Page 553 - Cultures and Organizations

518 Glossary

FLEXHUMILITY (ALSO SPELLED “FLEXUMILITY”): a coined term for the
characteristic of societies whose cultures promote humility, fl exibility, and
adaptability to changing circumstances. Together with its opposite pole,
monumentalism, this is one of Misho Minkov’s WVS-based dimensions of
national cultures.

FUNDAMENTALISM: the belief that there is only one unchanging Truth and
that one’s own group is in possession of this Truth, which is usually defi ned
in great detail.

GESTALT: an integrated whole that should be studied as such and that
loses its meaning when divided into parts; from a German word meaning
“form.”

GROSS NATIONAL INCOME (GNI): a measure of the total flow of goods
and services produced by the economy of a country over a year, includ-
ing income from foreign investments by domestic residents, but excluding
income from domestic investments by foreign residents.

GROUP AGENCY: the capacity for concerted collective action of a group.
GROUP IDENTITY: see identity.

HEROES: persons, alive or dead, real or imaginary, assumed to possess
characteristics highly prized in a culture and thus serving as models for
behavior.

HOMEOSTASIS: the tendency of an organism or social system to maintain
internal stability by compensating for external changes.
HOMININ: an ancestor of modern humans. Used to be called “hominid” in
previous classifi cation systems.

the set of traits that are shared by all of today’s human
HUMAN NATURE:
beings.

IDENTITY: a person’s self-affiliation as a member of a group or category.
Often rooted in national or regional origin, language, and/or religious
affiliation, it is conscious and visible both to the holders of the identity and

to the environment that does not share it. See also corporate identity.
IDEOLOGY: a coherent set of ideas that serves to give a purpose to life and
to set moral standards.