3.2.2 Cultural Dimensions
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Key Definitions
Cultural dimensions: general factors underlying cross-cultural differences in values and behavior; they have been identified on the basis of massive cross-national surveys
Emic approach: examining a specific culture from within; enable an in-depth understanding of the unique culture without “imposed etic”, but comparison with other cultures is difficult
Etic approach: studying cultures from an outside perspective; enables cross-cultural comparison, but requires the identification of universal phenomena that will serve as comparison criteria
Essential Understanding
→ Each culture is unique, so to compare them on a large scale is not an easy task
↳ One needs to identify universal phenomena that are present in every individual culture which will then become criteria for comparison
→ Geert Hosfstede (1973) conducted an extensive study involving participants from more than 70 countries and identified 5 such universal phenomena or cultural dimensions
↳Cultural dimensions have a wide range of influences on behavior
→Individualism-collectivism may influence rates of conformity
→ Individualism-collectivism may influence volunteering
→ Power distance influences patterns of patient-donor communication
→ Power distance influences people’s reactions to empowerment in the workplace
Hofstede’s 1973 Multinational Survey
Aim: identify dimensions underlying cultural differences in values, attitudes, and behavior
Participants: 117,000 IBM employees (he founded the personnel research department of IBM Europe)
Method and Procedure:
→ a worldwide survey of values was done between 1967 and 1973
↳ results of the survey were statistically analyzed to identify hidden dimensions underlying observed patterns of responses (a statistical technique called factor analysis)
→ To conform to original findings and generalize them to other populations, a series of follow-up studies were done between 1990 and 2002
↳ Sample had commercial airline pilots, students, civil service managers
→ Around this time, countries were also profiled against the value dimensions (made by each country)
Results:
↳ originally Hofstede identified four dimensions:
↳ Individualism vs. collectivism
↳ Uncertainty avoidance
↳ Power distance index
↳ Masculinity vs. femininity
→ would then added in two more:
↳ long-term vs. short term orientation
↳ indulgence vs. self-restraint
Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions
Individualism vs. collectivism
↳ in individualist cultures, people define their personality in terms of their own personal characteristics, successes, and unique features
↳ the strongest values in society are personal autonomy, competitiveness, and self-sufficiency
↳ in collectivist cultures, identity is linked with the social group, and values are associated with a group which is prioritized over personal values
Power distance index (PDI)
↳ higher PDI score shows that hierarchy between the less and more powerful is firmly established in the society (rarely questioned)
↳ lower PDI score shows that people question authority and believe that authority figures are not particular support to themselves
Masculinity vs. femininity
↳ masculinity values→ include achievement, autonomy, and competitiveness
↳ femininity values→ caring, cooperation, modesty, and compassion
Uncertainty avoidance index
↳ refers to the extent to which people tolerate ambiguity
→ Cultures that rank high on this index tend to avoid risks and are intolerant to unexpected or unknown events
→ Cultures that rank low are more tolerant of uncertainty and embrace new situation more easily
Long-term vs. short-term orientation
→ Cultures that rank low on this dimension are conservative and rely on the past for guidance and value traditions heavily
→ Cultures that rank high indicates a future that is pragmatic and oriented towards the future and future challenges
Indulgence vs. restraint
→ Societies that promote indulgence allow a free gratification of basic and natural human desires like having a holiday or just having fun
→ Societies that promote restraint regulate gratification of needs with strict social norms
Researches
Berry and Katz (1967)→ Influence of Individualism and Collectivism on Conformity
↳key: collectivism is associated with higher conformity to group
Aim: investigate whether cultural differences in individualism vs. collectivism affect conformity
Participants: Temne people of Sierra Leone and Inuit people of Northern Canada
→ Inuit: hunting and fishing society that promotes individualism
↳ people are responsible for their own survival on a daily basis with little accumulation of food
→ Temne: food-accumulating society that promotes collectivism
↳rice farmers who harvest crop once a year and rely on this while sharing the food to group members
Procedure:
→ Researchers measured conformity using Asch’s Paradigm
↳ they also tricked the participants to think that most of the other participants picked a specific line to answer (even if it’s not equal to the target line)
→ Measure of conformity in this procedure is whether they will accept the incorrect suggestion since most people picked it
Results:
↳ Temne were more likely to accept the suggestion (incorrect response)
↳ Inuit were mostly unaffected by the suggestion of the majority
Conclusion:
→ concluded that individualist Inuit conform less often than collectivist Temne
↳ this is because conformity to group norms is ingrained as a cultural value to the Temne society, which depend on tight social relations
Finkelstein (2010)→ Effect of individualism and collectivism on volunteer behavior
↳key: people in individualist societies volunteer for different reasons from people in collectivist societies
Aim: examine the effect of culture on volunteer behavior
Method: online self-report questionnaires that measured a variety of possible reasons for volunteering including:
→ altruistic motivation to help
→ desire to strengthen social ties
→role identity (volunteering for the sake of consistency with one’s self-image)
→ career-related reasons
Participants: 194 undergraduates at a US university who participated in exchange for extra course credit
Results:
↳ collectivism was more strongly related than individualism to altruistic motivation and desire to strengthen social ties
↳ collectivism, not individualism, correlated with helping in order to sustain role identity
↳ on the other hand, individualism was more closely associated with engaging in volunteering for career-related reasons
Conclusion:
↳concluded that individualists and collectivists differ in why they choose to volunteer, but not in the willingness to volunteer itself
Meeuwesen, van den Brink-Muinen and Hofstede (2009)
↳key: patient-doctor communication in cultures with greater power distance is more one-sided
Aim: investigate how cross-national differences in medical communication can be understood from Hofstede’s cultural dimensions
Method and Procedure:
→ Patient-doctor communication sessions were videotaped and analyzed against a checklist (structured observation)
↳ additional context information was gathered by using questionnaires
Participants: 307 general practitioners (GPs) and 5,807 patients from 10 European countries (i.e. Belgium, Estonia, Germany, UK, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland)
Results:
↳ a large nation’s PDI was associated with less unexpected information exchange and shorter consultation sessions
↳ communication was more one-sided, with the doctor speaking and patient listening
↳ in countries with a low PDI score, doctors shared more information, were more open to questions, and were generally more flexible in their communication style
↳ sessions were usually longer
Conclusion:
→ Nations with a high PDI score, the roles between doctor and patient were more clearly described and fixed with a more protocol-based communication
↳ understanding these differences is important to prevent intercultural miscommunication and, at a larger scale, to pursue integration of European healthcare policies
Eylon and Au (1999)
↳key: individuals from cultures with high PDI scores don’t perform well when empowered as when disempowered
Aim: investigate the relationship between power distance and empowerment in the workplace
Participants: 135 MBA students from a Canadian university
Procedure:
↳Participants were divided into high power-distance and low power-distance groups based on their language and country of origin
→They then participated in a management simulation
→ At different points of the simulation, all participants found themselves where they were either empowered or disempowered
Results:
↳regardless of their cultural background, participants were more satisfied with their job in the empowered condition and less satisfied in the disempowerment condition
→ individuals from cultures with high PDI scores didn’t perform well when empowered as when disempowered
→ individuals from cultures with low PDI scores performed similarly regardless of condition
Conclusion:
→ High and low power-distance groups react differently to empowerment in the workplace (in terms of performance, not work satisfaction)
→ High PDI may perform better when disempowered
↳ in this context, being disempowered means more structured tasks and well-defined responsibilities
Extra PowerPoint Notes
→Is it possible to see personality traits correlate with cultural dimensions?
↳ this is answered in Hofstede and McCrae (2004)
→ used a five-factor model of personality and found that average personality scores of 33 different countries positively correlated with cultural dimension scores
→ the five factors were:
i. Neuroticism: tendency towards unstable emotions like rage, worry, frustration with little sympathy to others
ii. Extraversion: tendency towards gregarious personalities (i.e. talkative, outgoing, enjoyment with other people)
iii. Openness to experience: tendency to be open to new ideas, values, cultures, and behaviors
iv. Agreeableness: tendency of a person to follow others and avoid asserting one’s own values, opinions, and choices over others
v. Conscientiousness: tendency of a person to be cautious, hardworking, and follow the rules of society
Results:
→ Individualism was correlated with extraversion
→ Uncertainty avoidance correlated with neuroticism
→ High PDI score correlated with consciousness and extraversion
→ Masculinity tended to correlate with neuroticism and tended to be more open to experiences than feminine cultures
Conclusion:
→ culture in which one lives in can play a key role in how individual behaves
↳ while it’s not the only factor, it can play a role as seen by correlation