The absence of women’s voices in Hofstede’s Cultural Consequences: A Postcolonial Reading

• Embedded in the Western scientific rationality Hofstede’s methodological approach is constructed on a quantitative method characterized by a carefully selected sample of well educated white ‘men’ from the middle classes working for the same company and sharing similar occupation. The appointment of these men as the norm for national culture might mislead one to believe that Hofstede perceive of culture as equally distributed among men and women. Considering that he has dedicated one of his five dimensions to gender and constructed his model on a bipolar distinction between Masculinity and Femininity this is clearly not the case. Instead it shows that he has a distinct understanding of the differences between masculinity and femininity which he uses for his construction of national cultures. This raises the following question; Is the absence of women’s own voices in Hofstede’s theory reducing them to objects of patriarchy in order to maintain men’s power positions in the globalized economy? The aim of my paper is to discuss these and similar questions from a postcolonial angle.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Ekonomi och näringsliv -- Företagsekonomi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Economics and Business -- Business Administration (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Critical management

cross-cultural studies

gender

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art (ämneskategori)

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