Hofstede (1997) defined culture as the “collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from others” (p. 6). He referred to mental programming in order to explain patterns of thinking, feeling, and acting. Cultural manifestation is identified as symbols, heroes, rituals, and values as a learned programming that is dependent on a social environment. Values represented the deepest manifestations of culture and are considered culture’s building blocks (Hofstede, 1980). One well-known paradigm Hofstede introduced is called cultural dimensions that include four independent cultural dimensions: power distance, individualism/collectivism, masculinity/femininity, and uncertainty avoidance. After further research, he developed the fifth dimension known as long-term/short-term orientation (Hofstede, 2001). The following section will discuss five of the dimensions to identify the cultural differences between the United States, India, and Thailand. Power Distance The power distance index “is the extent to which the less powerful members of organizations and institutions accept and expect that power is distributed unequally” (Itim International, 2009). It is a fundamental structure endorsed by the societies’ followers and leaders in areas such as social status, wealth, and sources of power. A high power distance society embraces people with power. Powerful people are expected to have privileges, openly show their status and wealth, and are perceived to be good. On the other hand, a low power distance society embraces uniformity and minimizes inequalities. Those who hold more power in these societies attempt to look less powerful than they are (Albers-Miller & Gelb, 1996). Hofstede’... ... middle of paper ... ...tinuous, ANOVA is the most appropriate method of analysis. Research Question The research question proposed there would be differences in levels of organizational dissent between India, Thailand, and the U.S. The ANOVA revealed significant differences in levels of dissent between the three groups. The means and standard deviations are displayed in Table 2. Overall, Americans are the most likely to express articulated dissent, with Thais being the less least likely: F(4, 1446) = 5.10, 2 = .01, p < .0001. Indians display more displaced dissent, with Thais and Americans displaying less: F(4,1446) = 15.02, 2 = .03, p < .0001. Finally, Americans and Indians display the most latent dissent: F(4, 1445), = 12,24, 2 = .02, p < .0001. Discussion The results revealed significant differences between Americans, Indians and Thais regarding the expression of dissent.
In sum, the cultural differences among the three organizations tended to have more to do with the
Geert Hofstede’s research in this area has been largely accepted as the standard for understanding culture within nations for study in many different disciplines including sociology and management research, among others. His studies because of their vastness in scale, gathering data from more than ”60,000 respondents in seventy different countries,” makes his research extremely reliable and foundational to research in this area (Hofstede, 1984, 1991, 2001).”
Cultures are infinitely complex. Culture, as Spradley (1979) defines it, is "the acquired knowledge that people use to interpret experiences and generate social behavior" (p. 5). Spradley's emphasizes that culture involves the use of knowledge. While some aspects of culture can be neatly arranged into categories and quantified with numbers and statistics, much of culture is encoded in schema, or ways of thinking (Levinson & Ember, 1996, p. 418). In order to accurately understand a culture, one must apply the correct schema and make inferences which parallel those made my natives. Spradley suggests that culture is not merely a cognitive map of beliefs and behaviors that can be objectively charted; rather, it is a set of map-making skills through which cultural behaviors, customs, language, and artifacts must be plotted (p. 7). This definition of culture offers insight into ...
Geert Hofstede has developed a framework for cross-cultural communication to understand the effect of culture on values and behaviour of the people. The differences across cultures was measured and compared using six dimensions: Power distance, Individualism, Uncertainty avoidance, Masculinity vs Feminity, Long term vs short term orientation and Indulgence vs Restraint.
94). Chapter one addresses the common misconceptions many people have about term (Chaplin, 2010). Moreover, Crouch (2008) adapts the definition of culture from Ken Myers, “to distill the true meaning of culture and why it matters: Culture is what we make of the world” (p. 23). Crouch asserts that we were created in God’s image and therefore, just like the Creator, we too are creators, and something is added in every act of making (Crouch, 2008). Furthermore, Crouch (2008) asserts that culture is also how, “we make sense of the world by making something of the world” (p. 24). According to Crouch (2008), “meaning and making go together, culture, you could say, is the activity of making meaning” (p. 24). Next, Crouch introduces numerous overlapping spheres and scales of culture, for instance, “from the intimate scale of the culture of the nuclear family or the local café to that of the corporate world or film industry” (Chaplin, 2010, pp. 88-89). Crouch concludes by arguing that there is no such thing as “the Culture,” especially in terms of “transforming the Culture” (Crouch,
According to Geert Hofstede (1983, p. 76), culture can be explained as the ‘collective programming of the mind’ and it influences how people think and how they act in different situations. This distinguishes members of one group or category from another. He argued that people are mentally programmed and that it influences the lifestyles, attitudes and norms of people and their belonging in particular groups (Hofstede 1983, p. 76). Another definition of culture is that it explains the different way in which people of different populations perceive values, norms, attitudes and roles in society. By gaining an understanding of the differences that separates a culture from another and gaining knowledge on how cultures operate on a daily basis, conflicts and misunderstandings can easily be avoided (He & Liu 2010, p. 2).
It was written to further enhance the data collection of eastern and western differences in social science. Two of the authors, Kirkbride and Tang, have previously engaged in a similar study, of determining the preferred conflict management and negation style, and are currently in the process of undertaking an updated study for the same topic.
Dominica’s culture is very unique as it has changed hands between European countries such as Spain, Great Britain, and France, who brought African’s as slaves to work the fields. As a result of this combination of different cultures, Dominica contains characteristics that combine to make what is called Creole. This Creole is the mixing of these cultures in language, music, art, food, architecture, religion, dance, dress, and sports. France has had the most noticeable affect on Dominica, which is seen through the majority of Dominicans practicing Roman Catholicism, the French based patois, and the French place names. The best example of this culture is seen in their Carnival, which involves an out pouring of Calypso as the islanders celebrate their heritage through dress, dance, and food.
The term “culture” first originated in the 18th century to signify a way of living, and in the mid-19th century, scientists referred to it as a wide span of living space. Culture has come a long way, with many different meanings and ideas. The basic concept of culture is the basis of all human behaviors, traditions, customs, and actions, which were inherited through sharing and learned through generation. In his essay “Culture is Ordinary”, Raymond Williams states that, “Culture is ordinary: that is the first fact. Every human society has its own shape, its own purposes, and its own meanings. Every human society expresses these, in institutions, and in arts and learning…” In many social sciences, culture is defined differently. For instance, according to Kottak and Kozaitis, Anthropologists began to refer to culture as the main aspects of human traditions, beliefs, and symbols that control behavior (Page 9).
Some major differences include western values centering on universal good compared to Eastern views that look to do the best thing for those closest to us (Moon and Wooliams 2000 and Jackson 2001). Robertson, Crittenden, Brady and Hoffman (2002) investigated four major issues facing organisations in differing situations; these were sex discrimination, bribery, child labour and environmentalism, they looked at Chile, Australia, Ecuador and the United States. Their findings showed that Australians are more tolerant of bribery if they are in a difficult financial decision. Allmon, Chen, Pritchett and Forrest (1997) demonstrated that Australians were more likely to take a sick day without being sick then Taiwanese
These statement gives a general insight on what the outcome might be if cultural differences affects communication.
1a) FrieslandCampina, has its business practice influenced by the cultural norms of its home country, as well as foreign markets. The following graph provides an overview of the scores of the Netherlands using Hofstede’s five dimensions of culture.
Basically, Hofstede’s cultural dimension is divided into five dimensions along which national culture could be described: power distance (PDI), individualism-collectivism (IDV), masculinity-femininity (MAS), uncertainty avoidance (UAI) and long-term orientation versus short-term normative orientation (LTO).
Since communication affects almost all aspect of our life, it is important to enhance the skills of communication. Difficulty in expressing or conveying your message may lead to your communication becoming unaffected. And, ineffective communication will lead to your message becoming confused and misunderstand. Thus, recognizing the barriers in communication is the first step in improving communication. There are many factors that cause the failure in communication such as language, gender, culture, and interpersonal barrier. However, it is clearly that the different culture has a different pattern in transferring message and has a strong influence in our communication skills. To avoid the barrier in culture, this paper will try to analyze the differences in culture between Asia and America that impact on the two ...
1. What is Culture? What I personally think is that our culture is the foundation of who we really are in life. It identifies the lifestyle and pursuits that are practiced in the group of people we relate with in our society. In other words, an important concept to understand is that cultural beliefs, values, and practices are learned from birth first at home, in church, and other places where people meet. Some practices and beliefs in human culture include religion, music, sports, food, health beliefs, and art which represent the values we have in life. Also, our own culture is diverse and it is significant to look with in and identify what we value the most, what is essentially needed, and how we see the world. It is our remaining tool and we don’t even realize it is needed to communicate and socialize with others.