| | Where would you live if you could not live in the USA? Why do you want to live in the USA? Is this a good place for a rational individualist? Traditionalists will be shocked, but the objective facts indicate that you might be more at home in the former East Germany. Note that cultures are complicated. Nigeria actually rates high in "individualism" on some scales, but that includes a high degree of banditry. The same applies to Russia, a land of the roughest and tumblest laissezist of fairings. If you want to do business there, bring a gun. Failing that, you might find yourself more at home in a former communist country with a strong secular culture, good industrial and information base and fundamental Western values.
Consider Estonia. They call it E-stonia for its information infrastructure. Estonia has the second highest literacy rate in the world -- Iceland is first -- and literacy is measured not by the number of people who claim to be able to spell their own names, but by the per capita books published in the native language. Think about that.
It all depends on what is important to you... and if meeting a woman who has a fulltime career is high on your list, consider Hungary.
Yes, we have the Bill of Rights, but every nation has important sounding promises. What counts is deeds, not words. Where can you live your own life according to your own standards and see other people like yourself close by? All of the following comes from ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR by Robert Kreitner and Angelo Kinicki, a textbook I was assigned for a college class in management.
GLOBE (Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness) is a massive effort begun in 1993 to empirically categorize and define 62 societies. They accumulated these indices:
Power distance -- the "gap" between ruler and ruled in businesses and other organizations, as well as with the culture itself.
Uncertainty avoidance -- do people use social norms to pre-define roles and issues or is everything negotiable at any moment?
Institutional Collectivism -- the big picture
In-group Collectivism -- the sum of all those little pictures
Gender egalitarianism -- like here in the USA
Assertiveness -- should people be confrontational, have open disagreements in social gatherings?
Future Orientation -- do people put off the present enjoyments?
Performance Orientation -- are people rewarded for improvement and excellence?
Humane Orientation -- does "society" reward people for being generous?
POWER DISTANCE
High: Morocco, Russia, Argentina, Thailand
Low: Denmark, Netherlands, modern South Africa
UNCERTAINTY AVOIDANCE
High: Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Austria, Denmark
Low: Russia, Hungary, Bolivia, Greece.
INSTITUTIONAL COLLECTIVISM
High: Sweden, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Denmark
Low: Former East Germany, Hungary, Argentina, Greece, Italy
IN-GROUP COLLECTIVISM
High: India, Iran, Morocco, China, Egypt
Low: Denmark, Sweden, Finland, New Zealand, Netherland, Norway
GENDER EGALITARIANISM
High: Hungary, Slovenia, Denmark, Sweden, Poland
Low: South Korea, Egypt, Morocco, India, China
ASSERTIVENESS:
High: Former East Germany, Austria, Greece, USA, Spain
Low: Sweden, New Zealand, Japan, Switzerland, Kuwait
FUTURE ORIENTATION
High: Singapore, Switzerland, Netherlands, English Canada, Denmark
Low: Russia, Italy, Kuwait, Poland, Argentina
PERFORMANCE ORIENTATION
High: Singapore, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Taiwan, USA
Low: Russia, Argentina, Poland, Italy, Kuwait
HUMANE ORIENTATION
High: Philippines, Ireland, Malaysia, Egypt, Indonesia
Low: Former West Germany, Spain, France, Singapore, Brazil
From "Modernization: Whose Afraid of Ronald McDonald?" Inglehart and Baker, THE FUTURIST, April 2001.
SECULAR-RATIONAL and SELF-EXPRESSION
Highest: East Gernany, West Germany,Sweden, Denmark, Norway,Japan
SECULAR RATIONAL and SURVIVAL
Highest: Estonia, Lithuania, Russia, Latvia
USA is low on the secular-rational scale, having a strong belief in God, national pride, and authority, but high on self-expression, having good quality of life and low trust in people, being close to Ireland/Northern Ireland, Australia, England, and Canada.
From BUSINESS HORIZIONS, "Cross Cultural Communication for Managers" by Munter
HIGH CONTEXT CULTURES establish social trust first, value goodwill, agreement and consensus, and negotiations are slow and ritualistic.
China, Korea, Japan, ... Arabs,.... Greeks...
LOW CONTEXT CULTURES get down to business first, value expertise and performance, agreement is specific and legalistic, negotiations are efficient.
Germans, Swiss, Scandanavia, North America, England...
(Edited by Michael E. Marotta on 5/28, 11:10pm)
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