The Many Dimensions of Culture

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The Many Dimensions of Culture

• By Harry C Triandis

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Individualism-Collectivism Dimension
GREECE vs ILLINOIS

• Behave differently between the two groups
• interact more with ingroup gt outgroup

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GREECE vs ILLINOIS

• Act according to norm.
• What should I do? gt What would I like to do?
• Define themselves in more social terms.
• How much do you earn per month? is acceptable
  for the Greece in the first encounter but not in
  America.

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THE IMPORTANCE OF HOFSTEDES WORK

• Triandis is a psychologist
• The study of culture back then was not popular.
• This would not make sense in X culture
• - Some theories would not fit in some cultures
• The majority view was that culture is none of
  our business. The minority view held that
  culture is so pervasive that all psychology
  should be a cultural psychology.

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CULTURE INSIDE THE PERSON

• Culture was thought of out there.
• A major turning point occurred when culture
  started to be conceived of as inside the
  person.
• Out there VS Inside
• Cultural Psychology gtgt Cross-cultural psychology
  gtgt not mainstream yet.

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THE TURNING POINT

• There are major cultural differences in
  cognition, emotion, and motivation.
• Psychologists suddenly realized that what was
  considered universal in psychology is true only
  in the West, eg., in Individualistic cultures it
  is not valid everywhere.
• Handbook of Industrial and Organizational
  Psychology have to be changed so many times due
  to other author being late and culture changed.

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THE CULTURAL AND INDIVIDUAL LEVELS OF ANALYSIS

• The emphasis on the distinction between the
  cultural and individual levels of analysis.
• Individualism and Collectivism was split into
  many facets
• These factors were no longer on the opposite.
• A person can be high in both collectivism and
  individualism at the same time.

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THE DETRACTORS

• Detractors
• Creative VS Critical
• The perfect is the enemy of the good
• Hofstedes work has become the standard against
  which new work on cultural differences is
  validated.

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The most important dimension
INDIVIDUALISM and COLLECTIVISM

• There are scores of dimensions in cultural
  variations
• Primary
• Secondary

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Research
INDIVIDUALISM and COLLECTIVISM

1. Difference in perceptions and behavior.
2. Within culture, there are idiocentric and
   allocentric individuals.
3. Tendencies towards idiocentrism or allocentrism
   are influenced by many factors.

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1. Difference in Perceptions and Behavior

• Collectivist
• Tendency to emphasize on context
• Behavior seen as due to external factors such as
  norms and roles

• Individualist
• Tendency to emphasize on Content
• Behavior as due to internal factors such as
  attitudes and personality.

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2. Within culture, there are idiocentric and
allocentric individuals

• Idiocentrics
• Think, feel and behave like people in
  individualist cultures
• Individualist 35-100 idiocentrics collectivist
  0-35 idiocentrics.
• High in expressiveness, dominance, initiation of
  action, aggressiveness, logical arguments,
  regulation of flow of communication, eye contact,
  teneded to finish the task, and had strong
  opinions.

• Allocentrics
• Tend to behave like people in collectivist
  cultures
• Collectivist cultures have between 30-100
  Allocentrics Individualist cultures have
  somewhere in between 0-35 allocentrics.
• High on accomadating and avoidance of argument,
  and shift their opinions more easily.

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3. Tendencies towards idiocentrism or
allocentrism are influenced by many factors

• Idiocentrics
• Increases with affluence, leadership roles, much
  education, has done much international travel,
  has been socially mobile.
• Increases when a person has been greatly exposed
  to western mass media or has been in western
  culture for many years.

• Allocentrics
• Increases when a person has been financially
  dependent on some ingroup, is of low social
  class, has limited education, has done little
  travel and has been socialized in a unilateral
  family
• Increases when a person usually stays in a
  collectivist culture.

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POWER DISTANCE
An important cultural dimension

• The dimension interacts with individualism and
  collectivism in interesting ways resulting the
  following-
• Horizontal individualism
• Vertical individualism
• Horizontal collectivism
• Vertical collectivism

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Implications for working in another culture

• In Individualist cultures, people were selected
  based on individual attributes while in
  collectivist cultures people were selected based
  on group memberships.
• There is more training in collectivist cultures
  because people tend to be more loyal to the
  organization.

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Implications for working in another culture

• Paternalism is a more common leadership style in
  collectivist than in individualist cultures.
• In collectivist cultures, bosses are more
  involved in personal lives of employees.
• Managers in collectivist cultures are not as
  concerned with performance but rather
  interpersonal relationships unlike managers in
  individualist cultures are.

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Implications for working in another culture

• As countries become more affluent, their
  populations become more individualist. However,
  this change requires several generations.

• Individualism-collectivism dimension also has
  some relevance when it comes to deception in
  organizations.
• Triandis et all found that people in vertical
  collectivist cultures are likely to use deception
  if it helps their ingroup. In the case of
  vertical idiocentrics, competitiveness and the
  need to be the best seem to be the factors that
  increase the use of deception. 

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UNCERTAINTY AVOIDANCE
Tight and Loose Cultures

• The tight and loose culture has some major
  cultural differences.
• - Tight Culture
• Many rules, norms, and standards for correct
  behaviors
• Eg. There are strict rules about how to smile or
  bow
• - Loose Culture
• Few rules, norms, and standards2

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UNCERTAINTY AVOIDANCE

• When people do not follow a rule, break the
  norms, or ignore standard.
• - Tight Culture
• People are likely to be criticized, punished,
  or killed
• - Loose Culture
• It does not matter.
• For a culture to be tight, it requires agreement
  about norms and cultural homogeneity.
• Normally, in cultures with high population
  density, tightness is particularly functional.

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Example of Tight vs Loose Cultures

• Tight
• Japan
• Taliban (Afghanistan)

• Loose
• Thailand
• America

Hofstedes Uncertainty Avoidance is related to
tightness. In cultures high in UA, people want to
have structure, to know precisely how they are
supposed to behave.
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Other Dimensions of Cultural Variation

• Cultural Complexity and Tightness- looseness
  relates to collectivism-individualism
• Collectivist cultures tight and simple
• Individualist cultures loose and complex
• Masculinity-Femininity dimension
• Masculinity correlates with domestic political
  violence.

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The Influences of Hofstedes Dimensions

• The Hofstedes dimensions are relevant to how
  people function in industrial society.
• Hofstedes dimensions influence psychological
  processes and organizational behaviors in many
  cultures.
• The dimensions have generated many researches and
  have been highly influential in all the social
  science.