Everyday life exists of meeting familiar and unfamiliar faces. Unfamiliar faces, habits, beliefs and cultures are what constitutes ‘The Other’. Travelling and working abroad makes us much more aware of ‘The Other’. In the ‘Understanding the Other’ series of blogposts you learn more about the deeper, underlying layers of other cultures. In the process you become more aware of your own culture and life choices, opening the door for personal development and improving your social interactions with other cultures and lifestyle, either at home or abroad. This is part 5: The World Values Survey. Image by World Values Survey.
World Values Survey
The World Values Survey, also called Inglehart & Baker’s dimensional value model (2000), is more dynamic and more comprehensive than the relatively static work-sphere that Hofstede used to develop his dimensions.
Cultural values shift when an agrarian economy develops into an industrial economy
Inglehart and Baker (2000) argue that cultural values shift from ‘traditional’ to ‘secular’ when an agrarian economy develops into an industrial one. Traditional values that are commonly found in pre-industrial societies include relatively low levels of tolerance for abortion, divorce and homosexuality, tend to emphasize male dominance in economic and political life, a deference to parental authority, and the importance of family life. They are relatively authoritarian and religion plays an important role.
Secular-rational values have the opposite preferences to the traditional values. These societies place less emphasis on religion, traditional family values and authority. Divorce and abortion are seen as relatively acceptable.
Cultural values shift when an industrial economy develops into an post-industrial service economy
As an economy develops further, becoming more post-industrial, cultural values shift further from survival to self-expression and embrace general trust, tolerance, subjective well-being, and political activism. Survival values place emphasis on economic and physical security.
Although economic development triggers these shifts in norms and values, the nature of the actual cultural changes is dependent on a country’s broad cultural heritage (e.g. Protestantism, Catholicism and Communism).
Discovery of the 5th and 6th Hofstede dimension
Minkov (2007 cited in: Minkov and Hofstede 2011) investigated the database of the World Values Survey and his findings related to the more recent 5th dimension ‘long-term orientation’ led Hofstede to redefine the concept. In societies with a long-term orientation, people believe that truth depends very much on situation, context and time. They show an ability to adapt traditions to changed conditions, a strong propensity to save and invest, thriftiness, and perseverance in achieving results. In contrast, societies with a short-term orientation show a focus on the near future, emphasize quick results and respect for tradition.
Minkov also found strong evidence for an additional dimension named ‘indulgence versus restraint’ which Hofstede later added in his model as a sixth dimension. Indulgence stands for a society that allows relatively free gratification of basic and natural human drives related to enjoying life and having fun. Restraint stands for a society that suppresses gratification of needs and regulates it by means of strict social norms.
Related books (which include all references)
