CULTURAL DIMENSIONS IN BUSINESS LIFE: HOFSTEDE’S INDICES FOR GHANA. A RESEARCH PROJECT TOPIC ON BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
ABSTRACT
Ghana has lately generated huge interest globally as a preferred destination for doing business in Africa. However, like many African countries not much has been documented on business culture in Ghana. Through the use of a questionnaire based on Hofstede’s elements of national culture, the opinions of both indigenous and expatriate business executives in Ghana are ascertained in order to synthesis and profile Ghana’s business culture. The theoretical section is mainly based on the findings of Geert Hofstede analysis and experimentation which consists of the following concepts: power distance, individualism versus collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity versus femininity and Confucian dynamism.
The results show that power distance is relatively big and management is not easily accessible in the Ghanaian business culture. Ghanaians tend to be more collectivistic in nature and may not be too keen on the uncertainty element. Furthermore, as Ghanaians are identified to be more assertive in nature, the business culture could be said to be a very masculine one and was also shown to be a long term oriented culture as far as the Hofstede’s fifth element of culture is concerned.
1 Introduction
A major challenge to the global business community considering trade and investment in the sub-Saharan African countries is access to credible and timely analytical information in order to make informed, knowledgeable and definitive business decisions (African Business Guide, 2009). One dimension of this challenge is the question of culture: this is very important for the international management practitioner, whose first question often is; “how do they do things out there” (Usunier, 1998). There is a general consensus that, culture has a funda-mental influence on international business practices (Omar, O., Kirby, A. & Blankson, C. 2003. 81-97). This is further reinforced by the complex implementation process of international management decisions. Therefore, improving levels of cultural awareness can help companies build international competencies and enable individuals to become more globally sensitive.
