GLOBE SOCIETIES AND GEOGRAPHICAL GROUPS

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 400.

The study's 61 societies came from 58 nations, with dual societies drawn from within three of the countries: Switzerland was separated into French speaking and the remainder. Germany was divided along the old Cold War political boundary of East (GDR) and West (FDR). South African participants were placed into black and white categories. In addition to classifying the societies across the different dimensions, the research also examined managerial leadership behaviors. Another feature of the study was an effort to examine cultural similarities and differences across the societies collectively.

Thus, the 61 societies were placed into cultural geographical groups based on a variety of factors, such as similar ethnic and linguistic patterns, religion, ideology, customs, historical migration patterns, and shared historical experiences [97]. This resulted in the 10 societal geographical groups listed in Table 4. The survey data was then statistically analyzed to determine the predominant cultural dimensions for each grouping. Results of that analysis are provided in Table 4 and the following paragraphs, with each grouping being rated as high, middle, or low for each of the nine cultural dimensions. It should be noted, however, that while the groupings do offer a general overview of the principal cultural traits for an entire collectivity the procedure can also obscure potential differences between the individual countries [98]. As you can see in Table 4, there is considerable variation between the different groups. To provide additional understanding of these differences a narrative description of the institutionalized cultural characteristics of each cultural geographical group is provided below.