Page 38 - Cultures and Organizations

The Rules of the Social Game 23

adoptive country of their parents but, in contrast, to feel that they belong
to their new country when they visit their parents’ country of origin. This
is because they are likely to live by a mix of cultural (hidden) rules from
both societies while emotionally needing a primary group with which to
identify. To no surprise, they often seek comfort with one another.
Identity is explicit: it can be expressed in words, such as “a woman,”
“a bicultural individual,” “an American citizen.” In fact, the same person
could report being any of these three things, depending on the setting in
which you asked. The degree to which identities can be multiple depends
on culture. It relates to the individualism-collectivism distinction, which
we will meet in Chapter 4. Individualistic environments such as modern
cities, academia, and modern business allow people to have several identi-
ties and to easily change their identity portfolios. In collectivistic societies,
in which most of the world’s population still lives, one conceives as oneself
much more as belonging to a community, whether this be ethnic, regional,
or national, and one’s sense of identity derives mainly from that group
affi liation.
Values are implicit: they belong to the invisible software of our minds.

Talking about our own values is difficult, because it implies questioning
our motives, emotions, and taboos. Our own culture is to us like the air
we breathe, while another culture is like water—and it takes special skills
to be able to survive in both elements. Intercultural encounters are about
that, and Chapter 11 will be devoted to them.
In popular parlance and in the press, identity and culture are often
confused. Some sources refer to cultural identity to describe what we would
call group identity. Groups within or across countries that fight each other

on the basis of their different identities may very well share basic cultural
values; this was or is the case in many parts of the Balkans, for the Catho-

lics and Protestants in Northern Ireland, and for the Flemish and French
speakers in Belgium. On the other hand, persons with different cultural
backgrounds may form a single group with a single identity, as in intercul-
tural teams—in business, in academia, or in professional soccer.
Countries also obviously differ in their historically grown institutions,
which comprise the rules, laws, and organizations dealing with family life,
schools, health care, business, government, sports, media, art, and sciences.
Some people, including quite a few sociologists and economists, believe
these are the true reasons for differences in thinking, feeling, and acting
among countries. If we can explain such differences by institutions that are