Culture of Responsibility: An Analysis of Corporate Social Responsibility Within Hofstede's Masculinity-Femininity Framework

Abstract

Geert Hofstede’s 1970 research on culture has created a framework that can be used to compare countries on the basis of cultural dimensions. This study uses Hofstede’s masculinity scale, which measures whether countries are more performance-oriented (masculine) or cooperation-oriented (feminine), as a method of comparing corporate social responsibility (CSR) approaches of Swedish and U.S. telecommunications companies. Proposing a theoretical connection between CSR and characteristics of masculine and feminine cultures, this thesis explores the way these characteristics are portrayed through CSR approaches. Finally, this thesis finishes with a case study analysis of four companies, two from the masculine U.S. and two from the feminine Sweden, to demonstrate the theoretical connection of Hofstede’s masculinity scale and CSR. The results of the theoretical exploration and qualitative case study analysis suggest a relationship between Hofstede’s masculinity scale and approaches to CSR for Swedish and U.S. telecommunications companies.