<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>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.</p></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.

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

School of Management, Royal Holloway, University of London,

The Irish Journal of Management

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

This paper considers Geert Hofstede’s claim that his national cultural ‘dimension scores’ and related rankings of countries enable effective prediction by...

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

Article Category: Research Article

Published Online: Aug 23, 2016

Page range: 34 - 57

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/ijm-2016-0003

Keywords
causality, cross-national comparisons, Hofstede, industrial relations, national culture

© 2016 Brendan McSweeney., published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

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

Article Category: Research Article

Published Online: Aug 23, 2016

Page range: 34 - 57

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/ijm-2016-0003

Keywordscausality, cross-national comparisons, Hofstede, industrial relations, national culture

© 2016 Brendan McSweeney., published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
causality, cross-national comparisons, Hofstede, industrial relations, national culture