Gert Jan

The cool water condition theory It stands to reason that culture, a long-term ecological adaptation, varies with climate. Political scientist Christian Welzel developed the “Cool Water Condition” geo-climatic theory. It proposes that regions with cool seasons, steady rainfall, and coastal proximity facilitated decentralized resource management. This fosters egalitarian cultures with local autonomy, grassroots resistance to … Read more

The new tool At https://geerthofstede.com/country-comparison-bar-charts/,  anyone can now create bar charts showing country scores on all six Hofstede dimensions of culture. The bar charts show data from the official Hofstede database, as given also in Cultures & Organizations, 3d ed 2010. One can add up to twelve countries. You can either type country names, or … Read more

On January 17 2024, Theodore D. Kemper passed away. I consider him to be one of the great minds of science. Allow me to present his life and work briefly. Theodore D. (Dave) Kemper was born in Brooklyn, NY, USA, on 29 December 1926, and received his degree in English from the City College of … Read more

Gert Jan’s farewell address On 21 March 2024, Gert Jan Hofstede held his official farewell address as professor. This is a ritual that changes a professor into a “professor emeritus” (announcement here). Actually, it was not really a farewell, since he is still attached to Wageningen University, Urban Economics Group. Online access The talk will … Read more

Geert Hofstede, 1928-2020 On 12 February 2020 – three years ago – my father Geert Hofstede passed away. He had been declining since a few years. We suspected nothing at first; after all he was from 1928. From around 2016, he started to have more problems. Just after his 90th birthday, he could no longer … Read more

Uprisings are alike There is a certain historic continuity in the dynamics of uprisings. This has been true since many centuries. In this century, we have seen these dynamics particularly in countries in the Maghreb and the Middle East. At this moment, Iran is in turmoil since the death of 22-year old Mahsa Amini, a … Read more

Here, you can see a tutorial lecture by me (Gert Jan) about human sociality and culture. In November 2022, I was invited for a keynote at the “Global Entrepreneurship Week” of Windesheim University of applied sciences in Zwolle, the Netherlands. It was good fun. Thank you, Ferdi Hofstede (unrelated), for inviting me! The lecture, and … Read more

Thanks to Handan Akkas, Cultures and Organizations, 3rd edition, has now appeared in the Turkish language.

What will distance mean to our children? What does it mean across cultures? Here, I’ll philosophize. The blog follows two others: I had written a blog ahead of time that summarised my message on “Die Zukunft von Abstand”. It’s in German, the language of my lectures. It has some history and some poetry in it. … Read more

On May 5, 2021, I received the following email message: ‘Dear Colleague, As a member of the German non-profit association “Wirtschaftsclub im Literaturhaus e.V.” (Business Club in the House of Literature, located in Stuttgart, Germany), I would like to ask you if you see a possibility to give us, i. e. the members of the … Read more