Cross-cultural differences

Question 1

How do we define culture?

Answer 1

Culture is about meanings, transmitted throughout generations. Distinguishes member of one group from the other.

Question 2

What are early studies to measure culture?

Answer 2

Failures to replicate US findings. Problem is how to explain these differences: showing differences between nations is just description, but social science demands explanation. Need a theory of how culture differ.

Question 3

What is Hofstede’s project?

Answer 3

IBM employee surveys. 116,000 respondents in 72 countries. Questions about job satisfaction, perceptions of work situations, personal goals and beliefs. Hofstede conducted secondary analysis to look for dimensions of cultural variation.

Question 4

What is Robinson’s (1950) paradox?

Answer 4

State percentage of immigrants and literacy (r = .526), individual immigrant status and literacy (r = .118). Different explanations at each level of analysis: Ecological fallacy is falsely extrapolating group-level findings to individual level of explanation. Reverse ecological fallacy is wrongly attributing properties of individuals to cultures.

Question 5

What is acquiescence bias?

Answer 5

People in different cultures use response scales in different ways. Variation in acquiescence - in some cultures people tend to agree more with everything. Hofstede’s solution - country mean agreement with all items, subtract and/or control in analyses.

Question 6

What is Hofstede’s analysis?

Answer 6

Combination of averages within different occupational groups within IBM, corrected for acquiescence where possible. Theoretically guided data exploration led to ‘discovery’ of 4 dimensions of CC variation.

Question 7

What are Hofstede’s 4 dimensions of cross-cultural variation?

Answer 7

1. Power distance - Extent to which members of a society accept that power in institutions and organizations is distributed unequally.
2. Uncertainty avoidance - Degree to which the members of a society feel uncomfortable with uncertainty and ambiguity, which leads them to support beliefs promising certainty and to maintain institutions protecting conformity.
3. Individualism - Individualism: A preference for a loosely knit social framework in society in which individuals are supposed to take care of themselves and their immediate families. Collectivism: A preference for a tightly knit social framework in which individuals can expect their relatives, clan or other in-group to look after them, in exchange for unquestioning loyalty
4. Masculinity - a preference for achievement, heroism, assertiveness, and material success. Femininity on the other hand showed a preference for relationships, modesty, caring for the weak, and quality of life.

Question 8

What is Schwartz’ critique of Hofstede?

Answer 8

1. Exhaustiveness of the value dimensions - limited range of content used, may be all sorts of other important ways culture differs.
2. Adequacy of sample of nations
3. Effects of sample type
4. Historical change
5. Culture-level vs. individual-level dimensions
6. Meaning equivalence of items.

Question 9

What is the Schwartz value survey?

Answer 9

Research into structure of values. Individual and cultural levels of analysis. List of 56 values rated for importance “as a guiding principle in my life”. Items derived from diverse sources. Initial study sampled teachers and students. Currently >80,000 participants in 82 countries.