This document summarizes Hofstede's work defining the 5th dimension of long term orientation vs short term orientation. It discusses how the dimension was originally defined based on a Chinese study but then redefined using the World Values Survey to apply it to more countries. The new definition, called LTO-WVS, is based on items related to thrift, national pride, and service to others. While different than the original LTO-CVS definition, it allows the dimension to be expanded to more countries. Some country scores shifted between the two definitions.

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The 5th dimension
Excerpts from Cultures and Organizations

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Objectivesours
e
If you need a refresher on how Hofstede explains
the 5th dimension, we have here collected some
excerpts from the book Cultures and Organizations:
Software of the Mind (2010).
If you would like to read up more on the topic, each
quote is followed by the page number so that you
can easily find it in the book.

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The fourth CVS dimension was not correlated with
the fourth IBM dimension: uncertainty avoidance
had no equivalent in the CVS. Instead, the fourth CVS
dimension contrasted values unrelated to anything
in the IBM database. However, to our excitement,
this dimension correlated strongly with recent
economic growth.
[continued on next slide]
(pp.236)
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The fourth CVS dimension combined on the one side
these values:
1. Persistence (perseverance)
2. Thrift
3. Ordering relationships by status and observing the
order
4. Having a sense of shame
And on the opposite side:
5. Reciprocation of greetings, favors and gifts
6. Respect for tradition
7. Protecting one’s “face”
8. Personal steadiness and stability”
(pp.236-237)
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The fifth dimension was defined as follows: long-
term orientation stands for the fostering of virtues
oriented towards future rewards - in particular,
perseverance and thrift. Its opposite pole, short-
term orientation, stands for the fostering of virtues
related to the past and present - in particular,
respect for tradition, preservation of “face”, and
fulfilling social obligations.
(p. 239)
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A problem with the new dimension was that scores
were available for only twenty-three countries,
fewer than half the more than fifty in the IBM
database. […] Misho Minkov’s analysis of the World
Values Survey offered us an opportunity to extend
our database fourfold at one stroke. This meant
redefining long-term orientation in some respect.
(p. 239)
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In 2007 Misho Minkov published his analysis of
World Values Survey (WVS) data introducing three
new dimensions… The third was called
monumentalism versus flexhumility, and it
correlated strongly (and negatively) with LTO-CVS.
Monumnetalism predicted 42 percent of the country
differences in LTO-CVS, which suggested that the
two measures share common underlying values.
(p. 252)
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LTO-CVS and monumentalism overlapped only
partly, because monumentalism does not predict
thrift or persistence, and LTO-CVS is not about
religiousness.
(p. 253)
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The correlation between the two indexes encouraged a
search for WVS items that would replicate the meaning of
both poles of the LTO-CVS dimension.
Misho scoured the WVS database up to the year
2008 for items that fulfill the following conditions:
They are conceptually similar to the LTO-CVS items.
They correlate significantly with LTO-CVS.
The WVS items that best satisfied these conditions were the
following:
1. Thrift as a desirable trait for children […]
2. National pride […]
3. Importance of service to others […]
(p. 253)
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We deliberately maintained the label long-term orientation for
the new index. […] The new index was inspired by the old one,
but it had to be based on a very different questionnaire, with
different respondents in a different time period. […] The
differences between LTO-CVS and LTO-WVS are that the first
originated from a survey designed by Chinese scholars, and it
produces its highest score for mainland China. […] LTO-WVS
tries to replicate the essence of long-term orientation from a
massive and permanently updated survey database that
originated in Europe and expanded worldwide under American
leadership - a product of Western minds. It lacks the Chinese
flavor of the earlier study. However, it allows us to expand the
basic distinctions from the CVS to many more countries.
(p. 254)
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From the twenty-three countries of the LTO-CVS
scale, six have noticeably shifted on the LTO-WVS
scale: Pakistan, Germany, and Great Britain moved
up; Australia, Brazil and Hong Kong moved down.
Pakistan joins India and Bangladesh; Germany and
Great Britain join a Western European cluster.
Australia moves closer to the United States, Brazil
joins other Latin American countries, and Hong Kong
scores lower than Singapore. For the remaining
countries, the shifts between the CVS and WVS
rankings are minor.
(p. 259)
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