1.
Aspects of Culture
Brandelyn Tosolt

2.
Thoughts on culture
• There are many different ways to think
about culture
• Different theorists have developed a
variety of different ways to think about
cultures
• It is not important to remember each
of these ways, but rather to think
about how these ways might influence
what happens in your own life

3.
Gardenswartz, Rowe, Digh, &
Bennett (2003)
• Personal:
– individual’s traits, skills, and personality within
context of ethnic, racial, familial, and educational
environments
– Everyone has a different personal culture.
• National:
– shared understanding from
beliefs, values, attitudes, and behaviors that
provide the foundation of a nation.
– Everyone falls within a range.
• Organizational:
– widely shared institutional beliefs, values, and the
organization’s guiding philosophy
– Individuals fall within a range
– An individual’s position in the hierarchy of the
organization affects their view of organizational
culture

4.
Kluckhohn & Strodtbeck (1961)
• Basic nature of human beings
– good
– evil
– mixed
• Relationships among people
– individualistic
– group
– hierarchical (classes or castes)
• Activity orientation
– being (you are who you are)
– doing (you are what you do)

5.
Kluckhohn & Strodtbeck (1961)
continued
• Relation to nature
– subjugation (we use it for our ends)
– harmony (we co-exist)
– domination (we’re in control)
• Time orientation – what’s
important is when things happen:
– past
– present
– future

6.
Hofstede (1984, 1985, 2001)
• Power distance
– The acceptable amount of inequality in power
– Low power distance = expectation of equality
• Uncertainty avoidance
– Ability to tolerate uncertainty and ambiguity
– Low uncertainty avoidance = tolerating ambiguity
• Individualism/collectivism
– Social framework privileging individual or group
needs
• Masculinity/femininity (NOT MALE/FEMALE)
– Emphasis placed on emotional/social roles or work
goals
– Masculine = assertive, achievement, material
success
– Feminine = relationships, cooperation, quality of
life

7.
GLOBE (2001)
• Global Leadership and
Organizational Behavior
Effectiveness Project Team
• 170 researchers
• 7 years of data
• 18,000 managers in 62 countries
• 9 cultural dimensions
– 4 are Hofstede’s
– 5 are new

8.
GLOBE (2001) continued
• Assertiveness
– Emphasis on tough, competitive, and
confrontational versus modest and tender
• Future orientation
– Emphasis on delayed gratification
• Performance orientation
– Amount individuals are recognized and
rewarded for individual performance
rather than belonging
• Humane orientation
– The amount of reward for being
fair, caring, generous, altruistic, and kind
• Gender differentiation
– Emphasis on gender role differences

9.
References
Gardenswartz, L., Rowe, A., Digh, P., & Bennett, M. F.
(2003). The global diversity desk reference: Managing
an international workforce. San Francisco: Pfeiffer.
Hofstede, G. (1984). The cultural relativity of the quality of
life concept. Academy of Management
Behavior, 9, 389-398.
Hofstede, G. (1985). The interaction between national and
organizational value systems. Journal of Management
Studies, 22, 347-357.
Hofstede, G. (2001). Culture’s consequences: Comparing
values, behaviors, institutions, and organizations across
nations (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Javidan, M., & House, R. J. (2001). Cultural acumen for the
global manager: Lessons from Project GLOBE.
Organizational Dynamics, 29(4), 289-305.
Kluckhohn, F., & Strodtbeck, F. K. (1961). Variations in
value orientation. Evanston, IL: Row.