Functions of cultural value
Chapter 3
Value orientation
• Based on set of universal questions that human
beings consciously or unconsciously seek to
answer.
• The answers or solutions to these questions are
available in all cultures but each culture has it’s
own preferences.
• Basic criteria through which we evaluate our
own behaviors and the behaviors of others.
These are guidelines for our motivations,
expectations, perceptions, interpretations, and
communicative actions.
Values have many functions
• Identity meaning function
– Fundamental questions such as “Who am I in
this world”?
• Explanatory function
– We commonly share and/or understand
values in our cultures. We play “guessing
game” when interacting with other culture.
Functions continued
• Boundary-regulation function
– Ingroup and outgroup attitude when dealing
with people who are culturally dissimilar.
• Adaptation function
– People adapt their needs and ways of living in
response to changing habitat; culture also
changes
– Surface-level cultural artifacts (fashion)
change faster than deeper-level cultural
elements (beliefs and values)
Analyzing cultural value dimension
• Cultural value analysis highlights the
potential differences and similarities of
value patterns between cultural groups.
• These are general tendencies of culture,
there are wide variety of individual value
tendencies
Cultural Values
• Identified four dimensions along which
dominant patterns of a culture can be
ordered:
– Individualism-collectivism
– Small/large power distance
– Low/high uncertainty avoidance
– Masculinity-femininity
Individualism
• Refers to the balance of concern for oneself and
concern for others (individual over group identity)
• Promotes self-sufficiency, individual
responsibility, and personal autonomy.
• Everyone is expected to look after him/herself
and their immediate family.
• This cultural pattern is found in most northern
and western regions of Europe and North
America (U.S., Australia, Great Britain, and
Canada)
• Values emphasized: freedom, honesty, social
recognition, comfort, and personal equity.
Collectivism
• Emphasizes the importance of the “we” identity
over the “I” identity.
• Promotes relational interdependence, ingroup
harmony, and ingroup collaborative spirit.
• Cultural patterns found in Asia, Africa, the
Middle East, Central and South America, and
the Pacific islands.
• Values emphasized: harmony, face-saving,
respect parents/elderly, equality among peers.
Power Distance
• Has been defined as the extent to which the less
powerful members of organizations and
institutions (like the family) accept and expect
that power is distributed unequally.
• People in small power distance value equal
power distribution, equal rights and relations,
and rewards.
• People in large power distance tend to accept
unequal power distribution, hierarchical rights.
• Consequences of power distance evident in
family, student-teacher, and business
relationships.
Uncertainty avoidance
• Uncertainty avoidance- refers to how a culture
chooses to adapt to change, to what extend they
do not mind the conflicts and cope with
uncertainty.
• Weak (low) uncertainty avoidance cultures
encourage risk taking and conflict-approaching
modes; United States is weak in uncertainty
avoidance.
• Strong (high) uncertainty avoidance cultures
tend to: be highly resistant to change, perceive
uncertainty and conflict as threatening, and often
adopt many rules to control social behavior.
Uncertainty Avoidance
• Is not the same as risk avoidance; but it
deals with a society’s tolerance for
ambiguity.
• It indicates extent for either structured or
unstructured situations.
– Unstructured: novel, unknown, surprising
– Structured: strict behavioral codes, laws and
rules etc.
Masculinity-femininity
• Refers to the extent cultures prefer
achievement or nurturance.
• Social and gender roles are clearly defined
in highly masculine cultures. Men are
suppose to be assertive, masculine, tough,
and focused on tasks, often primary
breadwinners.
• In feminine cultures, social
accommodation is highly regarded. Social
gender roles are fluid and can overlap.
IBM research reveled
• Women’s values differ less among
societies than men’s values
• Men’s values from one country to another
and contain dimension from very assertive
and competitive to modest and caring and
similar to women’s values.
• Masculinity is high in Japan, German
speaking countries, Latin like Italy and
Mexico. It is low in Nordic countries.
Additional value orientation
patterns
• Based on set of universal questions that
human beings consciously or
unconsciously seek to answer.
• The answer or solutions to these
questions are available in all cultures;
however some cultures have a stronger
preference for one particular set of
answers than for others.
Meaning: doing-being activity value
orientation
• Question: What do people consider as
meaningful: doing or being?
• Doing: solution means achievementorientation activities.
• Being: solution means living with
emotional vitality.
• Being-in-becoming: means living with an
emphasis on spiritual renewal
Discussion question:
• What do U.S. Americans tend to consider
meaningful activity?
Destiny: Controlling-yielding
people-nature value orientation
• Question: Is the relationship between
people and the natural (or supernatural)
environment one of control, harmony, or
subordination?
• Controlling their environment: These
cultures tend to believe in mastery and
control over the natural environment.
Includes middle-class European
Americans.
Destiny: continued
• Harmony-with-nature or “flowing” value solution:
These cultures tend to emphasize spiritual
transformation or enlightenment rather than
material gain (Example; includes Buddhist
culture).
• Subjugation-to-nature or “yielding” value
solution: These cultures believe that nature is a
powerful force that is beyond the control of
individuals (Example; includes many Middle
Eastern cultures).
Time: future-past temporal value
orientation
• Question: Is the temporal focus in the
culture based on the future, present or
past?
• Future-oriented time sense: means
planning for desirable short- to mediumterm developments and setting out clear
objectives to realize them. European
Americans subscribe to this orientation.
Time: continued
• Present-oriented time sense: means valuing the
here and how, especially the interpersonal
relationships that are unfolding currently,
Latino/a Americans tend to subscribe to this
orientation.
• Past-oriented time sense: means honoring
historic and ancestral ties plus respecting the
wisdom of the elders. Asian immigrants tend to
subscribe to this orientation.
Space: privacy-communal spatial
value orientation
• Question: What is the spatial value
emphasis in this particular culture
• Proxemics studies examine the functions
are regulation of interpersonal space in
different cultures.
• Conversational distance or personal space
for European Americans is 20 inches; for
Latin Americans, it is 14-15 inches, and
for Saudis, it is 9-10 inches.
Proxemic studies
• Have you ever had someone stand too
close to you as he or she spoke to you?
How close was it? What thoughts or
interpretations did you have? What
feelings were you feeling?
Space; continued
• High spatial privacy people have a strong
need for a well-defined personal space.
• Low spatial privacy people may have
come from a family or cultural region high
in density; they are used to crowding.