The tropical fish problem revisited: a Malaysian perspective

This article revisits cross-cultural management in Malaysia by challenging some fundamental assumptions. Most models of culture, such as Hofstede's, assume that a country is reasonably homogeneous to make an analysis meaningful. We argue, conceptually and by providing empirical data that Malaysia is not a homogeneous country, and therefore Hofstede's model is not suitable in Malaysia. Although this article deals with Malaysia specifically, there are a number of countries where Hofstede's assumption might not work. In this context, we use Malaysia as an exemplar. We conclude that a better alternative is the model of Schwartz.