On Hofstede's Treatment of Chinese and Japanese Values

Hofstede has identified four important work-related values, but he imposes his "mental programming" on the interpretation of other cultures, which are qualitatively different from those on which he relies to develop his constructs, This criticism is evidenced by Hofstede's treatment of Chinese and Japanese values. This paper discusses the treatment along the four value dimensions: power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism and masculinity, and their integration. The paper concludes that Hofstede's analysis of Chinese and Japanese values is inadequate because Japanese and Chinese (including people in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore) may either have different interpretations of the same value scale, or have other value dimensions not tapped by Hofs'tede's value framework.