Page 60 - Cultures and Organizations

Studying Cultural Differences 45

sources—he extracted three dimensions, which he labeled exclusionism
versus universalism, indulgence versus restraint, and monumentalism versus
fl exhumility. 29
As a result, Misho has joined our authors’ team, and we have integrated
30
our research results. From the three Minkov dimensions, exclusionism
versus universalism was strongly correlated with collectivism versus
individualism, and references to it will be included in Chapter 4. Monu-

mentalism versus flexhumility correlated significantly with short- versus
long-term orientation. This led to another search of the WVS database,
which has produced a new measurement of the LTO dimension, enriching
our understanding of its implications and drastically increasing the num-
ber of countries for which reliable scores are available. All of this will be
described in Chapter 7. Indulgence versus restraint (IVR) has been added
as an entirely new, sixth dimension in Chapter 8.

Cultural Differences According to Region, Ethnicity,
Religion, Gender, Generation, and Class

Regional, ethnic, and religious cultures account for differences within coun-
tries; ethnic and religious groups often transcend political country bor-
ders. Such groups form minorities at the crossroads between the dominant
culture of the nation and their own traditional group culture. Some assimi-
late into the mainstream, although this process may take a generation or
more; others continue to stick to their own ways. The United States, as
the world’s most prominent example of a people composed of immigrants,
shows examples of both assimilation (the melting pot) and retention of
group identities over generations (for example, the Pennsylvania Dutch).
Discrimination according to ethnic origin delays assimilation and repre-

sents a problem in many countries. Regional, ethnic, and religious cultures,
in so far as they are learned from birth onward, can be described in the
same terms as national cultures: basically the same dimensions that were
found to differentiate among national cultures apply to these differences
within countries.
Gender differences are not usually described in terms of cultures. It
can be revealing to do so. If we recognize that within each society there is
a men’s culture that differs from a women’s culture, this recognition helps

to explain why it is so difficult to change traditional gender roles. Women

are not considered suitable for jobs traditionally filled by men, not because