IOSR Journal of Business and Management (IOSR-JBM) e-ISSN: 2278-487X, p-ISSN: 2319-7668. Volume 10, Issue 6 (May. - Jun. 2013), PP 55-58 www.iosrjournals.org www.iosrjournals.org 55 | Page The Relationship Between Gender And Ethnicity Upon Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions Among Sabah Ethnicities Dg Kamisah Ag Budin 1 , Syed Azizi Wafa 2 1 Faculty of Business Management, UITM Sabah, Malaysia 2 School of Business and Economics, University Malaysia Sabah, Malaysia Abstract : Culture plays an important role in many aspects such as the way employees perform their job, productivity of organization as well as the relationship among employees in the workplace. Therefore, it is important to understand cultural dimensions among individuals to predict their behaviour that will lead to organizational success. This study was conducted to identify whether gender and ethnicity will influence people’s cultural dimensions. In short, this study intends to understand the cultural dimensions among Sabah communities which involve three major ethnic groups in Sabah namely Malay-Brunei, Bajau and Kadazan- Dusun. The sample of this research was selected based on purposive convenient sampling whereby all respondents are located in Kota Kinabalu. A questionnaire was administered for data collection with a sample of two hundred and nineteen employees from both the public and the private sector. The data was analyzed using the one way ANOVA and it showed that three major ethnic groups in Sabah appear to be not significantly different on Hofstede’s cultural dimensions. However the t -test found that the males differ from females on three out of four cultural dimensions namely power distance, individualism-collectivism and masculinity- femininity. The findings of this study can be considered as very interesting since a majority of Malaysians perceive that the values of the three ethnic cultures of the Malay-Brunei, Bajaus and Dusuns are different but the study proved otherwise. Keywords- Cultural dimension, Ethnic groups, Gender, Malaysia I. INTRODUCTION Malaysia is well known all over the world with its diverse racial and ethnic composition. Besides the local Malays and the native groups, immigrants from China, India, Indonesia and other parts of the world contribute to multiracial composition of Malaysia‟s population. Consequently, Malaysia is often described as a minefield of cultural sensitivities (Asma and Lim, 2001). Moreover, Fontaine (2007) described Malaysia as a country where Malays, Chinese, Indians and other ethnic groups live in a multicultural environment. Culture plays an important role in many aspects such as the way employees perform their job, relationship among employees in the workplace as well as their acceptance towards their leaders. There are a few studies conducted such as Hofstede and Hofstede (2005) which intend to see the variations of culture in different countries. There is also study conducted by Wafa et al (1999) who conducted a study in Peninsular Malaysia by using three major ethnic groups as their sample of study namely the Malays, Indians and the Chinese. However, research on Sabah communities has not been done yet. Therefore, this study investigated whether cultural differences exist among Sabahans. Sabah is located in east Malaysia and known as the second largest state in the country. According to Swee-Hock and Kesavapany (2006), consistently higher rate of population growth was recorded in Sabah. Sabah‟s population has a rich cultural diversity with various ethnic communities. Each ethnic community has their unique heritage which makes them different from one ethnic group to another. These ethnic groups still maintain their customs and traditions until today. This study is conducted in Sabah whereby it focused on three major ethnic groups namely Malay-Brunei, Bajau and Kadazan-Dusun. The primary objective of this research is to determine the cultural dimensions of the three major ethnic groups of the Sabah population. Therefore, the research questions that will be answered are: I. How do the Sabahans score on Hofstede‟s cultural dimensions? II. Are there any differences in Hofstede‟s cultural dimensions among the three major ethnic groups? III. Do males and females differ in their cultural dimensions? II. RELATED LITERATURE According to Kluckhohn (1951), culture is defined as a pattern of ways of thinking, feeling and reacting acquired and transmitted through symbols. Basically, Kluckhohn (1951) claims that the fundamental nature of culture consists of conventional thoughts and standards. Additionally, culture provides values, norms and roles that are enforced by positive and negative sanctions (Van Maanen, 1976). Agents of socialization such as family, peers, media and experiences will support the learning of these standards, custom and roles.