Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind, Third Edition

If you travel overseas or work with organizations outside the U.S., I recommend that you read this book. The concept that culture forms the software of the mind intrigues me. In my travels I find that people in other countries do not view many things in the same way that I do. This book provides a framework for analyzing different viewpoints through consideration of the cultures from which they grow. For example, the author considers the cultural values of individualism versus collectivism. He argues that individualism may be almost completely explained by the wealth of a society - the wealthier the society the more individualism one finds expressed. Collectivism tends to dominate as a cultural value where wealth is not pervasive; consequently, in much of the world, collectivism prevails as a cultural value over individualism.The book reviews values from Western, Asian, and global perspectives. While many values overlap, the author delves into the areas where cultural values differ within each of these perspectives. This, too, adds value to the book.Overall, I think that the book encourages one to consider the cultural lenses through which one views the world. It provides an analytical framework to undertake this process. The author recognizes that one cannot escape one's own culture when looking at others (the software of the mind concept). I had the impression that he prefers cultural responses more in keeping with his Dutch background.The book encouraged me to consider the positive and negative aspects of different cultural features. The author would argue that the act of viewing a culture positively or negatively requires acceptance of a cultural viewpoint. I agree, but I think that this is part of the book's value; it encourages one to consider one's own mental landscape. I did not agree with all of the author's conclusions and believe that there are influences that lie outside the book's purview that affect people's behavior. Nevertheless, if you want to look at the software in your own mind, this is a good place to start.

In these times of globalization, understanding and accepting cultural diversity and appreciating other people's views about life and how human beings should relate to one another is increasingly important. In the late sixties, Dr. Geert Hofstede became interested in the cultural diferences between countries and has researched this subject since then. This book presents his work for the non-academic reader. It is not an easy book, but the educated reader will be able to fully understand the ideas; reading an article about factor analysis in an encyclopeadia may help to grasp how the data was interpreted. The book itself does not use any mathematical approach. Dr. Hofstede has developed a model that tries to explain the cultural diferences between countries and organizations; this model has been refined and improved over decades. Based on statistical analysis of a large body of data, he suggests that culture may be understood according to a number of principal components, such as "power distance", "individualism x collectivism", "masculinity x femininity", etc; each concept is carefully defined and the measurement method is explained. A discussion of what to expect from the relative strength of each dimension is presented; in other words, the factors are, to some extent, predictors of the dominant values and behaviors, both individual and institutional, of a society. I was truly amazed by the accuracy of these predictions, at least for the few countries I have lived and worked in and recommend this book to anyone who deals often with people from other countries and cultures.

This distills multicultural communication with business orientated dialogues and is written in a book format; rather than an activity based format. There is another book, Figuring Foreigners Out - a practical guide, that is written more in a Q/A activity format. The material is largely the same. Sometimes, people complain to me that the other book has an older copyright: 1998. This book is 2010. The material is largely the same and both are quality books. I recommend this book if you want a book that is written to read instead of an activity book. I really like both and find they complement each other's formats well. Although it is fair to note that this book was more recently published. Either way, I highly recommend supplementing this book with talking to different cultures and youtube videos on communication in different cultures. Despite the youtube supplementation, I still think you need a quality, well-written book source if one is serious about the topic. Also, the Kindle version of this book has about 10 popular highlights at the time of this review. It looks like there is an active kindle community highlighting in this book. The popular highlight choices are pretty good choices too...I would be interested to see other people highlight in this kindle book to see what people find valuable :).

An astonishingly comprehensive analysis of cultures in over 70 countries conducted over a 40 year span. Hofstede suggests that our cultural imprint drives many of our values, beliefs, thoughts, feelings and behavbiours. Many of these operate at the unconscious level … until you travel overseas and experience a different culture. The book measures and compares cultures on 6 dimensions and in doing so provides amazing insight into how to operate when living and working in a culture that you did not grow up in. A must for anyone who works with people from different cultures.”After speaking with expert lecturer on Cultures Olga Muzychenko, I now have reason to doubt how Hofstede integrates data from different studies to arrive at final conclusions. ... even with that knowledge ... it is still very much worth a read.

Hofstede, al igual que Schein, Heskett y Ehrhart, son lecturas imprescindibles de todo aquel que se desenvuelva en los ámbitos de la Cultura Organizacional.Excelente visión y claridad de conceptos.

I strongly recommend this book. I found it interesting,enjoyable, useful, and easy to read. The theory exposed in it is easily applicable to real life

I rented this book for the culture class, but later I decided to buy one for myself. It helped me to understand the culture from multiple aspects in a systematic way. Living in a multiple cultures country like Canada, it benefits me a lot in adapting to the local culture.

Livre reçu neuf, lecture très enrichissante sur les différences culturelles de part le monde.L'auteur répond également aux critiques des auteurs du modèle GLOBE dans la préface. La sixième, et à ce jour, dernière dimension n'est pas encore très élaborée mais vaut le coup d'être prise en compte. Ce livre n'est pas rempli de statistiques comme d'autres éditions de Hofstede mais ce concentre sur des exemples, explications et mises en pratiques des résultats obtenus.Hofstede a évidemment un certain biais à voir les choses d'une certainement manière (étant néerlandais) mais le livre est dans son ensemble très réussi.Pour les avides de chocs / rencontres culturelles et sous format d'images plutôt que de texte je recommande également "VA-Yang Liu. Orient/Occident."Bonne lecture!

product arrived on time, package flawless, and it's a very interesting book.