National culture in organization development:a conceptual and empirical analysis

Abstract
This paper seeks to explore several approaches to testing for the relationship between Organizational Development (OD) success rates and the degree–of–fit between OD values and national cultures. There has been speculation on how well various national cultures ‘fit’ OD values but there is little empirical work. The paper uses the four cultural dimensions established by Hofstede. Detailed calculations combine Hofstede's cultural dimensions with a single measure of cultural difference. This enables differences between any pair of countries to be assessed. The conclusion is that the key question –does culture make a difference –still remains in doubt.