HOFSTEDE DIMENSIONS IN CULTURES: A COMPARISON BETWEEN GREECE AND COLOMBIA

          

The Hofstede dimensions are a very useful and interesting way to identify a specific set of behaviors of a culture. Now, we thought in the scores of each point for Greek culture and then, we compared our estimated scores with real scores and scores for Colombia. These were the results:

                   

Firstly, we determined a 60% score in “PDI”, and this score is the real score. If we think on reasons for this particular score, we can say that Greek people are more prone to question higher ranking people, this especially due to the current economic situation of country. It´s so similar to the situation in Colombia.

Respect to “IDV” we thought that this score for Greek people was low (25%); real result is 35%.  We think that main reason for this score is due to Greek culture seems to be like Colombian culture in things like, for example, familiar aspect. These characteristics prove a high level of collectivism.

Following the same logic of the previous point, we considered that the aspect of masculinity (MAS) was a quite high (near to 60%), and it was very similar to Colombian score, especially considering the visions respect to gender roles in both cultures. The real score is 57%.

Respect to uncertainly avoidance (UAI), we also considered that this score was quite high (between 60% and 70%). The real result is 100%, honestly this result surprised us, because we didn’t expect it to be so high. Perhaps due to Greece recent history this aspect has been reinforced in Greek culture. We can say that this aspect can be high in more conservative cultures, Colombia and Greece are good examples; due to this reason, perhaps their scores are so similar.

We already had defined Greek culture as conservative or traditionalist, just like Colombian culture. Due to this, we thought that their long-term orientation (LTO) could have a quite low score (20%). Real score is 45%, it’s different but it isn´t a high result.

Lastly, respect to the indulgence (IVR) we considered that this score could be high (70%); outside the stereotype of Greeks as people who like to celebrate, we thought that perhaps the Greeks are very optimistic and full of happiness, even with their problems. The real score (50%) isn’t as high as we thought. If we think on reasons to this score, we can think in Greek economic crisis as one of most important reasons why this score is not so high. Also, the result is different to Colombian score, perhaps because Colombians are much more optimistic about our problems.