Description
Please note that culture is defined as the collective mental programming of the human mind which distinguishes one group of people from another. This programming influences patterns of thinking which are reflected in the meaning people attach to various aspects of life and which become crystallised in the institutions of a society.
This does not imply that everyone in a given society is programmed in the same way; there are considerable differences between individuals. It may well be that the differences among individuals in one country culture are bigger than the differences among all country cultures. We can, nevertheless, still use such country scores based on the law of the big numbers, and on the fact, most of us are strongly influenced by social control. Please realise that statements about just one culture on the level of “values” do not describe “reality”; such statements are generalisations and they ought to be relative. Without comparison, a country score is meaningless.
The scores used for the fifth dimension are based on the research of Michael Minkov as published in the 3rd and the latest edition of Cultures and Organizations, Software of the Mind (2010), pages 255-258.
Go further, discover the Culture Compass™ or join our open programme Introduction to Cross-Cultural Management.
