Question

For a company that has manufacturing facilities in the United States and in China, select two of the five value dimensions from Hofstede's Framework and compare/contrast these dimensions with how the United States facility would be run versus the one in China, base on these work-related values.

Answer 1

Source: (Hofstede Insights, 2019)

From the chart above, the U.S. and China scoredpretty equal for Masculinity, and uncertainty avoidance dimension coming in second. The remainder of the dimensions, there is huge differences in how each society rates and the U.S. facility would operate almost opposite of the facility in China. Operate in this sense would be “employee” related and not business operations related.

Power distance dimension: “the extent to which the less powerful members of instituions and organizations within a country expect and accept that power is distrubted unequally”("Country Comparison - Hofstede Insights", n.d.). Hofstede Insights has a country comparission tool where you put in a country, and it provides a score for 6 dimensions. China scored 80 for power distance, meaning China is a society that “believes inequalities amongst people are acceptable” ("Country Comparison - Hofstede Insights", n.d.). They “accept an unequal, hierarchical distribution of power, and that people understand "their place" in the system” ("Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions: – Understanding Different Countries", n.d.). The U.S. scored 40 (half of China’s score) because U.S. is “the most individualistic nation of all” .

Individualisam dimension: “the degree of interdependence a society maintains among its members. It has to do with wheterhperople’sselft-image is defined in terms of ‘I’ or ‘We’”("Country Comparison - Hofstede Insights", n.d.).Individualist societies, like the U.S. people look after themselves whereas in collectivitstsocienies, people act in the best interest of their group.