Cultures and Diversity

Introduction

The world is a very big place full of different and diverse cultures that have their distinct characteristics, traditions, languages, religions, communications, languages…etc. Globalization, economic relations, political agreement and movement of people gave sponsored the cultural interactions, exchange, mergers, modifications and even birth of new ones. The international relations are built around the exchange of subjective or objective items, ideas, knowledge …etc. that serves such countries political, economic or social goals and always associated with negotiation and bargaining.

Culture and globalization

Culture can be defined as “that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society” (Tylor, 1871). It is “the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from another." (Hofstede, 2005). Hofstede (2005) developed the onion model highlights the four layers of culture namely: Symbols, heroes, rituals and values.

Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner (2012) introduced elements of culture, which are basic implicit beliefs and assumptions, learned behaviour of norms and values and explicit artefacts, products and outcomes.

Globalization means that “the world is becoming interconnected by trade and culture exchange” (BBC, 2019). The national Cultures interconnected because of globalization as the transnational flows of people, financial resources, goods, information and culture that are drastically increasing and transformed the world (Ritzer and Malone, 2001).

The world is experiencing accelerated and unpredicted globalization and technological advancement that influence and sponsor cultural change, integration and homogenization. (UNESCO, 2017). Globalization allow to understand and navigate the huge diversity of nations and cultures and leading to a multicultural and not uni-cultural world (Forbes, 2017). The Cultural diversity and the increased homogenization leads to social integration, sense of a shared culture and breaking cultural barriers (Pagel, 2014).

Culture can change due forces at work within society, contact between society and changes in the natural environment in the forms of diffusion, acculturation and transculturation. Palomar College (2006).

Despite the cultural integration, their own cultural lens enforced by the increasing cultural protectionism in ethnic, religious, national or political ways blinds nations.

Nations are requested to open their minds and embrace diversity for peaceful and promising future. Some of the cultural models and frameworks (I.e. GLOBE study, Trompenaars’ cultural dimensions, Hall’s cultural dimensions and Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions) can be used to understand and compare nations based on cultural similarities and differences with surprising similarities hidden in the ties of distinctiveness and can aid the start of our nations intercultural learning process as developed by Pusch (1979).

Hofstede 6 dimensional model

The Hofstede cultural dimensions model introduced by Geert Hofstede at the end of the 1970s based on lengthy research conducted the people who worked for IBM in more than 64 countries (Hofstede Insights, 2019). It is internationally recognized for understanding cultural differences among countries and nations (Price and Roger, 2019). Hofstede et al (2010) developed a model that investigated six dimensions of national cultures: Power Distance, Individualism versus Collectivism, Masculinity versus Femininity, Uncertainty Avoidance, Long-term orientation versus short-term normative orientation and Indulgence versus Restraint.

Conclusion

The world is a big place full of diversity that is important so we can learn from one, respect the different ways of being and understand each other. Embracing the diverse cultures will help us to work, collaborate, eliminate the negative stereotypes, remove the personal biases and make the world a better place. People who study or interacts with new cultures that they are not familiar with can use some of the cultural models like Hofstede which is very useful in making sense of such complex diversity by simplifying cultures to a level allows mutual understanding, studying, cooperation and collaboration. However, people need to practise caution when dealing with such models to avoid making wrong assumptions and stereotyping especially that every condition, circumstances and situations may yield different cultural reactions, behaviours and actions. Such Cultural models help to generate assumptions about how the world operates that needs to validated and considered carefully.

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by:

Mohammed Ziyad Al-Zghool, 2019