Page 104 - Culture Technology Communication

National Level Culture and Global Diffusion 89

Although culture is defined as a societal-level construct, it cer-
tainly has implications for individual behavior. Culture can be seen
as a mediator between human nature, which is universal, and per-
sonality, which is specific to the individual (Hofstede 1997). The re-
sult is that although a range of personality types will be found in any
society, there will also be a preponderance of individuals with a par-
ticular kind of personality (Rosman and Rubel 1995). The personal-
ity type represents how people within a society respond to their
cultural norms. This demonstrates the ability to draw conclusions
about societal culture based on responses of a sample of individuals
from a society.

National Cultural Characteristics
This study raises two somewhat controversial issues relating to the
study of culture and technology. The first is whether or not culture can
be quantified, and the second is whether one can speak of national-
level cultural characteristics. Each will be addressed in turn.
The literature on culture is vast and here we will attempt to
provide a rough sketch of the various perspectives. Some researchers
view culture as an unmeasurable construct. This view may stem ei-
ther from the perspective of the researcher vis-à-vis the group being
studied or may be merely be a function of the lack of depth that
quantification typically reflects. On this view, culture can be de-
scribed but not quantified. First, in relation to perspective, if culture
is embedded or reflected through cultural norms, then it is almost
impossible to truly understand those norms from a position outside
that particular “culture.” However, once inside, the perspective
changes and it is difficult to recognize what is different “culturally”
about any group of individuals. Second, exacerbating these chal-
lenges of perspective, attempts to quantify culture are clumsy. Mea-
sures, through surveys for example, miss the subtlety of the cultural
traits. The culture of a group may be seen as a combination of a va-
riety of cultural traits. Cultural traits may have intricately interde-
pendent relationships and attempts to measure individual traits in
various societies (if indeed culture is a societal-level construct) ob-
fuscate these interdependencies and insufficiently identify cultural
differences.
A further complication in measuring culture exists in identify-
ing the unit of analysis. Some see culture as a multi-level construct.
We can talk of societal culture, organizational culture, or even fam-
ily culture. In terms of accuracy of cultural descriptions, there seems