Culture has been observed to vary within Chinese areas. Huo and Randall (1991), for example, used the framework to examine the differences among Chinese in Taiwan, Beijing, Hong Kong and Wuhan and found sub cultural differences.
Just as there are differences seen in the dimensions between countries, it could be expected that there would be differences expected between groups of individuals within countries. Differences between attitudes and behaviors of males and females are extensively studied and well documented in Western culture. Similarly, individuals have been observed to change in their attitudes and behavior as they age. Variations in Hofstede’s cultural dimensions across age and gender have been studied by some researchers. Stedham and Yamamura (2004), for example, examined the cultural differences between Americans and Japanese with a focus on sex and age differences. They found no differences due to age and differences between males and females on the power distance dimension in Japan (m>f), individualism (m>f) in both countries.
In the current paper, differences in the levels of the four dimensions of Hofstede’s model are examined between Canada and central China. As well, differences in the levels of the five dimensions across age groups and sex category as well as interaction among these three variables are studied.
Main Effects
Country. Taiwan would appear to be similar to mainland China in many respects. It was settled by Chinese several centuries ago and was the target of an influx of several million more Chinese around 1950. It seems likely that the culture of Taiwan would be similar to that of mainland China. As none of Hofstede’s scores were available for China, perhaps those of Taiwan would be useful for the purpose of hypothesis formulation. A large difference on the individualism score is apparent where Taiwan was one of the lowest of all the countries studied while Canada tended to be toward the top of the individualism scale.
On the other three dimensions, the differences between the countries are somewhat smaller but Taiwan outscores Canada on uncertainty avoidance and power distance while Canada’s score on masculinity was slightly higher than Taiwan’s. Thus, main effects for country will be expected.
Canadian scores will be higher than Chinese scores on the dimensions (c.) Individualism, and (d.) Masculinity and lower on the dimensions (b.) Uncertainty Avoidance and (a.) Power Distance and (e.) Long Term Orientation (LTO).
Age effects were noted directly by Hofstede on the masculinity dimension. In his study, masculinity was seen to decrease with age (2001, p291). Age effects were indirectly observed where the graphs of the Power Distance score over time, tended to show an increase in age. No age effects were apparent in the graphs for Individualism or Uncertainty Avoidance. Level of masculinity was seen to decrease with increasing age.
It might also be speculated that LTO might increase with maturity.
Hofstede considered the effect of gender with respect to the masculinity dimension finding that males will be more masculine than females and that this difference will be greater in more masculine countries (2001, p288).
A gender effect on individualism might be expected as well. LaBarbara and Gurhan (1997), in examining subjective well-being (SWB), compared masculine and feminine psychological orientation. They found that for the psychological male, "SWB is closely related to utilitarian aspects of life," while for the psychological female, "SWB is closely related to socio-emotional aspects." This would suggest that females would be more collectivist than males.
A gender main effect will be observed for (d.) Masculinity and (c.) Individualism where males score higher than females. No other main effect was hypothesized.
Interactions
An age interaction with country will be seen with all five dimensions (a.– e.) where the differences across age groups on a dimension will be more pronounced in China than in Canada.
Hofstede found greater differences in masculinity between males and females in more masculine countries, thus:
An interaction between country and gender will be observed where the difference in masculinity scores (d.) between males and females will be greater in the more masculine country.
Method
A self-administered paper questionnaire was completed by respondents in an eastern Canadian city and a city in central China.
Hofstedes approach surveyed IBM employees and tended to focus on workplace values with references in its measures to workplace activities and behaviors . Efforts have been made to simplify the scale and make it more applicable to life outside of the workplace. One such effort is the CVScale by Yoo and Donthu (1998) and Yoo, Donthu and Lenartowicz (2004). It covers Hofstede’s five factors and concisely uses 26 items, taking a more general focus than just that of the workplace. It has also been tested for reliability in the US and Asian environments and was used in this questionnaire.
The questionnaire was translated and independently back-translated to check for consistency of meaning. Some small corrections were made with the help of the translator.
A quota approach to sampling was used with the aim of equal numbers of males and females, and of young and old respondents. The young group consisted of university students in arts and science classes in universities in both countries. Undergraduate university students usually consist of the youngest adults available for study. For the older respondents, approximately half were from the university communities in both countries and included administrative and staff employees (not professors). The balance in China were completed in various work locations, while in Canada, a mall intercept approach was employed.
Results
Total sample size was 554. Six incomplete questionnaires were discarded. A split at 23 years of age effectively separated regular-stream students from non-students and mature students. A tabulation of the sub-groups is shown in Table 1.
Scale factor items were averaged and analysis of variance was conducted with country, gender and age group as factors and the five cultural dimensions as dependent variables. The results of this ANOVA are shown in Table 2.
The nature of the country by age interaction is shown in the plot of the means (Figure 1).
Summary
Effects of globalization. Hofstede notes changes in measured levels of his dimension between 1968 and 1972. It seems very likely that changes between 1972 and now would be much more profound with globalization of business and telecommunication and the shift of China to more free-market economy. While there has been some debate on whether there is convergence of world culture, Inglehart and Baker (2000) conclude that while cultural differences will persist there is a trend to more common cultural values as countries industrialize. Perhaps China’s values are beginning to change and that change is seen especially in its cohort of young people.
The focus of the current study was on people in general rather than people in the workplace as was Hofstede’s approach. Individuals’ attitudes, perceptions and priorities may be different between the two environments. A study of the separation between one’s work and private values might be interesting.
There is also a need to examine more closely the nature of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions. A closer look at the difference between old and young responses might be worthwhile – at what age does the change take place?
Are there really sub factors in dimensions such as masculinity or others? As well, examining how these factors vary across other subgroups within countries, beyond male and female and old and young may be worthwhile.
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