Page 13 - Cultures and Organizations

xii Preface

Geert lost count of the number of people who claimed that Geert had
studied the values of IBM (or “Hermes”) managers. The data used actually
were from IBM employees, and that, as the book itself showed, makes quite
a difference.
In 1991, after having taught the subject to many different audiences
and tested his text on various helpful readers, Geert published a book

for an intelligent lay readership—the first edition of Cultures and Orga-
nizations: Software of the Mind. The theme of cultural differences is, of
course, not only—and even not primarily—of interest to social scientists
or international business students. It pertains to anyone who meets people
from outside his or her own narrow circle, and in the modern world this
is virtually everybody. The new book addressed itself to any interested

reader. It avoided social scientific jargon where possible and explained it
where necessary; a Glossary was added for this purpose. Slightly updated
paperback editions appeared in 1994 and 1997.
In the meantime the worlds of politics, of business, and of ideas kept
changing fast. In 2001 Geert published a rewritten and updated version of
Culture’s Consequences that included a discussion of the many replications by
other researchers that had appeared since 1980. Anybody whose purpose
is research or academic scrutiny is referred to this source.
In 2005 Geert issued a rewritten and updated version of Cultures and
Organizations: Software of the Mind. Gert Jan Hofstede joined him as a
coauthor. After having majored in biology and taught information systems
at Wageningen agricultural university, Gert Jan had started to use his
father’s work in his own teaching and research. In 2002 he had already
published his own book, Exploring Culture: Exercises, Stories and Synthetic
Cultures, which included contributions from Paul B. Pedersen and from
Geert. Gert Jan contributed experience with the role of culture in inter-

national networks, hands-on experience in teaching the subject through
simulation games, and insight into the biological origins of culture.

Ever since his first cross-cultural research studies, Geert has contin-
ued exploring alternative sources of data, to validate and supplement his
original, accidental IBM employee data set. In the past three decades the
volume of available cross-cultural data on self-scored values has increased
enormously. Geert used to say that if he had to start his research again, he
would use a choice from these new databases. About ten years ago, Geert
got into e-mail contact with a researcher in Sofia, Bulgaria, who seemed

to be engaged in exactly that: scanning available databases and look-