Masculine Trade Cultures

Materialistic Countries Value Challenge, Recognition & Earnings

Jan 26, 2008 Daniel Workman

Japan, Venezuela, Switzerland & Mexico rank as high masculine nations while Sweden, Norway, Netherlands & Denmark cultivate friendlier, more feminine work environments.

Based on detailed analyses of international employee values that IBM collected from 1967 to 1973 and subsequent validation studies, Professor Geert Hofstede® has engineered a model with five dimensions that differentiate cultural values and behaviors.

These cultural dimensions are key to understanding how to more effectively negotiate international trade deals with people in other countries. Even large multinationals like Starbucks and Wal-Mart make billion dollar trade bloopers when they assume that people in foreign lands will share the same cultural negotiating and decision-making behaviors as in their home country America.

Masculine Defined

One of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions is called masculinity. This dimension measures the extent to which material possessions, money and success dominate a society’s basic values. High masculine countries are characterized by high job stress. Although employees are encouraged to make independent decisions, managers in high masculine countries exert stronger control to ensure that employees do their work.

In low masculine cultures like Norway and Sweden, greater importance is given to cooperation and group decision-making. Managers bestow employee freedoms and the workplace atmosphere is friendly with less stress.

Based on Hofstede’s statistics, the world average masculine score is 50 points per country.

High Masculine Countries

Countries with high masculine scores typically have large-scale enterprises, with more emphasis on economic growth versus environmental conservation. Below is a list of countries with the highest masculine scores.

• Japan ... 95 (90% higher than world average)
• Venezuela ... 73 (46% higher)
• Switzerland ... 70 (40% higher)
• Mexico ... 69 (38% higher)
• Italy ... 68 (36% higher)
• Ireland, Jamaica ... 67 (34% higher)
• United Kingdom ... 66.5 (33% higher)
• Germany ... 66 (32% higher)
• Philippines, Poland ... 65 (30% higher)
• Colombia, Ecuador ... 64 (28% higher)
• South Africa ... 63 (26% higher)
• United States ... 62 (24% higher)
• New Zealand ... 58 (16% higher)
• Greece, Hong Kong ... 57 (14% higher)
• China, India ... 56 (12% higher).

Low Masculine Countries

Cultures with low masculine scores favour smaller-scale businesses, with a stronger push for environmental conservation. The following shows the countries with the lowest masculine scores from Hofstede’s study.

• Sweden ... 6 points (88% lower than world average)
• Norway ... 7 (86% lower)
• Netherlands ... 14 (82% lower)
• Denmark ... 15.5 (69% lower)
• Costa Rica ... 21 (58% lower)
• Finland ... 25.5 (49% lower)
• Portugal ... 31 (38% lower)
• Thailand ... 35 (30% lower)
• Guatemala ... 37 (26% lower)
• South Korea ... 39 (22% lower)
• Argentina, El Salvador ... 40 (20% lower)
• East Africa* ... 41 (18% lower)
• France, Spain ... 43 (14% lower)
• Peru, Turkey ... 45 (10% lower).

*Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia

Other Country Masculine Scores

Shown below are the masculine scores for other countries in Professor Hofstede’s study.

• Australia … 55 points (10% higher than world average)
• Belgium, Canada, Iran ... 53 (6% higher)
• Arab World* … 52 (4% higher)
• Brazil, Pakistan … 51 (2% higher)
• Malaysia, Singapore … 48 (4% lower)
• Chile, Panama, Uruguay … 47 (6% lower)
• West Africa** … 47 (6% lower)
• Israel, Taiwan … 46 (8% lower)
• Indonesia … 45.5 (9% lower).

*Egypt, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates

**Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone

References

This article presents independent calculations and insights based on geert-hofstede.com and research from International Management, Culture, Strategy and Behavior (6th edition, Hodgetts-Luthans-DOH).

The copyright of the article Masculine Trade Cultures in International Trade is owned by Daniel Workman. Permission to republish Masculine Trade Cultures in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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