As we become immersed in our own culture, it can be challenging to grasp the difference in cultural pattern taxonomies orientations of other cultures. Cultural pattern taxonomies has been defined in the textbook, Communication between Cultures, “as the dominant beliefs and values of a culture.” Cultural value orientation varies among cultures and ultimately affects the way we communicate interpersonally.
To better understand the differences as well as the similarities in cultural value orientations, Geert Hofstede’s Values Dimensions have broken down the concept of diverse cultural patterns that explains perceptual and communication differences using 6 categories: individualism/collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, power distance, masculinity/ femininity, long-term/short-term orientation, and indulgence/ restraint. The purpose of this analysis is to compare the affect on intercultural communications using the cultural value orientations of New Zealanders and the culture that I identify with, the U.S. American culture.
The first of Hofstede’s dimensions deals with power distance. Hofstede’s description of power distance is the degree in which less-superior members of an organization within a country tolerate the unequal distribution of power, for instance, between managerial roles in a company and the employees. New Zealand has a score of 22 in this dimension, which is considered very low. A very low score depicts that equality is a predominant cultural value within the
Hofstede’s first part of the model, power distance, defines the varying points that cultures are able to deal with inequality. These approaches can be categorized as: inequality can be essentially good or bad, everyone has a place whether it is high or low, most people should or should not be dependent on a leader, the powerful are or are not entitled to privileges, or the powerful should or should not hide or express their power. In this presented case, Poland has a high power distance culture. They express a strong desire and need for hierarchy while the US business culture displays a lower power distance.
Asian Americans are a diverse group of people who are among the fastest growing minority groups in the United States. Despite their minority status, they often surpass Whites in America and do so while holding on to their cultural values regarding family, education, and success.
The “Heritage Assessment Tool” is a guide to help determine cultural, ethnic, and religious heritage. It may be used to assess your own cultural values or the cultural values of other ethno cultural backgrounds. Using this tool will guide the user into making non-stereotyped assumptions about the heritage of a patient. The Heritage Assessment Tool allows the interviewer to gather a deeper understanding of the traditions that make up the health background of certain individuals or groups. Three families including the authors own, will be evaluated for differences in health traditions. Health maintenance, protection and restoration will be addressed as well as, identifying common health traditions based on the authors own cultural
While the four aforementioned factors are a good basis, another criterion is needed to compare Individualism of United Kingdom and Canada in order to gain a valuable insight into potential for cross culture communication strategies. This category compliments Hofstede’s individualistic and collectivistic culture dimension, and is another worthy
The Geert Hofstede cultural dimensions seek to explain the culture of a country along five dimensions power distance, individuality, masculinity/femininity, uncertainty avoidance and long term orientation. Power distance reflects the degree to which a culture is accepting of differences in power. The higher the score, the more the country accepts inequalities among the people in the culture. The United Kingdom scores 35 and Japan 54. This means that the UK is in particular a low power distance culture, in that the people in the culture generally do not tolerate inequality in the society. For a society that has historically been class-based, this is an interesting finding, but Britain has also been home to many Enlightenment thinkers and their ideals about equality. Japan is a mildly hierarchical society with its score, and Japanese people are generally conscious of their hierarchical position. Japan tends to be fairly hierarchical in a business
Genetics for our traits are passed down from our parents, grandparents and so on and so forth, however, we are more than just the sum of all of our genes, we are also a result of our circumstances as well as our surroundings, both natural and even manmade which is where this idea of culture makes itself known to all. The Meriam Webster dictionary defines Culture as "the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group". The definition of Culture should always encompass material and non-material aspects of a groups way of life, things like religion, language, social traditions, clothing, music, art, food, technology, political organization, educational systems, philosophy, myths, and stories. All the things that a society or civilization is comprised of that help make it different and also help keep it functional. It is crucial to understand that culture is not in any way genetically transmitted but instead that it is the product of all of our learned behaviors and activities that we begin to learn in our early years of life when we absorb new information the most and we carry on learning as well as teaching it to others throughout life. Things like our religion, language, social traditions, technology, political organization, education, and philosophy all learned and taught these things make up what we refer to as culture, culture is not always a good thing, as you will see my paper culture can have a number of negative impacts on
Communication is one of the most important aspects of our lives. It is a process that ties us together and helps us to get most of our work done. Communication plays a big role in transmitting cultural values from one generation to the next. Communication can be categorized as two; verbal and non verbal. In a multiracial country such as Malaysia good communication can be considered as a savior to keep everyone united. Being a multiracial country, it shows the existence of cultural diversity in Malaysia. Cultural diversity often leads to society’s biggest challenge.
Abstract: Culture is the holistic interrelationship of a group’s identity, beliefs, values, activities, rules, customs, communication patterns, and institutions. (Dodd, 1998) Values are important components of a given culture accepted by individuals sharing that culture. They are deep and hidden elements of the cultural iceberg that are seldom questioned or defended but can reflect different characteristics of different cultures. Kluckhohn and Strodbeck’s value model is used here to analyze distinct Chinese and American culture.
Hofstede’s theory of cultural dimensions can be used to describe the effects of a society’s culture on the value of its members and how these values relate to behavior. According to this theory there are four dimensions of national culture which include power distance, individualism vs. collectivism, uncertainty avoidance and masculinity vs. femininity.
People has been trying to find their own identity throughout their lives. Identity, in fact, is a changing subject that are influenced by many different experiences and circumstances. Identity is the product of varieties of sources and is hard to return to its original shape. The society and the environment that people grow up in play major roles in impacting their identity. Changes in these environments create an ever-lasting changes in these identity. Identity slowly becomes concealed in order to help people better survive in their society. People’s real identity becomes hidden so that they can better cope with the changes in culture, learning experience, society’s expectations, and, stereotype.
Culture is a body of characteristics such as beliefs, social norms and ethnic background shared in a region by a population of people. Development and discipline can be influenced by culture. Culture contains values, norms, prejudice, social influence and human activity. Values and beliefs hold high importance. An example would be religion, in” many cultures religion is of high value”(Kerfoot). Norms set an expectation to what is socially acceptable. Prejudice is formed in culture. This bias can be “generalized ideas formed off popular belief” and tolerance (Wilson 2008). Social influence comes from media outlets and world leaders. Culture guides human activity. Being culturally aware of Russian culture, history and region
Understanding the differences and similarities inherent in other cultures may provide opportunities when working with individuals (or groups) who may have very different or similar cultural values. Through the work of many people, more is known about other cultures’ values than perhaps ever before. Geert Hofstede is one of these people, and his work has allowed for a greater understanding of cultural values across a wide range of dimensions. His work has grown from four dimensions to six, and as more information is gathered this will perhaps increase as well. In the first section, the first four dimensions of cultural values will be discussed briefly. Next, all six dimensions will be given for the United States (US) and Japan, and will be considered according to the highest and lowest differences between dimensions of these two countries’ cultural values. In addition, considerations for applying motivational theories toward individuals from these two countries will also be discussed. Lastly, a single dimension will be selected for each country and a recommendation given accordingly that could help improve performance.
This is the extent to which the less powerful members of the community or society within a country expect and accept that. In this context, the book looks at how individuals regard their position in terms of power in the society. The power distance reflects in role pairs of authority-citizen, parent-child and boss-subordinate in different countries. In high power distance organisations, organisational hierarchy is obvious. There is a line between bosses and subordinates. Low power organisations have a flat organisational structure.
According to Zimmermann (2015), Culture is the characteristics and knowledge of a particular group of people, defined by everything from language, religion, cuisine, social habits, music, and arts. The Center for Advance Research on Language Acquisition goes a step further, defining culture as shared patterns of behaviors and interactions, cognitive constructs and understanding that are learned by socialization. Thus, it can be seen as the growth of a group identity fostered by social patterns unique to the group.
Hofstede Model suggested four main cultural dimensions to illustrate the dissimilarities: Power distance, Individualism versus Collectivism, Uncertainty Avoidance and Masculinity versus Femininity (Khalid at el. 2011). Long/Short term Orientation was recognised later on by Hofstede and Bond as a fifth dimension (Hofstede & Bond 1988 cited in Khalid et al. 2011). Several business frameworks had applied Hofstede’s model such as managerial behaviour, innovation, training programs and leadership style (Jones 2007). Respectively, some other cultural models had been identified such as Schwartz and the recent Globe project study (Mooij & Hofstede 2010). The three of the mentioned models