Geert hofstede biography

Our organisation's Dutch heritage (besides our Finnish roots) is connected to our link to Geert Hofstede. Professor Geert Hofstede conducted one of the most comprehensive studies of how values in the workplace are influenced by culture.

Through the publication of his scholarly book, Culture’s Consequences (1980, new edition 2001), Geert Hofstede (1928-2020) became the founder of comparative intercultural research. His most popular book, Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind (1991, newest edition 2010, co-authored with Gert Jan Hofstede and Michael Minkov), has so far been translated into 20 languages.

Geert Hofstede’s articles have been published in social science and management journals around the world. He is recognised internationally for having developed the first empirical model of “dimensions“ of national culture, thus establishing a new paradigm for taking account of cultural elements in international economics, communication and cooperation. Later, he also developed a model for organisational cultures.

Through his varied and numerous academic and cultural activities in many different countries, Hofstede can be regarded as one of the leading representatives of intercultural research and studies. The findings of his research and his theoretical ideas are used worldwide in both psychology and management studies.

BOOKS BY GEERT HOFSTEDE

• Geert Hofstede, Gert Jan Hofstede, Michael Minkov, Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind. 3rd Edition, McGraw-Hill USA, 2010
  
  
• Geert Hofstede, Gert Jan Hofstede, Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind. 2nd Edition, McGraw-Hill USA, 2005
  
  
• Gert Jan Hofstede, Paul Pedersen, Geert Hofstede, Exploring Culture: Exercises, Stories and Synthetic Cultures.Intercultural Press, 2002
  
  
• Geert Hofstede, Culture’s Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions and Organizations Across Nations. 2nd Edition, Thousand Oaks CA: Sage Publications, 2001
• Geert Hofsted

Geert Hofstede (1928 – 2020) was a Dutch organizational psychologist who enjoys an international reputation in the field of intercultural studies. Geert Hofstede is famous for his development of the Hofstede cultural dimensions Theory and model. This organizational culture model can help to identify cultural differences.

who is Geert Hofstede? His biography

Education of Geert Hofstede

Geert Hofstede graduated as a mechanical engineer (1953, Delft University of Technology) and obtained his Ph.D. in psychology cum laude from the University of Groningen in 1967.

He was Professor of Comparative Culture Studies of Organizations (CCSO) at Maastricht University. The former Institute for Research on Intercultural Co-operation (IRIC) of Maastricht University and Tilburg University continued Hofstede’s studies and have updated the measurement data.

Founder of the six Cultural Dimensions model and theory

Hofstede was widely known for his Hofstede cultural dimensions model that uses a number of dimensions that were identified by him as the indicator for cultural differences.

He developed the Hofstede cultural dimensions during a survey study within IBM in the 1960s. National and regional differences that influence the functioning of institutional organizations (such as authorities, families, companies, schools, ideas) were made clear and measurable because of his work.

The Hofstede cultural dimensions theory aims to provide information about cultural differences so that they can be bridged. More information on Geert Hofstede can be found at his website.

Famous quotes

• “Culture is more often a source of conflict than of synergy. Cultural differences are a nuisance at best and often a disaster.”
• “Studying culture without experiencing culture shock is like practicing swimming without experiencing water.”
• “We are; therefore, we evolve.”
• “Every person’s me

In 1970s, when Dutch social psychologist Geert Hofstede analyzed the surveys collected from over 100,000 IBM employees from 50 different countries, he found that people had distinct patterns of value systems that related to various aspects of their behavior. His analysis of what was at the time one of the largest existing cross-national databases yielded systematic differences across four dimensions: Power Distance, Uncertainty Avoidance, Individualism/Collectivism and Masculinity/Femininity. Later on, the analysis of a periodic World Values Survey inspired by Hofstede’s pioneering work added two more dimensions: Long-/Short-Term Orientation and Indulgence/Restraint.

Hofstede defined culture as “the collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from others” (Hofstede, 2012) and his cultural dimensions became a paradigm for comparing cultures and understanding cross-cultural differences. The applications of Hofstede’s research on cultural dimensions, which have been externally validated and replicated numerous times, have extended across different fields including cross-cultural psychology, intercultural communication, international marketing, international management and negotiation.

Dr. Hofstede’s books have appeared in 21 languages and he is among the most widely cited social scientists in the world. Here are some of his most recent insights into culture’s role in our lives.

1. Is there a relationship between culture and personality? What is more predictive of human behavior: culture or personality?

You could compare culture and personality to a jigsaw puzzle and its pieces. A jigsaw puzzle is made of different pieces, just as all personalities within a culture are different. But all together they make up one particular puzzle and not another puzzle. If you want to know somethi

Geert Hofstede ( 2 October 1928 - 12 February 2020) was born in a peaceful country, but his teenage years saw the second World War rage across Europe. He started working as an engineer during turbulent years of rebuilding, and soon became a personnel manager. Fascinated by the human in the system, he did a PhD in organizational behaviour. This landed him a job with the personnel research department of IBM international. In the late sixties he began analysing the data from a company wide personnel survey exercise. That period of pioneering discovery yielded the book Culture's Consequences.

Geert's ideas about dimensions of culture were so outrageous that seventeen publishers refused the manuscript before a visionary boss at Sage accepted it. the book appeared in 1980. The rest is history.

The model of societal culture has undergone various major extensions since the first study. It now counts six dimensions instead of the original four. They are described in the 2010 popular edition Cultures & Organizations, Software of the mind by Geert, his son Gert Jan and culturologist Michael Minkov.

Online Geert Hofstede exhibition

For a lively perspective on Geert's life and work, including many interviews in which he looks back, visit the online exhibition.