Culture national cultural differences

National cultural differences. A variety of research studies have highlighted differences between countries in the extent to which they accept and benefit from mentoring as a developmental approach. Table 5.3 and the following comments will explain this statement in more detail (Laurent, 1981, 1983 Hofstede, 1991 Trompenaars, 1993, 1994). 

Southeast Asian nationalisms were distinct from those of Europe not simply because they arose in a culturally different context. The modern states which introduced state nationalism in its modern form were alien imperial states. They were able to establish their authority in Southeast Asia in the late nineteenth century in large part because they embodied, to a much greater extent than their local opponents, that homogeneous amalgam of ethnie and state nationalism which proved so successful in the nineteenth century— the sure and attested way of attaining power and wealth (McNeill 1985 56). The policies of these imperial states therefore have an important bearing on the shaping of identities. 

For many researchers, including tourist researchers, nationality acts as a proxy or substitute construct for other fundamental concepts. In particular cultural differences interest a vast array of researchers (Ward et ah, 2001). The traditions of interest here include work by sociologists, anthropologists, linguists and cross-cultural psychologists (Gudykunst et ah, 1992 ... 

Schizophrenia is one of most serious, debilitating mental illness as its strikes at some of the most advanced functions of the human brain. It affects about 1% of the population, regardless of economical and cultural differences. Psychotic symptoms usually begin in late adolescence or early adulthood. Because of its chronic nature, severity and early onset, schizophrenia is an expensive illness, especially in industrialized nations where the symptoms are incompatible with the highly structured nature of the workplace and where social expectations are high. 

With the emergence of the science of chemistry and of a burgeoning chemical industry, the most appropriate education and training of technical personnel became an issue for countries in Northern Europe and in North America during the nineteenth century. Different nations adopted different approaches to this issue, depending on a whole variety of cultural and other factors. 

As suspected, it was difficult to find a one-size-fits-all-cultures model, with respondents from the different countries and different occupational groups responding to the items in different ways. In addition the data was possibly compromised by language, complexity of the items and/or genuine underlying cultural differences between the different national groups. 

People in different countries may hold different values within their lifestyles for behavior or work. Cumulative evidence reveals that there are snbstantial differences in the way pilots of different nationalities conduct their tasks in the cockpit. These differences are mainly derived from their cultures and the cultural differences certainly have clear implications for safety (Hehnreich and Merritt, 1998). As shown in their study, strong cross-cultural differences in the areas of communications and tolerance for rules, routines and set procedures were observed. These differences of pilots conduct in the cockpit can, in turn, contribute to an increase of uncertainty and hesitation and therefore become a serious threat to safety (Helmreich and Merritt, 1998). 

In an attempt to emphasize national value differences, Hofstede (1980) employs a four-dimension category to discriminate among various national cultures. They are power distance (PD), uncertainty avoidance (UA), individualism/collectivism, and masculinity/femininity, respectively. PD is the extent to which the less powerful members of organizations accept and expect that power is distributed unequally. In a low PD culture, subordinates feel more comfortable approaching or contradicting their superiors. In contrast, there is considerable dependence of subordinates on superiors, and subordinates are unlikely to question their superiors directly in a high PD culture (Helmreich and Merritt, 1998). 

Another political culture concept of a nation is offered by Robert Ware, who says that a nation is a political group on a given territory sharing common projects, common will a nation is different from nationality, which is understood as a people with the shared Itmguage, culture, ethical beliefs. He points out that there can be identiceil nations but not nationalities. (Robert X. Ware, Nations and Social Complexity, pp. 133-160 in Rethinking Nationalism, at pp. 135, 157) In his concept of a nation, it is not clear what the difference between national and ethnic minorities is. 

Engineering cultures differ by national context, variation that is partly contingent on the origin of engineering as a profession in each country (Downey and Lucena 2004). 

MeSweeney, B. Hofstede s Model of National Cultural Differences and Consequences a Triumph of Faith - a Failure of Analysis. Human Relations 55(1), 89-118 (2002)... 

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