Lecture 2

Patterns of culture

1. The "iceberg" model

Above the waterline: the visible area
Below the waterline: the invisible area

behaviour
clothing
food

meanings
beliefs
values
attitudes

Figure 1. The iceberg model.

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The tree model

behaviour
clothing
food

meanings
beliefs
attitudes
values cultural roots

Figure 2. The tree model.

The onion model

Figure 3. The onion model.

2. Hofstede (1991)  four levels  culture is like an onion

At the core of culture:
Values  "broad tendencies to prefer certain states of affairs over others"

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  the ideas that people have about how things "ought to be"
 the most hidden layer of culture
 strongly influencing behaviour

above values: three observable layers/ outer layers

 Rituals (ways of greeting; ways of paying respect etc.)

 Heroes (admired persons who serve as examples of behaviour/
models of life)
 Symbols (words, colour, other artefacts that carry a special meaning)

across the three layers

subsuming them practices

"practices" = confusing (connected to rituals yet, distinct from them)

Hofstede"s pattern  an extention of the two-layer pattern

the outer layer has been extended (refined analysis of the
visible results of cultural values)

3. Trompenaars and Hampden – Turner (1997)

onion like model
their model expands the core level

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  core level: basic assumptions (similar to "values" in Hofstede's model)
 values
 artefacts

The set of basic assumptions

A model of culture (Source: Trompenaars, 1993:23)

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 4. Spencer – Oatey (2000)

 inner core of culture: basic assumptions + values

 attitudes, beliefs, conventions/ norms
 systems & institutions
 rituals & behaviours, artifacts & products

conventions, beliefs and attitudes  manifest themselves in systems and

institutions
more practical
implementation: systems & institutions = products & artefacts

Norms and values

Being a member of a certain culture:

 to encode
 organise
 interpret reality

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 GROUPS

FAMILY AGE GROUPS SEX GROUPS RELIGIOUS GROUPS PROFESSIONAL GROUPS ORGANISATIONS

SOCIETY

CULTURE

NORMS & VALUES

What people consider Ideals shared by

right & wrong group/ society
members

Norms indicate what the group considers right and wrong.

Values refer rather to the ideals shared by the group, often based on the definition
of good and bad.
Norms  give us a feeling of “This is how I normally should behave”.
Values  “This is how I aspire or desire to behave”.

A culture is relatively stable when the norms reflect the values of the group.

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If not  destabilising tension (Eastern Europe  the norms of communism failed
to match the values of society); disintegration = logical result.

Norms: culturally ingrained principles of correct and incorrect behaviours.

- do not cover all the areas of human behaviour
- culturally, it is not always clear how far a norm operates
- distinguishing between the boundaries of norms is sometimes very
difficult
When human behaviour is involved  areas of indecisiveness, uncertainty and
ambiguity

Rules  are formed to clarify ambiguous areas of norms.

Organisations
Institutions
Corporations
Families have their own rules while sharing the general norms of the culture
they work in.
Business organisations  advantage  enable them to organise the activity inside
the company according to those rules that may ensure maximum of efficiency.
However  to strike the necessary balance between the existing cultural norms
and the required coercive level of the rules inside the company.

Roles: behavioural expectations of a position within a culture: king, president,

priest, father, son, adviser, chief executive, husband, wife, prime minister etc.
Once someone has been given or has taken a certain position within a group of
people, he or she should develop that type of behaviour that is culturally
associated with the expectations people have of that role. If not, the society will

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 sanction all those elements of behaviour that represent variations of the
behavioural pattern associated with the role.
The core: assumptions about existence

To explain cultural differences  to go back to the core of human existenceThe

basic value people strive for: survival

Cultural differences

a. Observable things

b. Behavioural elements (also observable):

body movements  kinesics

space organization/ proxemics


distribution
eye movement oculesics

touching behaviour  haptics
accent, intonation, pace of paralanguage

speaking

c. Thought patterns
 more complex
 require more attention
 more difficult to grasp

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Classification:
logical / pre-logical
inductive / deductive
abstract / concrete

Maletzke (1996)

Inductive thinking Deductive thinking

indiv. cases  theor. theor.  indiv. cases
concepts concepts
particular  general general  particular

Impact on:
Anglo-Saxon  Argumentation Latin/Latin American/Russian
thought pattern  Comm. styles thought pattern
 The way the
world is seen &
understood

 a possible way to examine cultural differences

 difficult to apply at a wider study level
 lack of quantitative data
 classification of cultural patterns at a deeper level
 availability of empirical data

Other concepts necessary for a detailed analysis of cultures

Dimensions of cultures

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Contributions:
1. Eduard T. Hall - two classic dimensions of culture
a. high context/ low context
the way in which information is transmitted/communicated

High-context cultures Low-context cultures

Pre-programmed Most of the information
 deals with language
information existing in must be in the transmitted
 located in the outer
the receiver and in the message in order to make
layer
setting/context up for what is missing in
The transmitted message
the context
includes only minimal
 masss communication
information
China  info. content of Germany
Japan advertising The USA

Difficulties:
 little statistical data
 linguistically: digrees of directness (other factors: explicitness/implicitness;
communicative strength; bluntness/ cushioning)

b. monochronic/ polychronic time orientation

the way in which cultures structure their time
 tasks: "one thing at a time"/ "multiple tasks at a time"
 time & interpersonal relations

time perception & resultant behaviour (appointments, schedules, relationships,

personal time, breaks, work time, tasks etc.)

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 Monochronic cultures Polychronic cultures
Interpersonal interpesonal relations present schedule
relations subordinate to present subordinate to
schedule interpersonal relations
Activity co-  schedule co-odinates  interpersonal time co-

ordination activity ordinates activity

appointment time is rigid  time is flexible
Task handling one task at a time multiple tasks at a time
Breaks and are fixed regardless personal are subordonate to
personal time ties personal ties
Time perception time = inflexible time = flexible
time = tangible time = fluid
Work time/personal clearly separated not clearly separated/
time intermingle
Organizational  activities isolated from  activities integrated

perception organization as a whole into organization as a

 tasks are measured by whole
output in time (activity per  tasks are measured as
hour/minute) part of the overall
organizational goal

2. Hofstede  establishes four dimensions of culture

 power distance
 individualism/ collectivism
 masculinity/ feminity
 uncertainty avoidance

a. Power distance

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" the extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organisations
within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally" (1994,
p.28)

Where is it reflected?
 Hierarchical organisation of companies
 Political forms of centralism and decentralism
 The belief that inequality among peole should be minimised

b. Individualism / collectivism

"Individualism pertains to societies in which the ties between individuals are

loose: everyone is expected to look after himself or herself and his or her
immediate family. Collectivism, as its opposite, ertainds to societies in which
people from their birth onwards are integrated into strong, cohesive in-groups,
which throughout people's lifetime continue to protect them in exchange for
unquestioned loyalty" (1994, p.51)

c. Masculinity/feminity

"Masculinity pertains to societies in which gender roles are clearly distinct (i.e.
men are supposed to be assertive, tough, and focussed on material success,
whereas women are supposed to be more modest, tender, and concerned with the
quality of life); feminity pertains to societies in which social gender roles overlap
(i.e. both men and women are supposed to be modest, tender, and concerned with
the quality of life." (1994, p.82-3)

d. Uncertainty avoidance

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"the extent to which the members of a culture feel threatened by uncertain and
unknown situations" (1994, p. 113)

e. Long-term/ short-term orientation (resulted from his co-operation with Michael

Bond)

Long-term orientation  characterised by:

 persistence
 ordering relationships by status and observing this order
 thrift (wise use of money and goods; avoidance of waste)
 a sense of shame

Short-term orientation characterised by:

 personal steadiness/ stability
 protecting your "face"
 respect for tradition
 reciprocation of greetings, favours , gifts
3. Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner – identify seven value
orientations

a. universalism vs. particularism

b. communitarianism vs. individualism
c. neutral vs. emotional
d. defuse vs. specific cultures
e. achievement vs. ascription
f. human –time relation
g. human – nature relation

 not entirely original

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  some of the above value orientations/dimentsions focus more on
resulting effects than on values themselves

 human – time relation  (Hall) monochronism/ polychronism

 human – nature relation  (Strodbeck & Kluckhohn) value orientations
 universalism/ particularism  (Hofstede) collectivism/ individualism +
uncertainty avoidance

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