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Conceptualizing and measuring cultures and their consequences: a comparative review of GLOBE's and Hofstede's approaches

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Abstract

This paper explains why GLOBE used a set of cultural values and practices to measure national cultures. We show why there is no theoretical or empirical basis for Hofstede's criticism that GLOBE measures of values are too abstract or for his contention that national and organizational cultures are phenomena of different order. We also show why Hofstede has a limited understanding of the relationship between national wealth and culture. Furthermore, we explain why Hofstede's reanalysis of the GLOBE data is inappropriate and produces incomprehensible results. We also show the validity of managerial samples in studying leadership. Finally, we explain why Hofstede's claim that GLOBE instruments reflect researchers psycho-logic reveals ignorance of psychometric methodologies designed to ensure scale reliability and construct validity.

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Notes

  1. It should be noted that we also conducted the factor analysis using a pairwise deletion to determine whether our results were somehow due to the dropping of data from countries that did not have complete observations. Remarkably, the results with pairwise deletion were highly consistent with our previous results. Two factors were extracted. The only difference between our two sets of factor analyses is that masculinity loaded on both factors in this new pairwise deletion factor analysis.

  2. Hofstede, in his critique, refers to Miller's (1994) work, which suggests that the right number of information pieces is limited to seven. Hofstede should be aware that Miller was concerned with short-term immediate memory, which is not related to research on national cultures. But it is true that we have a larger number of cultural dimensions than Hofstede's original four (and now five) dimensions.

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Acknowledgements

We thankfully acknowledge Vipin Gupta's contribution to the discussion of the relationship between values and practices and his development of Table 1.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Garvin Center for Cultures and Languages of International Management, Thunderbird, The Garvin School of International Management, Glendale, USA

    Mansour Javidan & Mary Sully de Luque

  2. Wharton School of Management, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA

    Robert J House

  3. College of Business Administration and Economics, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, USA

    Peter W Dorfman

  4. Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, USA

    Paul J Hanges

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  1. Mansour Javidan
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  2. Robert J House
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Correspondence to Mansour Javidan.

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Accepted by Kwok Leung, Deputy Editor-in-Chief, 29 July 2006. This paper has been with the author for one revision.

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Javidan, M., House, R., Dorfman, P. et al. Conceptualizing and measuring cultures and their consequences: a comparative review of GLOBE's and Hofstede's approaches. J Int Bus Stud 37, 897–914 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8400234

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