Exploring Regional Cultural Differences in China Using Hofstede’s Framework of Cultural Value Dimensions

While hundreds of studies have adopted Hofstede’s framework to examine national cultural differences and individual variations in cultural values, very few have focused on cultural differences among different regions within the same country, and even fewer applied the framework to regional cultural differences in Chinese organizations. As the first study of a larger research project on the organizational consequences of regional cultural differences in China, the present study aims to: (a) qualitatively assess the extent regional cultural differences are experienced by organizational members; (b) inductively uncover the content of regional cultural differences as reported by organizational members; and (c) explore the applicability of Hofstede’s cultural framework to regional differences in China. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 35 employees from a regional subsidiary of a Fortune 500 state-owned enterprise with employees coming primarily from two geographically distant and historically very different provinces, namely, Xinjiang in the Northwest corner of China, and Shandong on the East coast of China. Open and axial coding procedures were applied to extract and organize segments of expressions in the interview records relevant to our research questions. Analysis found that: (a) interviewees reported substantial cultural differences between employees from Xinjiang and those from Shandong; and (b) the reported regional cultural differences can be organized into Hofstede’s six cultural dimensions. Implications for future research and for organizational practitioners have been discussed.