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.
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
The Hofstede Cultural Dimensions defines high power distance as the extent to which the less powerful members of organizations and institutions accept and expect that power is distributed unequally
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.
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
The emergence of novel forms of communication in American history tends to produce two contrasting reactions: general acceptance from society and moral outrage from a limited, vocal portion of the public. As a medium, film was met in such a fashion with the creation of the Production Code Administration in 1934, designed by Catholic leaders to uphold their conception of American values. At the same time, the example of Middletown depicted a rural community incorporating the experience of film into their regular lives, treating it as entertainment alongside shows at the opera house. Decades later, we see film utilized to criticize the social impact of emerging communicative methods, including television and social media in the form of Network (1976) and The Social Network (2010). A method of universal programing, by which centralized, censored content is broadcast in synchronous to an audience discriminant only by which of the four major networks they choose to view is the portrayal of television afforded by the characters aimed to garner the most sympathy in Network. The voices of reason and morality in the film, older folks seen as untainted by television and corporate greed condemn television for replacing genuine human interaction with hollow facades of conformity and pre-scripted emotions. While concerns over lacking human connection and false human emotions remain, social media has produced a new problem, a
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.
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
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
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.
The term culture can be defined as “the collective programming of the mind distinguishing the members of one group or category of people from others” (Hofstede & Hofstede & Minkov, 2010). Every culture has their own social norms and traditions that they follow. According to Spencer-Oatey (2012) there are three fundamental levels within the concept of culture. The first level is ‘Observable artifacts’, which are the physical appearance such as dress code and their behavior (Schein 1990). The second level, which is ‘values’, is their beliefs and social standards. These lead to the third level ’basic underlying assumptions’. This is the way that people think and feel. (Spencer-Oatey, 2012)
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.
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.
Regardless of background, where we live, what we look like, what we think or what we believe, everyone in the society has the rights to be treated fairly and with due respect. In today’s society, people have several social values and different cultural practices, that respects and live within its parameters. However, those social values and cultural practices may or may not everyone’s choices in the same society due to a number of factors. This leads to a number of concerning issues in the society. Therefore, the purpose of this case study is to present how social values and cultural practices are influenced by gender, social class, age, religion, ethnicity, communities and government in the pursuit of achieving Human Rights.
Everyone has their own unique culture that they identify with which plays a huge role in shaping a person’s identity. Our values, morals, and experiences are structured by the society and culture that surround us each day. A person’s beliefs and morals are formed by culture and remains throughout their entire life. Culture varies from one place to another and it makes people throughout the world similar but very different as well. It made you the person you are today and determines who or what you choose to associate yourself with in the future. One element of culture is the learned behavior patterns and associated with it that we develop as we grow up living within the culture. Learned behavior isn’t something that is only exhibited by humans, but as well as animals such as dogs and cats that follow what their owner teaches them.