Forty years ago, Geert Hofstede carried out a research on cultural value. In his studies, Hofstede established that cultures with strong international linkages will have certain similarities. This is known as Culture Convergence Theory. Due to political, environmental and technological changes that have occurred over the years, it is important to examine the Cultural Convergence. Hofstede’s study formed most of the frame work of the research where the research aimed at examining the cultural convergence in the United States and Japan since they have strong international ties. The research used the New Value Survey Module 08 to test theoretically justified hypothesis that state countries with strong international ties such as the …show more content…
The aim of the current study is to continue inspiring cross cultural studies like Hofstede’s study as well as to address the potential shortcomings of the recent cross cultural studies. This study seeks to collect information about Japan and United States in order to provide up-to-date information on work related values of the cultures in Japan and United States. The collection of data used the most recent version of Value Survey Module 08 (Geert H. Hofstede, 2001).
Literature Overview
Hofstede’s original study used a Multinational Business which has subsidiaries in sixty four countries to obtain data for his research. The answers to the questions on the values and perception of work situations formed the data. The initial and subsequent survey established a global structure that comprised of four cultural value dimensions. These dimensions included power distance, individualism-collectivism, masculinity-femininity, and uncertainty avoidance. Power distance was defined as the extent to which less powerful individuals accept inequality in power. According to Hofstede’s study, it is okay for the less powerful people in less power distance to challenge their superiors