2. In an era of relatively instantaneous contact between organization across the seemingly shrinking globe, why should one consider cultural distance at all? Simply because culture affects virtually all of human behavior. For example, culture has been defined as “the software of the mind”. Hofstede’s extensive research on culture has helped conceptualize one of the most popular theories of cultural types, as evidenced by well over 1000 citations from cultural consequences reported in the social science citation since 1980. His approach to culture initially identified four underlying value dimension; individualism vs collectivism, large vs small power distance, strong vs weak uncertainty avoidance, and masculinity vs femininity.
Another framework for the understanding of culture was developed by trompenaars and hampden-turner. It was based on 50000 cases of managers from multinational and international corporation from over100 countries. In their approach, cultures differ in the specific solutions they choose to problem. They then identify cultures based on seven fundamental dimensions. Their approach is similar in some respects to hofstede’s dimensions