1. Culture
by Christopher Low
Everyone has his own definition of “Culture” – and when this word is used, generally, most
audience has a rough idea of its meaning. However, when asked for a definition, many will keep
mum or pretend to be in deep thought. Out of a number of definitions, offered by sociologists
and experts on culture, we picked the one written by Geert Hofstede as an example. He defined
Culture as “the collective programming of the mind of members of a group which is reflected in
its particular assumptions, perceptions, thought patterns, norms and values”.
One of the key words in this definition is “collective” because culture refers to a group of people
and not a single individual. And, a culture is strong if the programming is broad as well as
deep.Once programmed, at a young age, members of a particular culture will retain this
“programming” throughout their life, and often, they aspire to pass on as much of this
“programming”as possible to their next generation. This is often manifested in parents’ hope
that their children will marry spouses who are from the same dialect group, race and religion.
Unlike an object with physical properties like dimensions of size, weight, colour and texture,
culture is difficult to quantify. Hence, comparing different cultures will require a set of common
yardsticks with indices the magnitude of which are represented by numerical values. Amongst
the many models advanced to allow for cultural comparisons and to provide us with a better
understanding of cultural differences are those from Hofstede and Trompenaars.
The dimensions listed in Hofstede’s model are: “Power Distance”, “Uncertainty Avoidance”,
“Individualism”, “Masculinity” and “Confucian Dynamism”. The meaning of these dimensions
are somewhat intuitive except for “Masculinity” which refers to the cultures’ degree of
preference for material wealth and achievements whereas “Feminism” (on the other hand)
refers to the cultures’ inclination towards emotional and social wellbeing.
The dimensions listed in Trompenaars’ model are: “Universalism versus Particularism”,
“Individualism versus Collectivism”, “Affective versus Neutral”, “Specific versus Diffuse”,
“Ascription versus Achievement”, “Sequential versus Synchronic” and “Control versus Controlled
by”. There is minimal direct overlap of the dimensions from these two models except for the
dimension of “Individualism”. Very detail descriptions of these dimensions can be found in
Trompenaar’s book, “Riding the Waves of Culture”.
A good way to get a more complete perspective of cultural comparison would be to use a
combination of two or more models, to derive a deeper understanding and to get additional
insights.A key component of Culture is the language used by the culture. A language provides its
users with the facility to articulate certain concepts and cultural values easily. Each language
has a unique structure which reinforce and contribute to its users’ worldview and cultural
beliefs.

2. For example, languages such as Spanish immediately differentiate between formal and informal
relationships with different forms of the word for “you”. In the Chinese language, very specific
terms are used to define seniority and hierarchy within a family, distinguishing the “rank” of a
person by gender and the order of his/her birth relative to his siblings (within the context of the
rank of his father & mother (wife/concubine) and so on). Maternal and paternal relations are
also clearly differentiated. As the traditional Chinese culture is fairly chauvinistic, paternal
relations are thought to have a higher “rank” or significance. In this case the (Chinese) language
provides strong evidence for the high “Power Distance” attributed to the Chinese culture.
Based on the studies of Hofstede, Trompenaars and others, the wide spectrum of cultural
diversity that characterize the various cultures in the world is not showing any clear signs of
convergence. The forces which are thought to drive cultural convergence include the universal
urge to modernize, the economic advantages of specialization and globalization (which leads to
global trade and greater inter-cultural interactions) and the rapid advancements in modern
transportation and communication (which facilitates greater cultural intermingling).
On the other hand, there are factors which reinforce cultural inertia and divergence. They are
the deep seated distrust and ideological differences between religious groups (such as the
Hindus and Muslims in India & Pakistan; the Jews and Arabs in the Middle-East) and the
irreconcilable political differences (for example between North and South Korea – representing
different sub-cultures). Another factor contributing to cultural divergence is historical enmity –
the wars fought between China & Japan resulted in scars so deep that even with decades of
normalization, the war-time memories still haunt both countries (& cultures).
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