Hofstede

MKT 350/ Int. Marketing 11-10-10

Hofstede’s Cultural Typology
(MADAGASCAR)
“TABLET PC”

* Power Distance in Madagascar :
The degree to which members of a society expect power to be unequally shared. Madagascar scores High.
Madagascar scores High on power distance, which results in very formalorganizational structures. For Malagasy people, formality depends on hierarchy. As Madagascar is infiltrated with western views, conflict arises between the new informal western-organizational culture and the old formal social hierarchy cultures. The old formal social hierarchy culture has a great respect for their ancestors and their traditional practices which causes difficulty for development.People in these cultures accept that inequalities in power and status are natural or existential. In the same way they accept that some people are smarter than others, people accept that some will have more power and influence than others. Those with power tend to emphasize it, to hold it close and not delegate or share it, and to distinguish themselves as much as possible from those who do not havepower. They are, however, expected to accept the responsibilities that go with power, to look after those beneath them. Subordinates are not expected to take initiative and are closely supervised.

* Individualism/Collectivism:
The degree to which societal institutions encourage individuals to be integrated into groups within organizations and society. Madagascar scores High on Collectivism.The power distance also opens doors for corruption but it does favor collectivism and “fihavanana” (good relationship) that typifies Malagasy culture. This means that people never do things by themselves but they always do it together because they believe that working together will create success. It is common to share ideas with your friends, family and to elders. These factors, or values, ofMalagasy people affect the way they do things.
"Tondro tokany tsy mahazo hao," a famous Malagasy proverb, means one finger can't touch things. This means that working by yourself will leave you far away from success. So, we must work together to have success because each person has his own way to make life better. Their attitude towards doing, or action, is influenced by their collectivism andtheir desire to share ideas with each other. Additionally, when making a decision, Malagasy people talk to others (friends, family, and elders) to get advises.
To conclude, the collectivism of the Malagasy people impacts the way they take action generally in group.

* Masculinity/Femininity:
The extent to which a society maximizes gender role differences. Madagascar has a low Masculinityrate.
A Low Masculinity ranking indicates the country has a low level of differentiation and discrimination between genders. In the Malagasy cultures, females are treated equally to males in all aspects of the society. Nowadays, Malagasy Women are strong and believe that they can do anything that a man can, or maybe more. Because inch by inch, women are taking the man’s key jobs, as in a company,human resources tend to promote woman over man, woman are seen as a more serious and moral person as a man. We can find more and more business woman in Madagascar, as well as more and more women in the Government and in other powerful positions.

* Uncertainty avoidance :
The extent to which the members of a society accepting of ambiguous situations or comfortable with unfamiliar situations.Madagascar scores High.
In Madagascar, people don't want to take risks in their lives.
We will illustrate their attitude by sharing some Malagasy proverbs.
According to the Malagasy way taking risks is difficult and can create bad problems in their lives. Taking risks is dangerous and they believe that risks can lead to death. Malagasy people tend to be pessimistic.

For many generations,...