A participant observation approach to assessing the validity of Hofstede’s national culture framework

Abstract

In a globalized economy, multinational corporations often have overseas locations and/or significant numbers of employees who may not have been socialized in the company’s home country. By recognizing and acknowledging the implications of having been socialized by a national culture different from one’s own, corporate leaders can better anticipate and respond to the attitudes and behaviors of those employees, to include those impacting information security within the corporation (Hoffman & Skovira, 2020). One of the most widely used models for assessing and describing national culture is the theoretical framework developed by Hofstede (1980), whose six dimensions of national culture represent a useful tool for examining and understanding the attitudes and behavior of national cultural groups. This study used participant observation, an ethnographic methodology, to assess how Hofstede’s Six Dimensions of National Culture apply to the observed attitudes and behavior of individuals raised and socialized in the Russian culture. Based on each of the six dimensions of Hofstede’s study, the researcher took note of statements and behaviors by the ethnography participants and assessed how they aligned with Hofstede et al. (2010)’s characterization of Russian national culture.