Cultural theories generally adopt a definition of national culture inspired
by the everyday language: culture is the way of life of a group of people. There
are obvious differences between cultures (such as in dress, behavior and inter-
personal interactions) but also implicit differences (such as in values, assump-
tions about how things should be). These different degrees of explicitness are
often called ‘levels’ of culture. The superficial levels group easily observable
differences. The deepest level consists of the most implicit aspects such as
assumptions or expectations. Cultural theory studies rest on the hypothesis
that implicit differences in national cultural values or assumptions (the deep-
est levels of culture) are related to diverging managerial beliefs and actions
(Child, 2002). They provide tools in the form of cultural dimensions to under-
stand that employees’ cultural backgrounds may vary, and how they do vary.
These cultural dimensions are but one of the aspects influencing managerial
beliefs and behaviors. Other aspects include the type of political system in
which individuals were raised (for example a democracy or a dictatorship),
their religion, their education, their family’s values and their own life experi-
ences. Focusing on cultural dimensions provides the means for evaluating the
shared experiences of people who belong to that society. From this shared
experience they have acquired similar ways of knowing, thinking, as well
as values and assumptions regarding for example, how a manager should
behave.
This chapter focuses firstly on the study of cultural differences across coun-
tries that influence people in a work environment. It aims at presenting the
contemporary thinking about cultural dimensions which aid the understand-
ing and management of people from diverse cultural backgrounds. It will do so
by introducing both the current debate within the management literature on
the nature of culture and by discussing how cultural differences across coun-
tries are identified and their consequences for management.
The three studies reviewed in this chapter offer an example of significant
contributions to the positivist debate on the nature of culture. Hofstede presents
values as the core of culture; Trompenaars argues that meanings are the essen-
tial part of culture and Lane, DiStefano and Maznevski, claim that a culture is
best understood if we look at its value orientations. The distinctions between
values, meanings and value orientations will be progressively presented.
The second issue in the debate on culture’s influence on management
deals with the identification of cultural differences. Comparing cultures is a way
to make cultural differences emerge. This chapter reviews quantitative studies
that have chosen this comparative approach. Comparing cultures is a complex
task which first requires the identification of a number of universal dimensions
that are common to all cultures. Once these dimensions have been identified,
a comparison will be made of different cultures and how they vary on these
dimensions.
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