Five Aspects of Culture

Different countries have different cultural values and traits. People with different culture have a huge difference than people in an organization. Culture is the sum total of ways of living built up by a group of human beings and transmitted from one generation to another (dictionary.com). In the book, "The Geography of Bliss" by Eric Weiner, he discussed the different values and traits of different countries during his journey in finding the data of happiness. In his journey, he mentioned some countries particularly Netherlands, Switzerland, Bhutan and Qatar. People in Netherlands have known for their tolerance, while people in Switzerland have known for their self-policing and thriftiness. In addition, people in Bhutan are different they are compassionate, they believe in imaginative possibilities, they are religious, and do not value money. Moreover, Qatar is opposite of the three countries. Unlike Bhutan, Qatar people beliefs depend on money, privilege, and luck. Indeed, culture has significant effect in people 's values and traits that causes cultural differences in different countries.

Geert Hofstede is an influential Dutch researcher in the fields of organizational studies and more concretely organizational culture, also cultural economics and management. He is a well-known pioneer in his research of cross-cultural groups and organizations and played a major role in developing a systematic framework for assessing and differentiating national cultures and organizational cultures. His studies demonstrated that there are national and regional cultural groups that influence behavior of societies and organizations.

Homan’s law of inequality states that friendships tend to be focused among people of the same ranking and if one member of a certain ranking has a close connection with a member of another rank, they tend to lose ties to the members within their own rank. Homan also predicts that within any group the emotional affections among members will be stronger among those of a similar rank than of those among members of different ranks. People need to separate themselves into different rankings, wither it be by class, gender, race, age, religion, or skills. This needs to occur because of the influences of political economy. In order to have a set organizational establishment, power and the distribution of resources has to have an established system.

"Power distance" is among one of five cultural methods that were found by Hofstede. It’s the degree to which the less powerful group of people in an establishment and organizations agree to anticipate that power is distributed unequally. In other words, some cultures agree to receive a higher degree of unequally distributed power than what other peoples of other cultures. In America we are considered to be low power distance because society feels that they are entitled to a certain amount of power. In other countries they practice or have a higher power distance because people feel they are given little power or none due to people that have much higher positions. Some peoples from different culture’s that have a low power distance assume and

Firstly, power distance is defined as the extent to which the less powerful members of organisations within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally. Hofstede notes that, "all societies are unequal, but some are more unequal than others." It has two types of power distance which is high power distance and low power distance. The high power distance society is paternalistic ways of

Based on what I have learned from this class and others I believe that the socio-culturally norms are directly influenced by the geographic area in which someone

The United States is an example of a low power distance culture. The United States is a democracy run by an executive branch, legislative branch, and judicial branch. Members of this culture are aware that some other individuals may have more power, influence, and authority but those lower-ranking members are not intimidated or more respectful toward members in higher standings of power (Sprague, Stuart, Bodary, Verderber, Sellnow, 2015). An example of this would be that although the United States is run by the President, he or she is always under examination of the other branches of government as well as the citizens they represent (Carroll,

Term 11. Hofstede’s Cultural Dimension- a theory that describes the effects of a society’s culture on the value of its members and the associated behaviors (Cornacchione, & Daugherty, 2013).

Culture can be defined as a developing array of collective beliefs, values, and attitudes. The culture of each country has its own set of beliefs, values, and activities. It depicts the accepted values, norms, and traditional behavior of a group. However, the norms and values of a culture do not arise fully formed. They evolve over time in reaction to a number of factors. These factors include: political and economic philosophies, social structure of society, and primary religion, language, and education. All of these factors help shape the cultures from countries such as the United States, Australia, and Italy.

----Saudi Arabia. A Low Power Distance ranking indicates the society de-emphasizes the differences between citizen 's power and wealth. In these societies equality and opportunity for everyone is stressed----New Zealand (Hofstede, 2012).

Power Distance is one of Hofstede’s dimensions which is used to measure how the difference in power between the people is seen in a country. A country that has a high power distance is one where people are considered superior according to their gender, status, education, race, or family background. A good example of this dimension is India, mainly because of their caste system and females being looked down upon. Indian population is split into 5 groups, and each group has a separate power status and one you are born in the lowest caste, you cannot marry or associate with the highest class other than being servants of the higher class. Cultures with low power distance include Canada, Austria and Israel. People in these countries see each other more as equals.

He supposed that culture is a common psychological program of people in same environment, which can separate a group of people from another group of people. This theory is widely used in academic researches and cross-cultural practices and has become an important theory for measurement of cultural differences among different countries. Hofstede's cultural dimension theory is divided into five dimensions, these are Power-Distance、Uncertainty Avoidance、Individualism versus Collectivism、Long-term and Short-term Orientation、Masculinity versus Femininity

Power/Distance (PD), “refers to the degree of inequality that exists- and is accepted- among people with and without power. A high PD score indicates that society accepts an unequal distribution of power, and that people understand “their place” in the system. Low PD means that power is shared and well dispersed.” (www.mindtools.com) As an example from the article, Myers goes on to say, “there were basically four levels: VP, director, manager, and worker bee. You only talked to people at your level.” SK Telecom boasted that

Geert Hofstede is an influential Dutch researcher in the fields of organizational studies and more concretely organizational culture, also cultural economics and management. He is a well-known pioneer in his research of cross-cultural groups and organizations and played a major role in developing a systematic framework for assessing and differentiating national cultures and organizational cultures. His studies demonstrated that there are national and regional cultural groups that influence behavior of societies and organizations.

1. Power distance index (PDI): The degree to which the less powerful members of a society accept and expect that power is distributed unequally.