Hofstede and Lewis

In the "Who and why" - section on this website I mentioned two names, Hosftede and Lewis. Yes, THOSE Hofstede and Lewis, the world famous and most hip social psychologist and cross-cultural communication consultant!

In this blog I will refer their work in the field of culture, linguistics, people and social behaviour because they have made many theories and analysed the world so that we could understand different cultures. Here is what who they are and what they do (or did).

GEERT HOFSTEDE (b. 2.10.1928, Holland)

is a Dutch social psychologist and Professor Emeritus of Organizational Anthropology and International Management at Maastricht University in the Netherlands. He is a well-known pioneer in his research of cross-cultural groups and organizations and played a major role in developing a systematic framework for assessing and differentiating national cultures and organizational cultures. His studies demonstrated that there are national and regional cultural groups that influence the behavior of societies and organizations.

His most notable work has been in developing cultural dimensions theory. Here he describes national cultures along six dimensions: Power Distance, Individualism, Uncertainty avoidance, Masculinity, Long Term Orientation, and Indulgence vs. restraint. Through these dimensions you can evaluate the differences between cultures. 

On his website https://geert-hofstede.com/tools.html you can find more interesting information about him.

RICHARD. D. LEWIS (b.13.7.1930, United Kingdom)

is a British polyglot, cross-cultural communication consultant, and author. He claims to speak 11 languages (English, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, German, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish and Japanese).

After visiting 135 countries and working in more than 20 of them, Lewis came to the conclusion that humans can be divided into three clear categories, based not on nationality or religion but on BEHAVIOUR. He named his typologies Linear-active, Multi-active and Reactive.

While Lewis' writings recognise these can only be stereotypes, he asserts that his model provides a practical framework for understanding and communicating with people of other cultures, and that the model can readily be expanded with other features, such as Hofstede's cultural dimensions, seen in relation to Lewis' triangular representation. 

There are many other theories about cultural behaviour, but in this blog I'm going to be referring mostly to these two gentleman.

So what about Finland, where do we land? Are there any thruth to these theories? 

-Johanna