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Cross-Cultural Analysis is the sequel to Culture's Consequences, the classic work published by Geert Hofstede, one of the most influential management thinkers in today's times. Hofstede's original work introduced a new research paradigm in cross-cultural analysis: studying cultural differences through nation-level dimensions (complex variables defined by intercorrelated items). This paradigm has been subsequently used by hundreds of prominent scholars all over the world and has produced solid results.This new text takes the next step: It critically examines in one comprehensive volume the current, prevalent approaches to cross-cultural analysis at the level of nations that have been developed since Hofstede's work, offering students and researchers the theoretical and practical advantages and potential pitfalls of each method.The book is structured into four distinct parts. Parts I and II focus on the main theoretical and statistical issues in cross-cultural analysis using Hofstede's approach and the different research methods now associated with it. Part II consists of presentations of all well-known (and some lesser known) large-scale cross-cultural studies since Hofstede's work that have explained cross-cultural variation in terms of dimensional models. Part III summarizes the main conclusions to be drawn from the presentations in Part II and I explains how the proposed models have contributed to our practical understanding of cross-cultural diversity.

Cross-Cultural Analysis is the sequel to Culture′s Consequences, the classic work published by one of the most influential management thinkers in today′s times, Geert Hofstede.

THE DATA PRESENTED IN THIS ARTICLE ILLUSTRATE THE FRUSTRATIONS OF PERSONNEL MANAGERS. PERSONNEL MANAGERS SEE THEMSELVES AS THEY ARE SEEN BY OTHER MANAGERS IN THEIR ORGANIZATIONS, THAT OF THE PERSONNEL FUNCTION BEING A PREDOMINANTLY STATIC ROLE. PERSONNEL MANAGERS FEEL THAT IN CREATIVE CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ORGANIZATION THEY FIND THEIR PERSONAL SUCCESS EXPERIENCES THOUGH IT IS HERE THAT THEY FEEL THEIR DEPARTMENT MOSTLY FAILS. THIS FRUSTRATING SITUATION MAY BE INTERPRETED AS THE OUTCOME OF A LACK OF ROLE CHARITY. IT ALSO MAY BE THAT WHEN A PERSONNEL DEPARTMENT FAILS, THE PERSONNEL MANAGER SEES IT AS THE ORGANIZATIONS FAULT, BUT WHEN IT SUCCEEDS, HE SEES IT AS HIS OWN PERSONAL SUCCESS. THIS EXPLANATION STILL DOES NOT DETRACT FROM THE CONCLUSION THAT PERSONNEL MANAGERS SAMPLED, WHO WORK FOR A PROGRESSIVE COMPANY, SEE DEPARTMENTS AS PREDOMINANTLY OPERATIONAL AND NOT CREATIVE AND THAT THEY ARE PERSONALLY FRUSTRATED BY THE SITUATION.

An insurance is an immaterial product that is valued subjectively by its recipients. The way this is done depends on the values that dominate in a certain society, values that have come into being through the years. In this article the dominant values of the Netherlands and of a number of other relevant countries are being compared and are being linked with national insurance systems. Three important values are solidarity, independence and predictability. Because of the influence national values exert, there are limits to the extent to which insurance systems can be imported and exported. This obviously has consequences for the role of the European Union.

An exercise which we called \"Needs for Improvement\" was developed as a simple behavioral research experiment for use in management training courses. The exercise asks participants to fill out two questionnaires: one for their own needs for improvement as managers, and one for those of their immediate superior, as they see them. In both questionnaires, 100 points have to be distributed over 50 items, divided into 5 blocks of 10. The 5 blocks are labelled: Knowledge, Experience, Skills, Attitude, Personality. The exercise has been used with management training groups in a number of countries. The standard outcome is that if we compute group averages, the need for improvement in Knowledge is always attributed much more to the self than to the boss, and the need for improvement in Attitude much more to the boss than to the self. This is the majority judgment of the group; however, groups mostly also contain some individuals who score opposite to the dominant trend. The exercise is meant to start a discussion among the course participants on: 1. The impact of hierarchy on perception, 2. The nature of learning in management development. Such a discussion tends to show to participants to what extent a hierarchical relationship prevents interpersonal feedback and therefore disturbs self-perceptions and perceptions of others. It also shows the dilemma that management development participants mostly do recognize their needs for more knowledge, which is relatively easily supplied, but less frequently recognize their needs for a change in attitude, which already is much more difficult to acquire. /// Un exercice que nous appelions \"besoin de perfectionnement\" a été développé comme simple expérience de recherche du comportement à ľusage des cours ďentraînement de management. Ľexercice exige que les participants remplissent deux questionnaires: ľun pour leurs propres besoins de perfectionnement comme dirigeants, ľautre pour ceux de leur préposé direct, comme ils le voient. Dans les deux questionnaires, 100 points doivent être distribués sur 50 chapitres divisés en 5 blocs de 10. Les 5 blocs sont marqués: connaissances, expérience, habiletés, attitude, personnalité. Ľexercice a été utilisé par des groupes ďentraînement de management dans un certain nombre de pays. Le résultat-type est que — si nous calculons les moyennes des groupes — le besoin de perfectionnement dans les connaissances est attribué toujours plus à soi qu'au chef, et le besoin de perfectionnement dans ľattitude beaucoup plus au chef qu'à soi-même. C'est le jugement de la majorité du groupe; les groupes contiennent cependant aussi quelques individus qui produisent des résultats opposes à la tendance dominante. L'exercice a pour but d'entamer une discussion parmi les participants du cours sur: 1. L'impact de ľhiérarchie sur la perception, 2. La nature du processus d'apprentissage dans le développement gestionnaire. Une telle discussion veut montrer aux participants dans quelle mesure une relation hiérarchique empêche ľaction en retour interpersonnelle et pour cette raison dérange la perception de soi et des autres. Elle démontre aussi le dilemme que les participants de cours de formation gestionnaire reconnaissent le plus souvent leurs propres besoins de plus de connaissances, qui peuvent être acquises facilement, mais qu'ils reconnaissent moins souvent leurs propres besoins de changement ďattitude qui est déjà plus difficile à acquérir. /// Eine Übung, die „Notwendigkeit zur Verbesserong\" genannt wird, läßt sich als einfaches Verhaltensexperiment zur Anwendung in Managementkursen empfehlen. In ihr müssen Kursteil-nehmer zwei Fragebogen ausfüllen, von denen einer sich mit ihren eigenen Verbesserungserfordernissen als Führungskräfte befaßt und der andere mit denen bei ihren unmittelbar Vorgesetzten. Zur Bekanntgabe ihrer eigenen Einschätzung dieser Erfordernisse können sie 100 Punkte über 50 Items verteilen; diese sind zu je 10 den 5 Kategorien Wissen, Erf ahrung, Fähig-keiten, Einstellung, Charaktereigenschaften zugeordnet. Das Standardergebnis dieser von den Autoren in Managementtrainingsgruppen in verschiedenen Ländern verwendeten Übung läuft in der Durchschnittsbildung der Gruppenmeinung darauf hinaus, daß in der Selbsteinschätzung die Notwendigkeit zur Wissenserhöhung starker bewertet wird als in der Einschätzung des Vorgesetzten, während beim Vorgesetzten eine Einstellungsänderung für notwendiger gehalten wird als bei einem selbst. Sicherlich gibt es individuelle Abweichungen von dieser durchschnittlichen Gruppenmeinung. Die Ubung ist als Einleitung zur Diskussion über den Einfluß der Hierarchie auf die Wahrnehmung und die Natur des Lernens in der Managementausbildung gedacht. Eine solche Diskussion zeigt den Teilnehmern in der Regel, in welchem Ausmaß eine hierarchische Beziehung zwischenmenschliche Kommunikation behindert und dadurch Eigenempfinden und Fremdbeobachtung stört. Sie ofíenbart im allgemeinen auch ein Dilemma, nach dem Kursteilnehmer in der Managementausbildung zwar meistens ihr Bedürfnis nach Wissensmehrung zu befriedigen suchen, aber weniger häufig die Notwendigkeit zur Änderung ihrer Einstellung erkennen. Dieses Dilemma wird durch die Tatsache vertieft, daß ersteres relativ leicht zu vermitteln ist, letztere jedoch viel schwieriger zu erreichen ist.