CULTURE AND BUSINESS

Before analysing how culture whether it be national or organisational influences the organisational structure and management style of an organisation we must first attempt to define what exactly is meant by the term culture, once we have done so then we can move on to see how it affects a company’s attitude towards structure and management style.
So what is culture? Well culture has been defined by many people; Geert Hofstede conducted a large-scale research study of IBM subsidiaries across the world. Arguing that culture is collective programming which does indeed affect behaviour, while doing this he identified four dimensions of culture: power distance; uncertainty avoidance; individualism; and masculinity (Mullins, L. J., 2002 : 37-38). Hofstede then put each country into categories depending on whether it was high, medium, or low in relation to the four dimensions. But this method is not without criticism as it tends to generalise and doesn’t allow for regional differences.
...