Empirical testing of Hofstede's measures of national culture and their impact on leadership in four countries

Abstract

This paper presents the results of empirical investigation of the validity of Hofstede's measurements of national culture in Serbia, France, the Netherlands, and Denmark. In one multinational company the employees have taken part in the questionnaire the purpose of which was to investigate whether the relative relations between positions of the observed national cultures stayed the same when compared according to each of the four national culture dimensions as Hofstede had originally described. In addition, it has been also explored whether a national culture could, through its power distance dimension, be a relevant factor in the choice of leadership style in organizations. The results of the research have demonstrated that the positions of four national cultures and their relative relations have remained the same as Hofstede outlined them through his indexes in three out of four dimensions. The research has also shown that in the national cultures with high power distance, the employees prefer Likert's autocratic leadership styles (exploitative and benevolent), whereas in the cultures with low power distance they tend to choose democratic leadership styles (consultative and participative).