Research Hofstede

The Hofstede Organisational Culture Model is based on the research by Sanders and Neuijen in ten companies in the Netherlands and Denmark. This resulted in six dimensions for describing organisational cultures. These six create already a more complex picture than a typology based on two axes. In addition, the commercial application of this theory adds two semi-autonomous dimensions and links the theory to strategy and change management.

Dimension 1: effectiveness and 2

■ means oriented: ways of doing

things and how they are done

■ goal oriented: realizing goals and

what needs to be realised

Dimension 2: customer orientation

■ internal focus: honesty and

knowing what is best for the

customer

■ external focus: do what the client

wants, results, pragmatic

Dimension 3: control

■ loose working discipline: loose

structure, low predictability,

limited control and discipline, lots

of improvisation

■ tight working discipline: opposite

of loose

Dimension 4: social control

■ local: short term, internally

oriented, strong social control

■ professional culture (opposite)

Dimension 5: attitude towards

outsiders

■ open system: outsiders welcome,

everybody fits in

■ closed system

Dimension 6: management philosophy

■ focus on people: taking the

personal problems of staff into

account

■ focus on work: putting much

pressure on people to deliver their

work in time

Dimension 7: Leadership

■ Autocratic

■ Paternalistic

■ Consultative

■ Democratic

Dimension 8: Identification with the

organisation

■ degree of feeling fitting in in the

organisation