SDLC 105: Discussion Post #2

[Elspeth Collard]

Figuring Foreigners Out was a guide to the comparing of one’s own culture to others. It used 5 categories of comparison: individualist vs. collectivist, which is related to what people identify with and whether people work together cooperatively or not; non-verbal communication, which is the ways in which we use actions to communicate; monochronic vs polychronic, which is the way a culture processes time; internal vs external, which is to what degree a culture believes that they dictate their life’s course; and indirect/high context vs. direct/low context communication, which is related to how much is understood or must be explained when people of a certain culture are communicating. The Hofstede Dimensions of Culture were 6 factors (power distance index, individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance index, and long-term orientation) that Hofstede studied and measured in 40 countries. There are concepts within both of these assessments that I do believe can elucidate how a culture operates. However, particularly in the Hofstede Dimensions of Culture, I do not believe these are quantifiers that can be extrapolated to entire countries and could be applied at most at a very small scale. These concepts minimize culture, buy simplifying it to 5 or 6 measures. Also, all of these are subjective and therefore, difficult to determine the accuracy of without an inherent bias from the assessor. I know that I can put my views of U.S. culture into these categories, but I am not sure I can do that for Brazil because I do not know enough about it yet. The biggest difference they have in the Hofstede comparison tool is that the United States is significantly more individualistic.