Geert Hofstede > Quotes

“In most collectivist cultures, direct confrontation of another person is considered rude and undesirable. The word no is seldom used, because saying “no” is a confrontation; “you may be right” and “we will think about it” are examples of polite ways of turning down a request. In the same vein, the word yes should not necessarily be inferred as an approval, since it is used to maintain the line of communication: “yes, I heard you” is the meaning it has in Japan.”
― Geert Hofstede, Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind - Intercultural Cooperation and Its Importance for Survival

“Culture is more often a source of conflict than of synergy. Cultural differences are a nuisance at best and often a disaster.”
― Geert Hofstede

“Studying culture without experiencing culture shock is like practicing swimming without experiencing water.”
― Geert Hofstede

“...which animal the ruler should impersonate depends strongly on what animals the followers are.”
― Geert Hofstede, Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind

“We are; therefore, we evolve.”
― Geert Hofstede, Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind - Intercultural Cooperation and Its Importance for Survival

“Every person's mental programming is partly unique, partly shared with others.”
― Geert Hofstede, Culture's Consequences : International Differences in Work-Related Values

“The manner in which animals learn has been much studied in recent years, with a great deal of patient observation and experiment. Certain results have been obtained as regards the kinds ofproblems that have been investigated, but on general principles there is still much controversy. One may say broadly that all the animals that have been carefully observed have behaved so as to confirm the philosophy in which the observer believed before his observations began. Nay, more, they have all displayed the national characteristics of the observer. Animals studied by Americans rush about frantically, with an incredible display of hustle and pep, and at last achieve the desired result by chance. Animals observed by Germans sit still and think,
and at last evolve the solution out of their inner consciousness. To the plain man, such as the present writer, this situation is discouraging. I observe, however, that the type ofproblem which a man naturally sets to an animal depends upon his own philosophy, and this probably accounts for the differences in the results. The animal responds to one type of problem in one way and to another in another; therefore the results obtained by different investigators, though different, are not incompatible. But it remains necessary to remember that no one investigator is to be trusted to give a survey of the whole field.
-Bertrand Russell, Outline of Philosophy, 192731”
― Geert Hofstede, Cultures and Organizations: Software for the Mind

“...in the unique case of a country’s geographic position, it is difficult to consider this factor as anything other than a cause, unless we assume that in prehistoric times peoples migrated to climates that fit their concepts of power distance, which is rather far-fetched.”
― Geert Hofstede, Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind - Intercultural Cooperation and Its Importance for Survival

“Some societies and religions have a tendency to expand the moral circle and to consider all humans as belonging to a single moral community. Hence the Universal Declaration of Human Rights," and hence calls for development aid. Indeed, animals can be drawn into the moral circle: people form associations or even political parties to protect animal rights, and pet animals are solemnly buried. However, in such a vast moral circle, rights and duties are necessarily diluted. Historically, religions that were tolerant of religious diversity have lost out against those that were more closed on themselves. Most empires have disintegrated from the inside.”
― Geert Hofstede, Cultures and Organizations: Software for the Mind

“Culture consists of the unwritten rules of the social game.”
― Geert Hofstede, Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind - Intercultural Cooperation and Its Importance for Survival