Claiming too much, delivering too little: testing some of Hofstede’s generalisations

McSweeney Brendan (), Brown Donna and Iliopoulou Stravroula
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McSweeney Brendan: School of Management, Royal Holloway, University of London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Brown Donna: School of Management, Royal Holloway, University of London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Iliopoulou Stravroula: School of Management, Royal Holloway, University of London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

The Irish Journal of Management, 2016, vol. 35, issue 1, 34-57

Abstract: This paper considers Geert Hofstede’s claim that his national cultural ‘dimension scores’ and related rankings of countries enable effective prediction by examining a causal generalisation he has repeatedly used to illustrate that capability. When tested against cross-sectional and longitudinal empirical data about conflicts in industrial relations, the generalisation is shown not to have predictive power. A second generalisation is then tested, which also fails to demonstrate predictive capability. This paper discusses some characteristics of valid cross-national research in the light of these predictive failures.

Keywords: causality; cross-national comparisons; Hofstede; industrial relations; national culture (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:vrs:irjman:v:35:y:2016:i:1:p:34-57:n:3

DOI: 10.1515/ijm-2016-0003

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