culture as an iceberg, where the upper part is the visible aspect of culture, such as food, traditions and arts, while a much greater part of it is hidden below the surface and is formed by assumptions, values, beliefs etc. He also formulated 4 key cultural dimensions: space, time, context and information flow.
One of the dimensions that all the three scientists tackled in their studies and that often becomes quite a painful topic for organizations is the role of structure in work relationships. Hofstede addresses this problem in his uncertainty avoidance dimension that mainly relates to how much people feel comfortable with ambiguity in communication. Hall looks at the same phenomenon from a different angle. For him, cultures differ in terms of Context, or the amount of explicit information that has to be communicated before the message is effective. Trompenaars touches upon this issue by talking about cultures being specific or diffuse. However, his specific/diffuse dimension deals more with the hierarchy in the workplace and the way relationships develop outside of the work context. Although all three theories look at the same cultural trait, this does not mean that they are obsolete once one of the approaches is used over the others. Instead, together they offer a closer look at the way culture changes attitudes to hierarchy and information sharing in the workplace. Understanding these details could be very useful to understand the difficulties companies may face by working across nations and cultures, as well as suggest a way to turn cultural differences to own advantage.
References
Gannon, M. (2001). Working across cultures applications and exercises. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Rugman, A., & Collinson, S. (2009). International business (5th ed.). Harlow, England: Prentice Hall/Financial Times.
