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Introduction
Research using a variety of frameworks has shown that national cultural values are related to workplace behaviors, attitudes and other organizational outcomes (e.g., Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck, 1961; Hall, 1976; Hofstede, 1980a; Trompenaars, 1993; Schwartz, 1994; Ronen and Shenkar, 1985). Perhaps the most influential of cultural classifications is that of Geert Hofstede. Over two decades have passed since the publication of Culture's Consequences: International Differences in Work-Related Values (Hofstede, 1980a), inspiring thousands of empirical studies; however, a comprehensive review of the impact of Hofstede's framework is lacking.1 To fill this gap, we summarize and synthesize empirical research published between January 1980 and June 2002 that has applied Hofstede's framework to organizations. We focus on Hofstede's framework rather than others, given evidence that it has had far greater impact (Sivakumar and Nakata, 2001). For example, the Social Science Citations Index indicates that Hofstede's work is more widely cited than others (cited 1,800 times through 1999; Hofstede, 2001). Trompenaars (1993, iii), who has a competing framework, credits Hofstede 'for opening management's eyes to the importance of the [cross-cultural management] subject'. Our purpose is both to summarize existing research and to direct and inform future research, rather than provide an in-depth discussion of Hofstede's original study, a critique (e.g., Schwartz, 1994; Smith and Bond, 1999; McSweeney, 2002; Smith, 2002), or a replication (e.g., Punnett and Withane (1990); Shackleton and Ali, 1990; Merritt, 2000; Spector et al. , 2001a).
We focus on aspects of Hofstede's work not discussed in recent reviews and meta-analyses. For example, most researchers focused exclusively on individualism-collectivism (IND-COL) at the individual level of analysis (e.g., Triandis, 1995; Earley and Gibson, 1998; Oyserman et al. , 2002). Consequently, their implications and conclusions are based on a much narrower band of Hofstede-inspired research. Hofstede (2001) recently reviewed hundreds of studies published since his original book appeared in 1980. However, consistent with his opposition to applying the framework to the individual level, Hofstede 'ignores everything... but the culture level comparisons' (Smith, 2002, 123), thus missing an opportunity to draw conclusions across levels. Indeed, an analysis of references reveals very little overlap between studies we reviewed and those contained in previous reviews. Therefore our conclusions and implications should add value beyond previous reviews, as our purpose was...