Despite its great contributions to the understanding of cultural theories, Hofstede’s framework is not without flaws. Its primary weaknesses are three, which are as follows:
Weak sampling and methodology
The initial report was based on the study of IBM’s employees worldwide, which included only managers and engineers, who were predominantly males. Gender and racial inclusion were relatively low, and the overall samples for each individual culture were small, meaning that the results were biased as well.
Not all variables were included
The initial analysis includes five dimensions of culture, with the 6th dimension added later on. However, these variables do not account for the individual personalities of the employees, meaning that the provided results can only be used as generalizations, which do not always represent the objective reality of a particular culture or company.
Useless at the organizational level
As Hofstede himself pointed out, his factor analysis cannot be implemented for organizations located in the same country due to being in the same cultural environment. The set of variables to be applied in that situation involves communities of practice, which are different from the initial six dimensions of culture.