I get the question very often during a Cultural Awareness Training: What is the relationship between Culture and Personality?
This article is an attempt to shed some practical, non-academic light on this relationship between Culture and Personality. Let me start with saying that the question is actually invalid… (but please read on!) Read More
I have recently added a resource page to Culture Matters (click here to get it), which is the so called Cultural Reference Sheet.
This Cultural Reference Sheet gives an overview of countries and their respective scores on 4 culture dimension, partially inspired by the work of Professor Geert Hofstede.
One thing that is very important to remember and realize every time you refer to any of the scores in this Cultural Reference Sheet is the following: One can Only speak meaningfully about Cultural Differences by the Grace of Comparison!
From all of Professor Geert Hofstede’s dimensions I find this the most difficult one to explain in a Cultural Awareness Training.
Reason being is that most people seem to associate Uncertainty Avoidance with only formal rules and nothing 
else.
My experience is that Western Europeans and North Americans view mediterranean countries as quite relaxed and therefore low scoring on this dimension. Whilst the opposite is true. Italy Greece and Spain all score relatively high. Read More
“How do You respect your neighbor?”
Simple question to answer right? Although your answer will vary depending on your culture.
In Individualistic cultures (mainly Western Europe, North America, and Australia & New Zealand), the answer will be something like: “I’ll keep my distance“, or “I’ll leave them to them selves“. Read More
Even up to 80% of all cultural friction is attributed to Power Distance! There are 3 dimensions of culture more, but let’s first focus on this one.
Let us start with a definition, so we are all on the same page:
“All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others” George Orwell
Or to put it in a more official way, Power Distance is the: “Level of acceptance of people, whom have no power, of the unequal spread of power in their society.” Read More
In this informal, forty minute interview he explains, in his own words, the 5 dimensions of Culture, being:
It’s election year in the US. The first primaries have been held in Iowa for the bid of the republican candidate who will contest President Obama in November this year. The winner there: Mitt Romney. For now.
Another Republican contestant, Newt Gingrich, who was in the lead before, declared the elections to turn “ugly”. What else is new? Read More
Built on Simply Works Core
Powered by WordPress
Copyright © Culture Matters
Cultural Awareness Training & Teaching Culture
