Understanding Malaysian culture

Abstract

Culture plays an important role in shaping work organisations and other social institutions. Many authors have defined cultures in more than 200 ways. Professor Hofstede conducted perhaps the most comprehensive study of how values in the workplace are influenced by culture. He analyzed a large data base of employee values scores collected by IBM between 1967 and 1973 covering more than 70 countries, Hofstede can be regarded as one of the leading representatives of intercultural research and studies. The findings of his research and his theoretical ideas are used worldwide in both psychology and management studies. An attempt has been made in this paper to study the Malaysian culture from the perspective of Hofstede cultural dimensions. If we explore the Malaysian culture through the lens of the 5-D Model of Hofstede, we can get a good overview of the deep drivers of Malaysian culture