SOCIAL POSITIONING AND HIERARCHY

The impact of cultural preferences on social positioning and hierarchy



The impact of cultural preferences on social positioning and hierarchy

Introduction:

Societal cultures are often seen as essential factor in determining and shaping human attitudes toward themselves and between each other. Culture ? in many cases ? seems to be an individuals' indication to what is acceptable and what is not acceptable in their own society. Therefore ? what seems to be suitable in one culture might not be in another culture and vice versa. This essay will mostly concentrate on Arab culture and Chinese culture to show how cultural plays an important role in forming someone's social positioning. Some significant examples will be provided to support such a relationship between culture and hierarchy mechanism in Arab culture in order to define the impact of cultural preferences on social positioning and hierarchy to answer the question ? how do cultural preferences express social positioning and hierarchy ?

Culture definition:

It has been always difficult to find a consensus definition for the term “culture” (Agourram and Ingham ? 2007). It is not just the number of common attitudes ? values ? goals ? or practices that shape any institution ? organization or group. Schein (1990: 111) defines culture as “a pattern of basic assumptions ? invented ? discovered ? or developed by a given group ? as it learns to cope with its problems of external adaptation and internal integration ? that has worked well enough to be considered valid and ? therefore is to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive ? think ? and feel in relation to those problems”. Hofstede's (1993: 89) provide the most frequently referenced definition for culture which is: "the collective programming of the mind that distinguishes one group or category of people from another".

Cultural preferences:

Cultural system in any society is very complex. Many scholars have tried to determine the world societies' preferences in a way to get a better understanding about human behaviours. The most sited and appreciated cultural work is Hofstede (1980) seminal work of cultural dimensions. Hofstede present a set of four dimensions depending on an IBM survey during the 1970s. According to Hofstede (1984) these cultural dimensions can be described as the following:

Individualism versus Collectivism:

Individualism is the pursuit of personal happiness and independence rather than collective goals or interests ? people from individualistic cultures tend to think only of themselves ? they prefer clarity in their conversations to communicate more effectively and come directly to the point. Unlike collectivist cultures they have a great emphasize on groups and think more in terms of 'we' they follow the system of control and ownership of factories and farms and of the means of production and distribution of products by a nation's people.

Large versus Small Power Distance:

The example listed below are the differences in teacher-student and student-student interaction related to the power distance dimension adapted from Hofstede (1986:313):

Small power distance societies

Large power distance societies

· Teachers respect ...