Hofstede Globe

Hofstede Globe.

There is quite important cross-national dimension which can influence the results as well as reliability of them implementing any including Globe based cultural research and it is intranational diversity. It has been brought and increased due to the tendency of globalization of the workforce (Tung and Verbeke 2010:1266). Therefore, sometimes cross-cultural research implemented based on Globe cultural dimensions is questionably reliable. The research conducted by Minkov and Blagoev (2012) demonstrates the examples when Globe results can not be fully reliable due to population diversity in South Africa where respondents where white and black. According to Globe, different bands imply meaningfully different scores, then the question is, whom should the researchers believe and why? Focusing on the results of the current airlines case in mentioned regions, then the question occurs, what is the level of reliability of the research? Focusing in the Alizee case, then countries, from where respondents were taking part in the survey, are considered to be ethnically diverse, for example, Brazil is a home of White and Black, Asian as well as indigenous Brazilians (BBC News 2011), the USA has six ethnic and racial categories, as White, Black, Native, Alaska Native and Asian American and Native Hawaiian and other (Office of Management and Budget 1985), Malaysia is also represented by different ethnic groups as Malays, Chinese and Indian (Tourism.gov.my 2015), who have their distinguishing cultural values. In the in-depth interview as well as in the questionnaire on Facebook no related questions were raised.

What is more, the question of data gathered from questionnaires or other research methods accuracy is raised. In order to reveal accurate research results the content as well as context of the questions asked is of a high importance for each separate culture (Clearlycultural.com, 2009). For example, in individualistic cultures people tend to show the answers in the eyes, however in collectivistic cultures people choose indirect communication what makes communication a difficult issue. Based on Alizee airlines case, an in-depth interviews on a one-on-one basis were conducted among respondents of all three countries: Brazil, Malaysia and USA. However, three countries refer to various cultural groups: Malaysia-to collectivistic, Brazil-to collectivistic, USA-to individualistic, what means that data gathered from the research are less accurate than it could be if complex research methods could have been chosen to conduct.

Alizee airline‘s study serves as an example when theoretical data does not reflect empirical one. From theoretical point of view, Globe results of each of these countries show the scores of rellevance for the first group of variables: power distance, performance orientation, uncertainty avoidance, future orientation, institutional collectivism, whereas the research shows, that when consumers on mentioned areas reach airline services, they do so on the basis of cultural constructs that may not follow Globe project‘s results.