Are IT Workers from Mars? An Examination of Their National Culture Dimensions

Abstract

The information technology (IT) workforce is characterized by several unique and contextual factors, such as the technology, the occupation itself, and the human factors. Among the human factors, global information systems (IS) studies have examined the role of national culture to explain many workforce differences and nuances across nations. In such cross-cultural research, IS researchers have primarily utilized the published scores of national culture dimensions as provided by the preeminent social psychologist and culture scholar Geert Hofstede and have applied them to various IT populations within a country. Given that the IT profession is unique in many respects, and there is cultural heterogeneity within a country, our study embarked on independently measuring and verifying the national culture values of IT employees in 37 countries. By using the original Hofstede scales, scores were obtained on five national culture dimensions: power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism, masculinity, and long-term orientation. We found significant differences between the national culture scores of IT employees and those available in the literature for the general population. Our results are novel and have profound significance. There are major implications for both past and future studies in cross-cultural research as well as for practitioners who interpret and utilize the findings of such research.