[ICIE RESEARCH WORKSHOP] New Developments in Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions with a Focus on Individualism-Collectivism: a Guide for Scholars, Educators, Trainers, and Other Practitioners
September 27th, 2025
10am – 5pm in Village Building (B252) & on Zoom
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Speaker: Adam KOMISAROF, Keio University’s Faculty of Letters, Japan
abstract
Introduced as a measure by Geert Hofstede in 1980, the cultural dimension of Individualism Collectivism (“I-C”) has dominated the field of cross-cultural research and guided intercultural trainers, educators, and other practitioners up to the present. In 2023, The Culture Factor, the global cultural analytics and strategy advisor company associated with Hofstede’s framework, updated their I-C scores due to mounting concerns with Hofstede’s operationalization and measurement of I-C, specifically over its old and non-representative data, as well as its limited face and content validity. These newer I-C scores are derived from the work of Hofstede’s former collaborator, Michael Minkov, and they include a substantial departure from the past.
For instance, East Asian cultures’ scores have shifted toward the midpoint or even closer to the
Individualism end of the continuum, close to the US’s new score. Rather than an East-West dimension, as it is sometimes perceived, the new scores represent I-C as a North-South dimension, with Northwestern Europe as the most individualist and African, Middle Eastern, and South Asian countries as the most collectivist. The presenter will discuss three major sources of country scores—including the source of their
differences—that use Hofstede’s name and pertain to his cultural dimensions: Geert Hofstede’s website, the website of The Culture Factor(formerly known as Hofstede Insights), and the Minkov-Hofstede Model. This substantial 2023 revision of country scores necessitates an analysis to guide scholars and practitioners through the motive for and meaning of such changes. To help participants make sense of abundant and often contradicting literature, the presenter will deliver a synthesized overview of the new developments in understanding and measuring I-C as it pertains to Hofstede’s work. Through guided exercises, participants will examine and clarify their own assumptions about I-C and to what extent these align with both Hofstede’s actual measurement of the concept, as well as those of Minkov.