Impact of Hofstede’s (1980, 2001) ‘Software of the Mind’ on the Transfer of Management Practices: The Case of the Transfer of the British Voluntarist Employment Relations Practice to Nigeria

Abstract

Every group of people have adopted different ways of managing themselves and have evolved different ways of managing their economies (primitive, rural, sophisticated, or modern) based on their culture (software of the mind). This is to say that every human group has evolved different management practices hinged on their different cultures (software of the minds); and since there is no scientific yardstick for determining that one group as intrinsically superior or inferior to another, it will therefore be problematic to attempt to transfer the management practices developed in one cultural area to another cultural area. This study tries to examine the challenges faced by both the colonial masters and the Nigerians during and after the transfer of the British Voluntarist employment relations practice to Nigeria.