The roles and responsibilities of these tree arms of local government thus reflect the cultural values of Samoans. To date, comprehensive studies on those values are limited. That said, Hofstede’s renowned cultural values framework is used here to illustrate some Samoan cultural beliefs. It is beyond the scope of this paper to give a full account of Hofstede’s work, however, it is widely accepted that are five dimensions that explain cross-cultural differences amongst countries. These are :
1. Power distance
2. Individualism versus collectivism
3. Uncertainty avoidance
4. Masculinity versus femininity
5. Long-term versus short-term orientation.