Question

Hofstede’s cultural dimensions

Using Hofstede's cultural dimesnions, is the country of thailand indulgent or resistant? Please explain.

Is the country of China indulgent or resistant?

Answer 1

Culture has been a great connector between the various nations of the world and till today acts as the bonding spirit among the citizens of various countries. However, it has been seen that the people of various countries react differently to different circumstances under constant variables. This difference also at times has acted as a restrained force behind the gap that still exits among the various countries in the matter of their indulgence with each other. In the late 1970’s Dr. Geert Hofstede presented his four dimensions of culture which can be treated as the benchmark of the study of this difference between the culture and attitude of the citizens of the countries. To these four dimensions, there was an addition of two more dimension later, among which one of the cultural dimension is indulgence v/s restraint.

According to Hofstede, a country which is less confident about the interactive capability of their citizens tend to restrict their citizens from open culture communication with other nations. The people’s emotions and desires are not respected in these countries and their desires and wishes are usually suppressed. These resistant countries put restrictions and regulations on the behavior of their citizens actions in public and to some extent even in the private life. Such countries are pessimistic and very much controlled in their international relations and behavior with other countries.

Thailand had been very restrained in their approach towards cultural dimension hereditarily and had been known for it rigid rules and regulations. However, lately Thailand has come out of the clutches of resistance and is now considered a neutral country with regards to its indulgence in cultural dimensions. China, on the other hand is regarded as a very rigid and restraint nation. The citizens in China are very restrictive in nature with regard to cultural indulgence and foreign involvement in their culture and ethics is treated in negative light.