Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions Between Russia and Bangladesh

Helal Murshed ([email protected]) T. Ivanova B. research supervisor Peoples‟ Friendship University of Russia Comparison of Hofstede‟s cultural dimensions between Russia and Bangladesh

What is Culture? Culture is the characteristics of a particular group of peo ple, defined by everything from language, religion, cuisine, social habits, music and arts. According to the Oxford dictionary Culture means „The arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively‟ (1) Culture is learned, not inherited. It derives from one‟s social environment, not from on e‟s gens. Culture should be distinguished from human nature on one side, and from an individual‟s personality on the other: The Hofstede Model distinguished cultures according to five and this model provided scales from 0 to 100 each dimension, and each country has a position on each scale or index, relative to other countries. These five dimensions were empirically verifiable, and ea ch country could be positioned somewhere between the poles. Hofstede empirically found four dimensions of culture in research across more than 50 countries. The dimensions are: power distance, collectivism versus individualism, masculinity versus femininity and uncertainty avoidance. Bangladesh was not within his first survey IBM studies. Hofstede later adds a new dimension, long - versus short term orientation, based on the student sample of 23 countries around 1985 (2). Bangladesh was included in this new survey. In Hofstede's first survey many other Asian countries like India and Pakistan were included. Since Pakistan and India are the countries nearer to Bangladesh and Bangladesh was a part of Pakistan until 1971 and as these countries c ountries have the same nature of history h istory since the British rule and having the same socio-economic, political and cultural features. The Hofstede Model distinguished cultures according to five and this model provided scales from 0 to 100 each dimension, and each country has a position on each scale or index, relative to other countries. These five dimensions were empirically verifiable, and eac h country could be positioned somewhere between the poles. Table 1: Scores of 5D Hofstede‟s Cultural Dimensions(3) Dimensions(3) Country Russia Bangladesh

IDV 39 20

PDI 93 80

MAS 36 55

UAI 95 60

LTO 40

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IDV-Individualism PDI- Power Distance Index MAS- Masculinity UAI-Uncertainty Avoidance Index LTO- Long-Term Orientation

Chart 1: 5D Hofstede‟s Cultural Dimensions between Russia and Bangdesh From the chart above we can compare five cultural factors of Russia, Bangladesh. Individualism versus collectivism is one of the important aspects of culture's cu lture's „unstated assumptions'. The assumption that we are bound t ogether into tight groups of interdependent individuals is fundamental to collectivism.. Hofstede describe Collectivist as the vast majority of people in our world live in societies in which the interest of the group prevails over the interest of the individual and Individualist as a minority of people in our world live in societies in which the interests of the individual prevail over the interest of group (4). His Individualism Index (IDV) score measures the level of individualism and collectivism in a particular culture. Countries scored low in the IDV are characterized as collectivist. Scoring 20 of 100 we can say Bangladesh is a less individualistic country. Bangladeshi people have very close ties their extended family person, within which is unquestioning lo yalty. Major decisions of life for example education and marriage are dictated from within this group, and



Russians plan to go out with their friends they wou ld literally say “We with friends” instead of “I and my friends”, if they talk about brothers and sisters it may well be cousins, so a lower score of score of 39 even finds its manifestations in the language. 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' ( 6). Most of the Asian countries under the survey of Hofstede are found having large power distance. Bangladesh scores high on this dimension (score of 80) which means that people accept a hierarchical order in which everybody has a place and which needs no further justification. As a Bangladeshi, I can say that t hat it is not very difficult to notice inequality between people – people – in in government, in organization even within the families. The score for Russia is 93, which means me ans that the distance is particularly important for the communication in the society. Hofstede states that it is d ue to extreme centralization of the country (most of the foreign investments go into Moscow; the capital is economic, financial and cultural center.) Hofstede define masculinity as “pertains to societies societies in which social gender roles are clearly distinct i.e., men are supposed to be b e assertive, tough, and focus on material success whereas women are supposed to be more modest, tender, and concerned with the quality of life, femininity pertains to societies in which social gender roles overlap i.e., both men and women are supposed to be modest, tender and concerned with the quality of life.(7) Bangladesh scores 55 on this dimension and can be considered a a masculine society. In masculine countries people “live in order to work”, managers are expected to be decisive and assertive, the emphasis is on equity, competition and performance and conflicts are resolved by fighting them out.

The score 36 for Russia indicates that the society society sees the quality of life life as the measure of success. That is totally true for most of the country. Two main goals in the life of average person p erson are: good (preferably very expensive) car, an d big apartments or a private house fully furnished. The Uncertainty avoidance scores are much higher for both of the countries. A standard score in Long term orientation shows that Bangladesh is one the way wa y of its development. Russia is the biggest country of the world, where Bangladesh is a small country with a huge



the world. Russia is country where two generation of people are living. It can influence to change of cultural scores in short time. References 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Oxford Dictionary Hofstede 2001, p. 351 http://geert-hofstede.com/ Hofstede 1997, p. 50 Berdyaev N. The Psychology of the Russian People. The Soul of Russia. (1915-#7) Hofstede, 1997:28 Hofstede 1997, p. 82

Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions Between Russia and Bangladesh

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