Hi Kurt (and everyone),
The measurement of cultural values certainly has a long history and a lot of controversy associated with it.
I have a few reactions and have also cut and pasted a response from my colleague, Vas Taras, below.
1. I agree with those that have suggested avoiding assigning country scores from Hofstede's original data set down to the individual level. First, as we all know, Hofstede's country scores were derived from data collected in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and there is evidence of cultural change over the last few decades, making these scores less valid for predicting outcome data collected more recently. Second, our recent meta-analysis (Taras, Kirkman, & Steel, 2010; JAP) showed that primary data (i.e., surveys administered to participants) have much more predictive power than secondary data (i.e., country scores assigned to individuals).
2. In addition to Maznevski and DiStefano's Cultural Perspectives Questionnaire, which I have successfully used at the individual level of analysis, there are other individual level measures of cultural values that have shown great reliability and validity. For example, I like Jackson et al.'s (2006; JAP) measure of psychological collectivism, which was designed for use at the individual level. I also like Earley and Erez's (1997) individual level power distance orientation measure (the actual items can be found in Appendix A in Kirkman et al., 2009; AMJ). Dorfman and Howell (1988) also have individual level measures of all four of Hofstede's original cultural value dimensions.
Dorfman, P., & Howell, J. P. (1988). Dimensions of national culture and effective leadership patterns: Hofstede revisited. In R. N. Farmer & E. G. McGoun (Eds.), Advances in international comparative management (pp. 172-150). London, UK: JAI Press.
Earley, P. C., & Erez, M. (1997). The transplanted executive: Why you need to understand how workers in other countries see the world differently. New York: Oxford University Press.
Jackson, C. L., Colquitt, J. A., Wesson, M. J., & Zapata-Phelan, C. P. (2006). Psychological collectivism: A measurement validation and linkage to group member performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91, 884-899.
Kirkman, B.L., Chen, G., Farh, J.L., Chen, Z.X., & Lowe, K.B. (2009). Individual power distance orientation and follower reactions to transformational leaders: A cross-level, cross-cultural examination. Academy of Management Journal, 52, 744-764.
Taras, V., Kirkman, B.L., & Steel, P. (2010). Examining the impact of Culture's Consequences: A three-decade, multi-level, meta-analytic review of Hofstede's cultural value dimensions. Journal of Applied Psychology, 95(3), 405-439.
3. If anyone is interested in updated country scores of Hofstede's original four dimensions, my colleagues and I created new, decade-by-decade country scores using meta-analytic data (Taras, Steel, & Kirkman, in press; JWB). So, for example, if you're trying to correlate Hosfstede's cultural value dimensions with criterion data collected since 2000, you can use the 2000-decade country scores. We also have them for the 1980s and 1990s, separately. While I won't attach them here, anyone interested can email me or Vas Taras directly for these new decade-by-decade country scores.
Taras, V., Steel, P., & Kirkman, B.L. (in press). Improving national cultural indices using a longitudinal meta-analysis of Hofstede's dimensions. Journal of World Business.
Thanks, and good luck with your cross-cultural research!
Brad
Bradley L. Kirkman, Ph.D.
Professor and Foreman R. and Ruby Bennett Chair in Business Administration
Mays Faculty Fellow
Doctoral Program Coordinator, Management Department
Mays Business School
Texas A&M University
4221 TAMU
College Station, Texas 77843-4221
Email: brad.kirkman@tamu.edu
Phone: 979-845-8813
Fax: 979-845-9641
Webpage: http://mays.tamu.edu/directory/employees/504/
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Kurt,
You raise a very interesting questions. Here are a few issues that you should consider:
1. There are over a hundred instruments for measuring what we call "cultural" values. You can find a good collection with original items and scoring keys here: http://vtaras.com/culture_survey_catalogue.html or here http://vtaras.com/Culture_Survey_Catalogue.pdf
2. Keep in mind that most of those measures were "officially" developed to assess cultural values at the national level. In my personal opinion, the only reason these are "national-level" measures are only because their authors said so. The psychometric properties of most of them were not assessed at the national vs. individual level of analysis to come to that conclusion. It is true, however, so some were developed using national-level data, so I suppose at least some of those claims are not baseless.
3. Using Hofstede's VSM instrument to measure measures of your study participants is likely a bad idea. So many times it had been said that it is "inappropriate" to use the instrument for the individual level of analysis that even if that is not the case, you will have a very hard time proving that the reviewers. The same applies to the instrument developed by GLOBE. Furthermore, Hofstede's VSM tends to have poor psychometric properties at both the individual and the national level of analysis (the 82 and 94 versions), at least as reported by Spector
4. The instrument by Maznevki and DiStephano was specifically developed to measure cultural values at the individual level, and it may be your best bet. That instrument also has "sub-optimal" reliabilities, but it should be good enough.
5. Alternatively, you may want to consider Schwartz's SVS. That one has been shown to have good psychometric properties at both the individual and the national level of analysis and has been very popular. Based on my personal research, it tends to correlate weakly with organizational and business variables, probably because the dimensions of culture assessed by the instrument are more "humanitarian" and less "business-related", but other than that, it might a good choice for you.
If any of these are of interest to you, use the links above to get more information about each of these instruments.
Good luck with your project.
Spector, P. E., Cooper, C. L., & Sparks, K. (2001). An international study of the psychometric properties of the Hofstede Values Survey Module 1994: A comparison of individual and country/province level results. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 50(2), 269-281.
Vas
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Vas Taras, PhD
Department of Business Administration
Bryan School of Business and Economics
University of North Carolina at Greensboro
349 Bryan
POB 26165, Greensboro, NC 27402-6165
336-256-8611
v_taras@uncg.edu
www.vtaras.com
Bradley L. Kirkman, Ph.D.
Professor and Foreman R. and Ruby Bennett Chair in Business Administration
Mays Faculty Fellow
Doctoral Program Coordinator, Management Department
Mays Business School
Texas A&M University
4221 TAMU
College Station, Texas 77843-4221
Email: brad.kirkman@tamu.edu
Phone: 979-845-8813
Fax: 979-845-9641
Webpage: http://mays.tamu.edu/directory/employees/504/
From: Organizational Behavior Division Listserv [mailto:OB@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU] On Behalf Of Reid A Bates
Sent: Sunday, February 26, 2012 12:23 PM
To: OB@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
Subject: Re: [OB-LIST] Cross-Cultural Measure of Values
Maznevski & Distephano have developed an instrument - the Cultural Perspectives Questionnaire - designed to assess cultural values at the individual level of analysis. The CPQ is based on the work of anthropologists Kluckhohn & Strodbeck ('61).
Professor, Human Resource, Organization & Leadership Development
School of Human Resource Education & Workforce Development
Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803
Research Professor, Payson Center for International Development
Tulane University, New Orleans, LA 70118-5698
From: Organizational Behavior Division Listserv on behalf of Kurt Kraiger
Sent: Sat 2/25/2012 11:16 AM
To: OB@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
Subject: [OB-LIST] Cross-Cultural Measure of Values
I have an opportunity to participate in a cross-cultural study comparing leadership behaviors to employee outcomes.
I'm aware of much of the cross-cultural behavior on leadership and organizational behavior, but haven't done much cross-cultural research. Beyond comparing IV-DV relationships across countries, are there available, short measures of respondent values that can be used to quantify differences among and between samples?