US CULTURE
The United States of America being the third largest country in the world with more than 315 million inhabitants, consists of multicultural societies with ethnically diverse population. Since there are a lot of foreigners, the US culture has evolved in such a way accepting and tolerating other foreign cultures. US is very much influenced by protestant work ethics according to which people believe in themselves and their efforts to attain the goal of self-actualization and success. The rich diversity in the culture brought by foreigners, prevailing values of protestant ethics, hard work etc. have helped US to emerge as a superpower in the past years. Nearly every religion had its impact on US culture in one way or the other. The US culture was mainly shaped by Native Americans, Latin Americans, Africans and Asians.
US is now called as a ‘melting pot’ or ‘salad bowl’ where all the subcultures comes from different parts of the world and combine together to contribute their part to the whole US culture. So, the cultural affiliation of an individual residing in the US may depend on to the social class he belongs, political orientation and a multitude of demographic factors like religion, occupation etc. Even the leisure activities in US shows the impact of foreign culture on US. E.g. Tennis came from France, Soccer from England; and even the famous American pizza has its origin from Italy.
HOFTSEDE CULTURE DIMENSION AND ANALYSIS
Hofstede's cultural dimensions theory is a framework for cross-cultural communication. Hofstede developed his original model as a result of using factor analysis to examine the results of a world-wide survey of employee values by IBM in the 1960s and 1970s. The theory was one of the f...
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...ociety. They consider people as unequal and doesn’t like the equality aspect. Whereas, egalitarianism promotes equality in the society. US is an egalitarian society which promotes equality of people in the society. Equality, liberty, and fraternity are the basic values of political system of US.
3. Mastery vs. harmony
Mastery oriented societies tend to encourage self-assertion in order to explore and make changes in natural and social environment to attain personal as well as group goals. Harmony societies tend to adjust or fit in to the existing environment and doesn’t like to alter or question anything. US is a mastery society where people always look out for more information and exploitation of resources if chances are available. This is why organizations in US are dynamic, competitive and result oriented towards achievement and success.
I believe having American culture means that you embrace freedom, celebrate the national holidays, vote, and many other things. Since I do live in the United States of America I believe that American Culture tends to valued more than all the other subcultures within the nation. This can be seen if you look into the media. It’s not uncommon that media outlets will portray certain sub cultures as not wanting to assimilate or that they are somehow causing trouble somehow. You can also see that people who come from cultures that aren’t American tend to have harder times finding jobs. I would have to say that my culture gives me many rights and
The United States is an immense country, with many residents and citizens descending from immigrants who have influenced many customs, traditions, behaviors and ways of life. Unlike many old world nations, the United States does not have a homogenous population or a traditional homeland. However, American culture can be interpreted as being largely based in Western Europe with influences from the Native Indians, Africans, Asians, and elsewhere.
In the text, “The American Cultural Configuration” the authors express the desire of anthropologists to study their own culture despite the difficulty that one faces attempting to subjectively analyze their own society. Holmes and Holmes (2002), use the adage “not being able to see the forest through the trees” (p. 5) to refer to how hard it is for someone to study something they have largely taken for granted. The Holmes' article focuses predominately on paradoxes within our own culture, many of which we don't notice. In a paradox, two contradicting statements can appear to be true at the same time. This essay looks at two paradoxes commonly found in everyday life: the individual versus the family and religion.
The America that we know today is filled with cultural influences, whether we realize it or not. Things such as food and entertainment are major contributers to our daily lives. Many of the dishes that we eat are that of Italian or Mexican origin. Many of the t.v. and music icons of today are British or Asian. For example, Adele has made her singing career quite a success in America though she is from England. If we did not have any cultural diversity, we would miss out on what the rest of the world has to offer us.
America is a largely organized country, but it is also a free enterprise country. People are allowed unlimited potential in our society. The way America is, it creates a large gap between the upper and lower class. These upper and lower classes are opposites and are different in attitude and way of life. Even though they are totally different sometimes one can experience both classes in their lifetime. The gap between upper and lower class are wide but there are bridges over this gap that link the classes and let people to determine their own future.
Hofstede, G. (1980). Culture's Consequences: International Differences in Work-Related Values. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.
The Culture of Americans is diverse and evolving constantly, due to changing interests, landscapes, religions, and geography.
prosperous from its diversity, epitomizes the "American Melting Pot". It is complicated to relate such different backgrounds, but with an overview of history, culture, religion, and integration on a small scale, a reader is capable of applying the values to the American culture as a whole.
The American individual leads a life in a society that prides itself upon an equality that never existed, but fuels a highly prosperous country. In America opportunity is constantly open, and while these opportunities lead to competition, this immense amount of competition propels the countries advancements. The American man is one of a strong and independent country, built off of, and created for the unheard and the mistreated. This country was built for progress and that is exactly what Americans to this day strive for.
In order to understand this immense country that we call America, we need to study the culture. More specifically, we need to study the form of society in America. Is this society changing, or does it remain fixed throughout time? There are many aspects of our society, some of which are: traditions, values, and religion. The many realms of society contribute to a conglomerate culture, which cannot be described simply.
Differences in culture make country has its own traditional customs. Wedding, an extremely important event on one's life, has specific ritual observances. However, thanks to the cultural exchange, Vietnam wedding customs and those of a foreign country – America, have both similarities and differences.
By far the most important ideal Americans possess is their idea of individualism. The belief that each person is unique and responsible for their own life is instilled in every person beginning from childhood. Rather than seeing themselves as a member of a group, Americans believe everyone is different; therefore, this causes them to believe that society has no influence over the values they themselves hold. This is one reason it is difficult to ask an American what America’s values are. Along with the concept that each individual is in control of their own being, instead of viewing the wealthy as lucky and the poor as unlucky, they are regarded as the hard working and the lazy. Since each individual is responsible for their own life, where they finish by the end of it is up to them. Lastly, with individuality comes value placed on privacy. Americans expect that everyone needs time alone in their daily lives to restore their energy. If one says they need time alone, the feeling is understood, and respected.
United States have the “faith in rules and individuals”, because they believe that each individuals are responsible for their own well being and decisions. That each one of us, are our own person and can decide for ourselves what is best for us as a person. Yes, American culture is fully about procedural and individuality and when compared to other countries, we are well known for more of that characteristics.
The dimensions of culture came as a result of a research conducted by Greet Hofstede. The study investigated how culture in a workplace can be influenced by values of the people. In his view, culture is defined as the collective programming of the human brain that helps in distinguishing a group from another one. Moreover, the programming of the human mind influences the patterns, values and perspectives that define a certain community or nation. Hofstede developed a model of the national culture that is made of six dimensions. In addition to that, the cultural dimensions demonstrate the personal preferences on affairs that can be easily distinguished from that of individuals from another nation. Using the model, it is easy to identify systematic differences between the selected nations in terms of values (Hofstede). This paper discusses the cultural dimensions to compare the United States of America and China. The dimensions include Power Distance, Masculinity versus Femininity, Uncertainty Avoidance Index, and Individualism versus collectivism, Indulgence versus Restraint and long-term orientation versus short term normative orientation.
Furthermore, in American culture freedom does not mean that one have the complete free hand to decide what is required for the growth of life, but they have freedom-like thoughts over which they act freely in a suitable manner for the betterment of life and to maintain the balance of the society as well. Culture depicts the way people act and do particular deeds within the cultural context under different conditions. Similarly, in American culture people tend to show their right of freedom so as to make their live individual life sustainable that actually lay down the real basis of rich American