Egypt’s cultural attitude
Order Instructions:
Choose one country from the following: China, Egypt, India, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey or United Kingdom. Using the country comparison tool on the Hofstede Center’s Web site (http://geert-hofstede.com/the-hofstede-centre.html ) compare your selected country’s cultural dimensions with that of the United States. Explore your chosen country’s cultural attitudes toward:
• Individualism versus collectivism.
• Power distance.
• Masculinity versus femininity.
• Uncertainty avoidance.
Respond to the following:
• What do your chosen country’s attitudes on these dimensions tell you about the culture?
• How do these dimensions impact how you will think about communication, supervisor-employee relations, gender, and principles?
• How do these dimensions compare with those of the United States?
SAMPLE ANSWER
Introduction
Different nations have different cultures that can be oriented to different aspects such as individual versus collectivism, power distance, and masculinity versus femininity as well as uncertainty avoidance among others. In this paper the comparison of the Egypt culture is compared with that of the United States in view of the general orientation of the cultures, impact on how one may think about the community and the supervisor employee relationship.
Individual versus collectivism: This aspect of national culture touches on the degree of interdependence among the citizens of a given country. According to 6-D models, Egypt scores little on the individualism. This denotes that the culture in Egypt does not encourage individualism. This implies that there is a lot of collectivism in the culture of Egypt. Thus, people are not encouraged to just look after themselves and their immediate families; rather there should be a show of concern to the neighbors that is embedded in the culture of the people of Egypt. Things are totally different in the US. The US scores very high in the individualism. This implies that the national culture in US entertains individualism in the sense that people images are viewed in the perspectives of ‘I’ and not ‘we’. Beekun & Westerman (2012) assert that; The US culture encourages people to mind about themselves and their immediate families without much concern to the neighbors. Hence, there is a lot of collectivism in Egypt while in US, individualism dominates.
Power distance. This aspect of national culture orients to the fact that people are not equal. This reality emanates from the uniqueness of every individual. The inequality then suggests that there is exertion of power by some people towards the others. In the 6-D model, Egypt scores very high in the power distance. This denotes that there is a huge gap in the people that exercise power over the others and those that the power is exercised on them. This denotes hierarchical structures in the societies whereby everyone is grouped according to the power they able to exercise. It denotes the acceptance of the citizens of the unequal distribution of power. Kwok & Levitt (2009) maintain that; the hierarchical structures exist without many questions because it something deeply embedded in the culture of the people. This is very much against the US. The US, according to the 6_D model, scores low on the power distance. This means that there is little gap between those who exercise power and those to whom the power is exercised. It denotes less hierarchical structures in the society.
The differences in the scores of power distance denote differences in the thoughts of supervisor employee relationship. In Egypt, the high scores on power distance portray exertion of a lot of power from the supervisor to the employee. This leads to a negative relationship. The lower score in the same by the US portray a positive relationship between the employee and the supervisor following the less preference of hierarchies involved in the employment relationships.
Masculinity versus femininity: Masculinity orients to the attitude of people towards competition, achievement and success. Success in this dimension is defined by the best person in the field. On the same note, femininity denotes the orientation of a society towards caring for others and the quality of life. Egypt scores low on the masculinity aspect of national culture. This implies that it is much oriented to the femininity. This means that the culture of the people of Egypt is very much tilted towards caring for others and higher quality of life. Success is not defined by the achievement of good quality of life and the appreciation of what one does. Standing out in the crowd does not matter. This is very much unlike the US whereby, the attitudes of competition are displayed right from home to school to the work places. One is encouraged to be the best that they can be. Quality of life is not given much concern; rather it is about being the best because the winner is believed to take it all.
Uncertainty avoidance: This aspect of national culture touches on the way a country deals with the realization that; the future can never be known. Different countries respond differently to the realization that the future can be very much unpredictable. Egypt score very high in this dimension. The implication is that, the culture in Egypt is oriented to structures that resist change. Innovation is not much encouraged as this comes with more uncertainty. Mostafa (2012) notes that; at the individual level, there is much orientation to seek security due to the fear of the future; hence, there is more hard working habit among the individuals. The US scores relatively low in the uncertainty avoidance. This means that there are structures for tackling the uncertainties whenever they happen. It denotes fairly higher degrees of acceptance of new ideas. Innovation is very much encouraged because it is seen as a way of tackling the uncertainty. However, terrorist attacks have led to much fear in the US, hence, the average score due to the need to provide security.
References
Beekun, R., & Westerman, J. (2012). Spirituality and national culture as antecedents to ethical decision-making: a comparison between the United States and Norway. Journal Of Business Ethics, 110(1), 33-44. doi:10.1007/s10551-011-1145-x
Kwok Kern, K., & Levitt, C. E. (2009). THE IMPACT OF NATIONAL CULTURE ON VALUE BASED DECISIONS: COMPARISON OF SAUDI ARABIAN, EGYPTIAN, AND AMERICAN HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS. Academy Of Health Care Management Journal, 5(1/2), 79-96.
Mostafa, D. S. (2012). Popular Culture and Nationalism in Egypt: ‘Arab Lotfi and Egyptian Popular Music. Journal For Cultural Research, 16(2/3), 261-282. doi:10.1080/14797585.2012.647673
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