Hofstede’s five dimensions of culture...

Individualism/collectivism. Highly collective societies value cohesion. Societies and organisations where you are expected to look after your own interests score highly on individualism. With the increase in consumerism, some people argue that United Kingdom society, for example, has become more individualistic (Bauman, 2000). While this may be good from a market development point of view, others claim that this makes it more difficult to sustain enduring communities of practice (Roberts, 2006). Relating these distinctions to a business context, Joanne Roberts suggests that:

Communities of practice may be better suited to a harmonious and trusting organisational environment in which workers are given a high degree of autonomy.

(Roberts, 2006, p. 629)

Hofstede’s five dimensions of culture are: power distance, individualism/ collectivism, masculinity/femininity, uncertainty avoidance and Confucian/ dynamism.


n Confucianism, human beings are teachable, improvable and perfectible through personal and communal endeavour especially including self-cultivation and self-creation. A main idea of Confucianism is the cultivation of virtue and the development of moral perfection. Confucianism holds that one should give up one's life, if necessary, either passively or actively, for the sake of upholding the cardinal moral values of ren and yi.^[2]




Dynamism, a term used by Virginia Postrel to describe her social philosophy that embraces cultural change, individual choice, and the open society