The book discusses four debates about what culture is and whether it matters. Describe two of the debates.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

1. National Culture: Multiple cultures can exist within national borders, and the same cultural
group can span many nations. Multiple subcultures within a nation may still be united within a
broader national culture, though focusing too much on national culture (which Hofstede
advocates) may ignore subcultures within a nation.
2. Convergence, Divergence, or Equilibrium: Nations are not static over time, but transform
with changing traditions and technological and economic development. The idea of convergence
suggests that postmaterialist values affect a homogenization of ideology; however, Inglehart
(1990) notes that while the postmaterialist values relate to economic development, they do not
necessarily hold true for other elements of culture. Another argument about cultural variation
comes from Cohen (2001), who argues that, while different environments produce different
social systems, different environments can produce similar systems and similar environments
can produce vastly different cultures.
3. Organizational Versus National Culture: Organizations have cultures in that they attract and
retain certain people and align them with the organization’s values and norms. Hofstede argues
that nations and organizations’ cultures are composed of different elements. National cultures
have shared meanings and unconditional relationships, where people are often born into the
culture and become totally immersed in it. Organizational cultures, on the other hand, have
shared behaviors and conditional relationships. Members are socialized into the culture and are
only partly involved in it.
4. Acculturation and Biculturalism: Acculturation concerns the psychological and behavioral
changes that occur in people because of contact with different cultures. Individual differences
and situational factors influence acculturation patterns of groups and individuals, who may have
variation in entry status, personality, facility in communicating the local language, and whether
the host country’s nationals tend to form relationships with immigrants. Bicultural individuals
tend to have lived in another culture for so long that they become flexible and more able to
function effectively in both cultures.