CIRJE-J-5. Fujita, Hideki and Nobuo Takahashi, "Possibility to Compare National Cultures: Reconsideration of Hofstede", September 1998.

In the years from 1967 to 1973, Hofstede collected about 70,000 questionnaires from 40 subsidiaries of IBM, and compared cultures between 40 nations. He examined the data set of IBM and found four dimensions of national culture such as power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism, and masculinity. I used the two (power distance and uncertainty avoidance) of four dimensions to conduct surveys in 3 Japanese corporations and to compare the data set of Japanese corporations with that of IBM. I found that 3 Japanese corporations and IBM Japan are commonly high in uncertainty avoidance index.

When comparing the data sets between Japanese corporations and IBM, I examined each question composing the indexes of two dimensions, and found the high uncertainty avoidance index went with lifetime commitment often discussed in the issues of Japanese management. And in that comparing, I made it clear how to calculate the 2 rest indexes and to do the factor analysis which Hofstede did in the analysis of IBM data.