A Look at Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions in Two Service Sectors from Romania
Author:Carmen Andreea Vrânceanu and Maria-Cristina Iorgulescu
JEL:M14, M12, O15, L83.
DOI:
Keywords:Hofstede, work values, consultancy services industry, hotel industry.
Abstract:
The economic literature on culture has mainly focused on the influence of national culture
and its role in determining the organizational culture. Hofstede has demonstrated in his
research the importance of culture in determining human relations in the workplace. People
can comply with both organizational rules and cultural norms, but truly give priority to the
latter. Differences between organizational rules may appear depending on the
organizations’ activity or depending on the employees’ professions. These differences
between industries and professions remain little explored in literature. As a result, the
article presents Hofstede’s model of the first five dimensions of national culture in th e
Romanian service industry (individualism/collectivism, power distance, long/short term
orientation, masculinity/femininity and uncertainty avoidance), by comparing the results
obtained in two different domains: the hotel industry and the consultancy serv ices industry.
The findings are interesting, as they reflect employees’ work values in two sectors of the
service industry. Furthermore, the article discusses whether the national culture has a direct
impact on the culture developed in a specific activity sector. Also, the article debates if the
organizational culture is more powerful than the national culture by comparing the values
obtained at national level and the values obtained at organizational level through Hofstede’s
model. Another objective of the research is to point out the differences in cultural
dimensions between the workers from the hotel industry and workers from the consultancy
services industry. The implications of the conclusions are discussed, considering the
limitations of the empirical study presented and the future research directions.