From Gert Hofstede's dimensions of culture. Pertinent when studying cross-cultural management and working with people from different cultures.

1. Prepared by Dr.
Linsey C. Willis
CULTURE’S CONSEQUENCES:
EXCERPTS FROM HOFSTEDE
BOOK
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2.  Culture is defined as collective programming of the mind
 It manifests itself not only in values, but in more superficial
ways
 Software of the mind
 We observe mental programs
 Constructs do not exist in an absolute sense – we define them
into existence
 Indian Fable: one gets hold of the leg and thinks it is a tree, the
other gets hold of it and thinks it is a rope.
 “We will never be more than blind men and women and approaching the
animal in as many angles as possible, we may find out more than we
could ever have alone” (Hofstede, p. 2)
 “We will always be subjective, but we may try to be “intersubjective,”
pooling and integrating a variety of subjective points of views of
different observers (Hofstede, p. 2).
VALUES AND CULTURE
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3.  Every person’s mental programming partly unique
 Partly shared with others
 Triandis (1972, p. 4) introduced the label subjective to
distinguish culture as mental programs from “objective”
human artifacts
 Individual level of human programming is the unique part
 No two people are programmed alike
 Not even identical twins raised together
 Mental programs can be inherited
 Or can be learned after birth
 Genes do not determine languages
 Genes or languages also do not determine cultures
MENTAL PROGRAMMING
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4.  That speak very different languages
 Finns and Swedes are examples of linguistically nearly
identical but they are very different cultures
 Examples are the Dutch and the Flemish (Dutch speaking
Belgins).
 Concept of collective programming of the mind – similar to
concept of Habitus proposed by French sociologist Bourdieu
(1980): certain conditions of existence produce habitus which
is a system of permanent and transferable tendencies
 Japanese proverb: “The soul of a 3-year old boy stays with him
until he is 100” (Hofstede, p. 4).
 This is why disadvantaged children in early years suffer
consequences for life.
GENETICALLY CLOSE POPULATINS
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5.  In empirical research we look for measures of the
constructs that describe mental program.
 We need to operationalize them.
 Problem with operationalizing is validity issue.
 Which is the correspondence between observed
behavior and the underlying constructs.
 To achieve construct validity, we need both good
measurements and good theory.
 More different out based points are, the more
accurate our measurements become/are.
MENTAL PROGRAMS IN MEASURABLE
TERMS
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6. Evil vs. good
Dangerous vs. safe
Ugly vs. beautiful
Unnatural vs. natural
Abnormal vs. normal
Moral vs. immoral
Most of us have conflicting values!!!
Intensity and direction of the values!!
VALUES:
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7.  Eysenck (1953, 1954) in Britain found that political attitudes
reflected two main principles: radicalism/conservatism (dealing
with egalitarianism) and tough-mindedness/tender-mindedness
(dealing with aggression and intolerance).
 Bales and Couch (1969) in USA collected about 900 different
formulations of values used in different instruments, in
theoretical literature and in group discussions.
 Shalom Schwartz: Israeli psychologist, most extensive project on
values. Compose survey instrument – 56 values from literature
and admined survey to school teachers, and U. students in 44
countries. By 994, had collected answers from more than 25,000
respondents.
 Used “smallest-space analysis” to classify the differences.
 Categories: two dimensions – openness to change versus
conservation and self-transcendence versus self-enhancement.
SOME RESEARCH FINDINGS
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8.  Culture is to a human collectivity what personality is to a
person
 Culture is not same as identity. Where do I belong?
 Symbols: gestures, pictures, objects that often have complex
meanings and are recognized by people who share same
culture.
 Examples are: Coca cola, hairstyle, flags, status symbols, dress etc.
 Heroes: alive or deal, real or imagined who possess
characteristics highly prized by a culture
 Serve as role models for behavior
 Rituals: collective activities that are technically unnecessary
to achievement of desired ends, but in a culture are essential
 Examples: ways of greeting, paying respect to others, business or
political meetings organized for rational reasons
CULTURE
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9.  Culture as mental programming is also the crystallization of
history in minds, hearts and hands of current generation.
 One of most effective way to change mental programs is to
change your behavior.
 National character was popular research subject in
anthropology in 1930s – 1950s.
 One definition: “relatively enduring personality characteristics
and patterns that are modal among the adult members of the
society (Inkeles & Levinson, 1954/1977, p. 17).
 Scientific status of national character as it was and still is, is
debatable.
 When a person makes statement about character of
population, whether it is valid or not needs to be proven.
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NATIONAL CULTURES,THEIR STABILITY
AND NATIONAL CHARACTER

10.  Word derives from printing industry and is fixed notion about
persons in a certain category, with no distinctions among
individuals.
 Are easy to study
 Always affect the mind-sets of those judging and sometimes also
something real about those being judged.
 How much truth they contain needs to be validated based on
scientifically respectable information with less subjective
sources.
 Stereotypes, are half-truths (Hofstede, p. 14).
 Duijiker and Frijda (1960): psychological features which
distinguish one nation from another – issue of psychological
level – good sociological reason for study of elites (they did not
mention) is that the elites are more likely than nonelites to
shape the institutions that perpetuate the culture.
 Their study entailed reviewing more than 1,000 publications on
national character and national stereotypes.
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STEREOTYPES

11.  Issue of impossibility of escaping value judgments.
 It is a dilemma.
 Expose yourself to the work of others and to other people.
 Be as explicit as possible about what our value system is.
 Is there any absolute value at all or only relative ones?
 Value choices.
 “Studying differences in culture among human groups and
categories that think, feel, and act differently does
presuppose a position of cultural relativism” (Hofstede, p. 15).
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CULTURAL RELATIVISM

12.  Language is both vehicle of most cross cultural research and
part of its object.
 It is not a neutral vehicle.
 Problems with use of language.
 Need to translate back and forth.
 Translators must be bilinguals.
 Issue of questionnaires and need to back and forth
translation.
 Different or no meanings for words.
 Example: giving more Chinese answers.
 Error reduction can be achieved by carefully selecting
translators and using the back-translation procedure.
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LANGUAGE AND TRANSLATION