January 19, 2013

Abstract
This article acknowledges the six dimensions of Hofstede’s theory of cultural dimensions, and defines five of them for a comparison between the United States and India. This article shows for the most part, the definitions of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions are correct, but the article did identify some ambiguities while making the comparisons. Finally, future areas of possible research were identified that would assist in the removal of the ambiguities.

Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions US vs. India
Geert Hofstede’s theory of cultural dimensions was a result of an analysis of a world-wide survey of employee values by IBM in the 1960’s and 1970’s. This theory describes the effects of a society’s culture on
The US culture is also based deep into tradition. The Revolutionary war is celebrated yearly, along with the birthdays of some of the founding fathers. India scores a 61 on the long-term orientation dimension. This is another score with a cultural group that does not entirely fit the model definition. The members of this culture do believe in karma (Hofstede, 2103), “what goes around comes around, no matter how long it takes.” This shows long-term orientation. The culture is deep in religion and tradition. The country has an ancient culture, and the members follow many cultural rituals and beliefs. This is part of the definition of short-term orientation, a clear ambiguity.
The dimensional scores between the US and India added to be fairly close, with a total difference of 14 in favor of India. A most curious dimension was the long-term orientation. The US is just a little over 200 years old, where India goes back to ancient times. The point spread was significantly different, yet they seem to parallel each other in tradition. There are similarities between the US and India. Both are very religion tolerant (Hofstede, 2013). The US has opened it borders to many different nationalities and religious beliefs, the same as India. This would lead one to believe that the long-term orientation scores would be closer.
There were a few misses with the Hofstede’s model. One reason seems to be because the model is based on an entire country. Another way