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ANALYZING CULTURES:
MAKING COMPARISONS
PHAM THI BICH NGOC

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS
➢A model of culture gives parameters within which patterns of group
behavior can be described and analyzed.
➢Theories and models discussed are descriptive
➢Cultural models predict what behavior is typical in routine situations and
how members of the culture group will behave in such situations

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COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS
➢ Three different streams in cross–cultural research:
• compare cultures;
• examine interactions between persons from different cultures;
• examine multiple-culture groupings

Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck (1961)

➢Three assumptions:
• A limited number of common human problems
• Limited ways of solving problems
• Preferences in choosing solutions
➢Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck claim that members of a group exhibit constant
“orientations” towards the world and other people.
➢Kluckholn & Strodtbeck define value orientations as
• being complex principles
• resulting of interaction between 3 elements:
❖Cognitive, affective, directive

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Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck (1961)

NATURE RELATIONSHIP RELATIONSHIP MODALITY TEMPORAL FOCUS CONCEPTION

OF TO TO OF OF OF
PEOPLE NATURE OTHER PEOPLE HUMAN ACTIVITY HUMAN ACTIVITY SPACE

▪ Good ▪ Dominant ▪ Lineal ▪ Doing ▪ Future ▪ Private

(hierarchical)
▪ Bad ▪ Harmony ▪ Being ▪ Present ▪ Public
▪ Collateral
▪ Mix ▪ Subjugation ▪ Containing ▪ Past ▪ Mixed
(collectivist)
▪ Individualist

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HOFSTEDE’S DIMENSIONS (1980)

➢One of the first researchers to analyze the influence of NATIONAL culture
on management practices
➢Empirical study at large multinational company (IBM)
• 66 national subsidiaries
• 116,000 questionnaires
• 60 out of 150 questions concerned values and opinions

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HOFSTEDE’S DIMENSIONS (1980)

MOTIVATION
TOWARDS
UNCERTAINTY AVOIDANCE ACHIEVEMENT AND SUCCESS

POWER DISTANCE INDIVIDUALISM LONG-

VS. VS. SHORT-TERM
COLLECTIVISM ORIENTATION

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POWER DISTANCE
➢The degree to which the less powerful members of a society accept and
expect that power is distributed unequally.
➢Large degree of Power Distance: accept a hierarchical order in which
everybody has a place and which needs no further justification.
➢Low Power Distance: people strive to equalise the distribution of power
and demand justification for inequalities of power.

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POWER DISTANCE

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UNCERTAINTY AVOIDANCE
➢The degree to which the members of a society feel uncomfortable with
uncertainty and ambiguity
➢The fundamental issue here is how a society deals with the fact that the
future can never be known: should we try to control the future or just let it
happen?
• Countries exhibiting strong UAI maintain rigid codes of belief and behaviour,
and are intolerant of unorthodox behaviour and ideas.
• Weak UAI societies maintain a more relaxed attitude in which practice counts
more than principles.

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UNCERTAINTY AVOIDANCE

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INDIVIDUALISM VS COLLECTIVISM
➢Individualism: a preference for a loosely-knit social framework in which
individuals are expected to take care of only themselves and their
immediate families.
➢Collectivism: a preference for a tightly-knit framework in society in which
individuals can expect their relatives or members of a particular ingroup to
look after them in exchange for unquestioning loyalty.
➢A society’s position on this dimension is reflected in whether people’s self-
image is defined in terms of “I” or “we.”

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INDIVIDUALISM VS COLLECTIVISM

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Motivation towards
Achievement and Success
➢Decisive: the society will be driven by competition, achievement and
success, with success being defined by the winner / best in field - a value
system that starts in school and continues throughout organisational life.
➢Consensus-oriented: the dominant values in society are caring for others
and quality of life. A Consensus-oriented society is one where quality of
life is the sign of success and standing out from the crowd is not
admirable.
➢The fundamental issue here is what motivates people, wanting to be the
best (Decisive) or liking what you do (Consensus-oriented)..

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MASCULINITY VS. FEMININITY

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LONG- VS. SHORT TERM ORIENTATION

➢Preferences of society about maintaining some links with its own past
while dealing with the challenges of the present and the future.
• Short-term orientation: prefer to maintain time-honoured traditions and norms
while viewing societal change with suspicion.
• Long-term orientation: take a more pragmatic approach: they encourage thrift
and efforts in modern education as a way to prepare for the future.
➢In the business context, this dimension is referred to as “(short-term)
normative versus (long-term) pragmatic” (PRA).

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LONG- VS. SHORT TERM ORIENTATION

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Indulgence vs. Restraint

➢This dimension is defined as the extent to which people try to control their
desires and impulses, based on the way they were raised.
• Relativelyweak control is called "Indulgence" and relatively strong control is
called "Restraint".

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Indulgence vs. Restraint

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TROMPENAARS MODEL
➢Trompenaars was particularly concerned with the practicalities of
managing, consulting, and doing business with members of other cultures.
➢His model is based on questionnaire responses given by
• 15,000 informants,
• 75 percent were managers and 25 percent administrative staff, representing a
range of companies and industries
• The informants were drawn from 50 countries.

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The 7D model by Fons Trompenaars

➢Developed in the 90s by Fons Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner, the 7D
is one of the most well reputed models to understand cultural differences
➢Based on the three universal problems, Trompenaars Hampden Turner’s research
distinguishes SEVEN DIMENSIONS OF CULTURE that affect the process of
managing across cultures.
• The first five dimensions refer to HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS: they can be observed in
how we interact with the others.
• The last two pertains to the use of TIME and the relationship with the ENVIRONMENT.

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The 7D model by Fons Trompenaars

➢Dilemma thinking: The mindset that generate value from competing
demands
• It is possible to deal with seemingly opposing options successfully. The key is
reconciliation, the art of combining opposites.
➢4R approach: the process to follow a long-term integration
• Recognize
• Respect
• Reconcile
• Realise

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TROMPENAARS (1993)
UNIVERSALISM ACHIEVEMENT
vs. vs.
PARTICULARISM ASCRIPTION

COMMUNITARI SEQUENTIAL
ANSIM vs. VS.
INDIVIDUALISM SYNCHRONIC

NEUTRAL INTERNAL
vs. VS.
AFFECTIVE EXTERNAL

SPECIFIC
vs.
DIFFUSE

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Universalism vs. Particularism

➢Universalist societies are based on rules,
• their members tend to feel that general rules and obligations are a strong source of moral
reference
• they are inclined to follow the rules and look for ‘the one best way’ of dealing equally and
fairly with all cases
• they assume that their standards are the right standards, and they attempt to change the
attitudes of others to match theirs
➢Particularist societies are predominantly based on relationships:
• particular circumstances lead to exceptions are more important than rules,
• bonds of exceptional relationship (family, friends) are stronger than anyabstract rules,
therefore the response to a situation may change according to the circumstances and the
people involved
• the member of particularist relationship based societies often argue ‘it all depends’

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Universalism vs. Particularism

➢You are riding in a car driven by a close friend. He hits a pedestrian. You
know he was going at least 35 miles per hour in an area of the city where
the maximum allowed speed is 20 miles per hour. There are no witnesses.
His lawyer says that if you testify under oath that he was only driving 20
miles per hour it may save him from serious consequences.

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Universalism vs. Particularism

➢What right has your friend to expect you to protect him?
• 1a My friend has a definite right as a friend to expect me to testify to the lower
figure.
• 1b He has some right as a friend to expect me to testify to the lower figure.
• 1c He has no right as a friend to expect me to testify to the lower figure.
➢What do you think you would do in view of the obligations of a sworn
witness and the obligation to your friend?
• 1d Testify that he was going 20 miles an hour.
• 1e Not testify that he was going 20 miles an hour.

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Universalism vs. Particularism

➢Tips for universalist cultures:
• Keep promises.
• Maintain consistency.
• Explain the rationale behind your decisions.
➢Tips for particularist cultures:
• Build relationships to understand individual needs.
• Respect these needs in decision-making.
• Identify crucial rules that must be adhered to.
➢Universalism vs. Particularism can influence
• Business contract
• Timing in business
• Role of leader
• Employee appraisal

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Achievement vs. Ascription

➢This dimension focuses on how personal status is assigned,
➢In "achievement-oriented" societies the status is a reflection of performance, of what an
individual does and has accomplished, In short, "you are what you do."
➢On the other hand, in the so called "ascribed" cultures, status is a reflection of what you
are and how the other individual within a group ( community and/or organization) relate to
you.
• Factors like age, class, gender, education, etcetera are fundamental in attributing status. In short,
taking it to the extreme, in this type of culture "you are what you are from birth."

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Achievement vs. Ascription

➢Tips for achievement cultures:
• Acknowledge individual achievements in the presence of peers.
• Avoid excessive use of titles.
• Recognize and reward individual performance.
➢Tips for ascription cultures:
• Use appropriate titles when addressing peers. If challenging a superior’s decision, handle it
tactfully.
• Demonstrate extra respect when interacting with team members

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Diffuse vs. Specific

➢Generally, people from specific oriented cultures begin by looking at each element of a situation. They
concentrate on hard facts, analyze the elements separately, then put them back together again, viewing the
whole as the sum of its parts.
➢People from diffusely oriented cultures see each element in the perspective of the complete picture. All
elements are related to each other and they can be combined into a whole which is more than simply the sum of
its parts.
➢This dimension also concerns the degree to which we involve others in relationships: do we engage them in
specific areas of life and single levels of personality or do we involve them in multiple areas of our lives and
several levels of personality at the same time?
• Specifically oriented individuals are "low involvement": they engage others in specific areas of life, affecting
single levels of personality. In such cultures, a manager separates the task relationship with a subordinate
from the private sphere.
• Diffusely oriented individuals are "high involvement": they engage others in multiple areas of life, displaying
several levels of personality at the same time. In these cultures, every life space and every level of
personality tends to be interwoven,

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Diffuse vs. Specific

➢Tips for specific cultures:
• Plan and structure your meetings with clear agendas.
• Strive to adhere to the meeting agenda.
• Prioritize setting objectives for individuals before focusing on building personal relationships.
➢Tips for diffuse cultures:
• Prioritize building personal relationships before setting objectives.
• Anticipate social invitations from colleagues and make a commitment to attend them.
• Be prepared to discuss business matters in social settings and personal topics in the workplace.

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Neutral vs. Affective

➢This dimension focuses on the degree to which people express emotions, and the
interplay between reason and emotion in human relationships.
➢In affective cultures, emotions are spontanously displayed: moods and feelings
aren't hidden or bottled up.
• theexpression of emotions is acceptable or even required, as a sign of sincerity,
attachment to what you are doing and a factor of trust.
➢In the so called neutral cultures, people are more reserved and don't openly
display emotions as they are taught that it is incorrect to overtly show them.
• Notexpressing emotions is seen as a positive sign of self-control and reason
dominates one's interaction with others.

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Neutral vs. Affective

➢Tips for neutral cultures:
• Maintain emotional restraint in both words and facial expressions.
• Recognize that people may be less likely to express their true feelings; hence,
read between the lines in conversations.
• Keep meetings focused after initial small talk.
➢Tips for emotional cultures:
• Leverage emotions to convey your intentions and objectives.
• Share your feelings to enhance workplace relationships.

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Sequential vs. Synchronic

➢This dimension focuses on how people structure time, ranging from a sequential/single task
approach to a synchronic/multi tasking one.
• In business, how people structure time is important with how we plan, strategize and co-ordinate our
activities with others.
➢People who structure time and tasks sequentially view time as a series of passing events.
• They tend to do one thing at a time, and prefer planning and keeping to plans once they have been made.
• Time commitments are taken seriously and staying on schedule is a must.
➢Synchronically oriented people view past, present, and future as being interrelated.
• They usually have a multi-tasking approach and do several things at once.
• For them, time is flexible and intangilble, therefore they are less concerned about what single-tasking
cultures define as punctuality.
• Time commitments are desirable rather than absolute, plans are easily changed as more value is placed on
the satisfactory completition of interaction with others.

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GLOBE PROJECT– HOUSE ET AL (1991)

➢A multi-country study and evaluation of cultural attributes and leadership
behaviors among more than 17,000 managers from 951 organizations in
62 countries.
➢Focused on the leadership traits thought desirable in different cultures.
➢Certain attributes that distinguish one culture from others can be used to
predict the most suitable, effective, and acceptable organizational and
leader practices within that culture
➢A unique contribution of the GLOBE project is the identification of both
values, which represent how people think things should be, and practices,
which represent how things actually are

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GLOBE project

❖ Institutional collectivisim: The degree to which organizational and societal institutional

practices encourage and reward collective distribution of resources and collective
action

➢In this society, are organizational and societal requirements to collective distribution of
resources more highly valued than individual goals and accomplishments?

➢In this society, is group loyalty encouraged, even if this undermines the pursuit of individual
goals?

➢In this society, are group cohesion and collaboration valued more highly than individualism?

➢In this society, are members of groups expected to take care of each other, even if it means
sacrificing individual goals?

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GLOBE project

❖ In-group collectivisim: The degree to which individuals express pride, loyalty, and
cohesiveness in their organizations or families

➢In this society, are people encouraged to be loyal to their family or group?

➢In this society, do people have strong family ties and take care of family members?

➢In this society, are individuals expected to protect and support their family or group members?

➢In this society, do people show a strong commitment to their in-group (e.g., family, friends)?

➢In this society, is there a high level of emphasis on maintaining close-knit relationships within the
family or group?

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GLOBE project

❖ Future orientation: The extent to which individuals engage in future-oriented behaviors

such as delaying gratification, planning, and investing in the future

➢In this society, do people plan for future events?

➢In this society, are people encouraged to save for the future?

➢In this society, do people have long-term goals and aspirations?

➢In this society, are people motivated to succeed in the long run rather than seek immediate
rewards?

➢In this society, is long-term planning considered important for success?

➢In this society, do individuals prioritize future outcomes over short-term gains?

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GLOBE project

❖ Assertiveness: The degree to which individuals are assertive, confrontational and

aggressive in their relationships with others

➢In this society, are people generally assertive in their relationships with others?

➢In this society, do people value assertiveness and toughness?

➢In this society, are people encouraged to be dominant in social interactions?

➢In this society, do people speak their minds, even at the risk of offending others?

➢In this society, do people often take initiative in resolving disputes or conflicts?

➢In this society, are people expected to be direct and confrontational in communication?

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GLOBE project

➢ Performance orientation: The degree to which a collective encourages and rewards

group members for performance improvement and excellence

• In this society, are people rewarded for excellent performance?

• In this society, are people encouraged to strive for continuously improved performance?

• In this society, are students encouraged to perform better than their classmates?

• In this society, does being innovative and taking initiative lead to success?

• In this society, is achievement considered more important than loyalty?

• In this society, do people set challenging goals and strive to meet them?

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GLOBE project

➢ Humane orientation: The degree to which a collective encourages and rewards

individuals for being fair, altruistic, generous, caring and kind to others

• In this society, people are generally very concerned about others.

• In this society, people are expected to help others, even if it means sacrificing themselves.

• In this society, people are encouraged to be fair, generous, and kind to others.

• People in this society are generally very tolerant of mistakes made by others.

• People in this society emphasize social support more than competition.

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GLOBE

Cultural dimension → Cuture cluster

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GLOBE

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Schwartz’scultural dimension
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Schwartz on culture
➢Cultural Influence: Culture shapes how people think and act by creating norms
and pressures that affect them.
➢Culture as an External Force: Culture is not just in people's minds; it exists
outside them, in the social systems they live in.
➢Cultural Press: This term refers to various influences people encounter daily
➢Normative Values: The underlying cultural values are reflected in these influences
and shape individual beliefs and actions.
➢Culture vs. Psychological Variables: Culture affects individuals by shaping their
beliefs and behaviors, but it’s distinct from these individual aspects.

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Schwartz on culture
• Social Institutions Reflect Culture: How institutions like the economy, legal system, and child-rearing
practices are set up shows the cultural values of a society.
• These institutions expose people to consistent cultural values, shaping their thinking, behaviors, and
attitudes to fit in with society.
• Prevailing cultural values serve as ideals that provide coherence to various cultural aspects.
Incompatibilities with these values may lead to tension and calls for change.
• Cultures evolve slowly due to changing power dynamics among subgroups and external factors like
technological advances, wars, and interactions with other cultures.
• Measuring Culture: To understand cultural orientations, researchers can analyze:
• Themes in children’s stories
• Proverbs, movies, and literature
• Social practices and legal systems
• Economic systems
• Focus on Value Emphases: Studying these cultural elements helps identify underlying value emphases,
providing insights into the broader cultural context.

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Schwartz on culture
➢Schwartz (1994) argued that individual and cultural levels of analysis are
conceptually independent.
➢Individual level dimensions reflect the psychological dynamics that
individuals experience when acting on their values in the everyday life,
➢Cultural-level dimensions reflect the solutions that societies find to
regulate human actions

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Schwartz on Culutre
Value orientation

Conservatism – Autonomy: Conservatism: individuals are Autonomy: individuals are autonomous

Extent to which individuals are embedded in a collectivity, finding from groups, find meaning on their own
integrated in groups meaning through participation and uniqueness. Two types of autonomy:
identification with a group that they intellectual autonomy (independent
shares their way of life pursuit of ideas and rights) and
Affective autonomy (independent
pursuit of affectively positive
experience)

Hierarchy – Egalitarianism: Hierarchy: cultures are organized Egalitarianism: individuals are seen as
extent to which equality is hierarchically. Individuals are moral equals who share basic interest
valued and expected socialized to comply with their roles as human beings
and are sanctioned if they are not

Mastery – Harmony: Extent to Mastery: individuals value getting Harmony: Individuals accept the world
which people seek to change ahead through self-assertion and seek as it is and try to preserve it rather than
the natural and social world to to change the natural and social world exploit it
advance personal or group to advance personal or group interest
interests

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STRENGTHS OF COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

➢Comparative analysis enables the manager to make broad comparisons.
➢It can make him sensitive to points at which differences between cultures
might occur
➢Many of these models focus on aspects of social life that are of relevance
to the manager.
➢Comparative analysis should usually be treated as a “first best guess”

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WEAKNESSES OF COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

➢The assumption of the national group as an appropriate unit of analysis is
unreliable.
➢Non-mainstream culture does not correspond to mainstream culture
cannot be taken into account except as deviance
➢Lack descriptive depth that an anthropologist might demand in respect of
any one particular society.
➢Do not help the manager distinguish the effects of national culture and
non-cultural factors like organizational culture, and industry norms.
➢Bi-lateral models are static.

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APPLYING THE MODEL

➢Controlled informant population
➢The DIMENSIONS tap into deep cultural values and make significant
comparisons between national cultures.
➢The connotations of each dimension have RELEVANCE to management.
➢The comparisons that can be made are of immediate interest to the
international manager concerned with establishing and implementing
management structures and systems.

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LIMITATIONS OF THE MODEL

➢Neglect the notion of culture group
➢Dimensions have the same meaning in all cultures
➢Hofstede’s informants worked within a single industry (the computer
industry) and a single multinational
➢Doubts arise in respect of bias in the questionnaire responses

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Strategies for working across cultures

2. View cultural differences in 3. Prepare for unexpected by
1. Avoid cultural stereotyping
neutral terms enhancing your cognitive skills
• Cultural descriptions contain • Cultures are neither good nor • Self-awareness
only limited information. bad; they are just different— • Empathy
• Be as objective as possible in and can have different • Information gathering and
describing cultures; avoid behavioral implications.
• Information integration and
evaluations. • Remember that most cultures
• Behavioral flexibility
• Focus on accurate are complex and
contradictions can often be • Mindfulness
descriptions of beliefs, values,
and norms. found in attitudes and
• Cultural descriptions should be behaviors.
considered a first guess and a • Use your expanded cultural
trigger to further knowledge to view situations
• exploration. through the eyes of others.
• Cultural descriptions can • Look for subtleties and
change over time. nuances in interpersonal
interactions that explain what
others are thinking.

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