The Limitations of Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions in Terms of Viet Nam

I come from Viet Nam, thus, my profile country is Viet Nam. According to Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, there are seven key dimensions and I would analyze the limitations of this classification from my country’s point of view.

“Power Distance”

According to Hofstede’s analysis, Viet Nam gets a high score with approximately 70. This demonstrates that there are less equality and high hierarchy among members in a society. From the business point of view, there are numerous challenges needed to take into consideration. Due to the high hierarchy as mentioned beforehand, leaders regularly provide the business strategies and divide the tasks into the employees. Therefore, there are no opportunities for the subordinates to think out of a box and create breakthrough ideas as they only take care of given tasks and respond to requests of employers, leading to the limitations of long-term development beyond boundaries.

“Individualism”

In this term, Viet Nam gets a low point, approximately 20. Therefore, it means that people in this society aim to live, work and collaborate with each other as the total common group. Apparently, there are strong connections among relatives in the same organizations, leading to negative behaviors within the working environment. In particular, family or acquainted relationships would be one of the most crucial criteria in recruitment stage and further promotion in the near future instead of diploma or experiences evaluations. Thus, this easily leads to conflicts among members in groups as well as the efficiencies of the entire organizational performances.’

“Masculinity”

Based on Hofstede’s results, Viet Nam gets the low point of the Masculinity dimension, roughly 40, thus, it means that the nation’s society is Feminine. In this dimension, citizens aim to emphasize and foster their quality of daily lives without paying attention to social races. In addition, they also concern about recreational elements on a daily basis after regular working routines. As the society only focuses on values of life, there are no chances for the society to progress and improve forward even though the global development constantly increases. As a result, this will drive the society towards obsolescence as well as stagnant directions in different areas of the organization.

“Uncertainty Avoidance”

Viet Nam has a tendency towards avoiding uncertainties due to the low score of this dimension, around 30. Specifically, individuals in this society prefer flexibility in their daily routines and pay less attention to strictly traditional methods, especially in the working environment. Indeed, people have demands of flexible working hours instead of a 9-to-5 measure and punctuality and accuracy are not important issues for them. Therefore, on the long-term basis, this will create unforeseen negative outcomes for Viet Nam for sure. Everything should obtain certain standards in own timelines and in a further point of view, this will lead to stagnation and the limitations of the efficiencies, especially doing business in huge scales, as requirements of correct deadlines are vital to the efficient business operations.

“Long-term Orientation”

Vietnamese people aim to follow pathways towards the long-term orientation with about 57 points. Apparently, the society has an effort to maintain and develop long-term purpose based on relationship extension. To be precise, a reciprocity is highly preferable in Vietnamese society to expand a wide range of areas, particularly in business. This will lead to inappropriate business-practice alignment towards the long-run enhancement. Moreover, due to the flexibility to adapt things easily, people in this society have the tendency to follow truths depending on different certain situations. In the business point of view, it is relatively dangerous to carry out the business practices in accordance with unstable concepts of truths as this will easily lead to chaotic situations in many stages of the business processes as well as difficulties of gaining the common organizational goals.

“Indulgence”

Last but not least, Vietnamese society is considered as the restraint culture with roughly 35 points. Apparently, the inhabitants in this culture frequently have a trend to follow and carry out strictly moral regulations and are considered as less-happy and pessimistic persons. In the business environment, it requires the involved individuals to be optimist and open-minded towards others in order to follow on the long-term pathways and obtain the common goals together.