Geert Hofstede's Statement on ITAP and the Culture in the Workplace Questionnaire™

PRINCETON, N.J. - Oct. 3, 2014 - PRLog -- ITAP International was the first organization to license my work. With my support, ITAP prepared the "Culture in the Workplace" (CWQ) questionnaire suitable for use in training and consulting sessions for global companies. My criterion for choosing these questions has been an optimal face value relationship with the particular dimension. Especially in individualist cultures it is essential that participants can compare their own personal answers to their country's dimension scores, but I always stressed that this was a didactic tool. Still, some CWQ questions are similar or identical to the questions used in my Values Survey Modules.

Over time, ITAP retained the answers from their participants, and over the years they accumulated a database with over 8,000 respondents from various companies coming from some 30 countries. The respondents have answered 60 (5 x 12) CWQ questions designed to replicate five dimensions of the Hofstede model. Both ITAP and I were keen on seeing whether in spite of its different purpose, the CWQ database would yield results that resembled my scores. One suggestion I had made was that as the responses came from a very mixed group of respondents (different companies, jobs, etc.) it would be necessary to split them according to demographic criteria, comparing people of the same age, gender and education level, and maybe more.

ITAP’s statistician Michael Huge in 2013 set himself to relating the CWQ database to the Hofstede country scores. Trying different approaches, he got the best results by multiple regression of each of the five dimensions as a dependent variable and the 12 CWQ items as independent variables. In order to control for demographic differences, he also added age, gender and education level to the independents. In this way, he found very high regression coefficients for PDI, IDV, MAS and LTO, moderate for UAI.

Dimension

Individualism (IDV)          0.92

Power Distance (PDI)          0.94

Uncertainty Avoidance (UAI)*     0.68

Masculinity (MAS)*          0.77

Long Term Orientation (LTO)*     0.94

All numbers are Pearson correlations

This data suggests that the Culture in the Workplace Questionnaire is not only an excellent teaching tool but, in addition, generates research results which correlate with my VSM models. It is thus a unique instrument in the field of cross-cultural learning.

ITAP International specializes in global, cross-border consulting. We focus on helping individuals, teams and organizations work across internal and national borders, achieving success through people. We are experts working in multiple countries with extensive line and staff experience in multiple sectors. Our work is based on the best research and the best global practices. Our services focus on:

- Talent retention and development

- Effectiveness of the senior team and mission critical global teams

- Global workforce development

- Transformation and change

* The names for these dimensions adapted by ITAP for use in the Culture in the Workplace Questionnaire™ are, in order: Certainty, Achievement and Time Orientation.