World Cultures and Cultural Lifestyles - Essay Example

HERE HERE YOUR HERE HERE World Cultures and Cultural Lifestyles The global connectivity of different regions in today’s world of global trade and foreign business investment has begun to radically change lifestyles of foreign citizens. The influx of business development in what had once been regions of the world where lifestyle is harsher has opened new opportunities for consumerism and education. With new attitudes, cultures and lifestyles flooding these regions brought forward by new business growth and job opportunities, very old-world systems of family and cultural relationships are taking on a modern appeal and value system. Depending on the type of culture in a certain foreign region, the impact of new attitudes greatly increases the chances of change in cultural systems all across the world. In regions of the world such as Saudi Arabia and India, there is a collectivist mentality that puts large emphasis on the needs of group loyalty and group welfare. People who hail from collectivist nations tend to view themselves as extended members of a larger family unit and generally these individuals have a great deal of respect for tradition and the reciprocation of favors (Blodgett, Bakir & Rose, 339). Collectivist nations often perform their business activities in such a way where group membership and group affiliation are demanded from domestic and foreign business leaders. This type of traditionalist culture and those who value its family-oriented concept will often demand a different style of business meeting where friendship, camaraderie, and informal discussions are the norm. What occurs in a collectivist culture when foreign business leaders who value more individualism and self-expression bring their new ideas forward is a change in attitude that is more Westernized rather than traditionalist in the region. Why is this? New changes in business presence and ideas that form from foreign business leadership begin to restructure business principles and therefore changes the attitudes of those working within this new globalized organization. For instance, new call centers developed in Saudi Arabia, as one example, might be originally focused on providing a forum for consumers to demand changes to product variety. However, after the influx of foreign business leadership from countries such as the United States, new styles of performing call center functions that now are geared toward individualized customer service have changed the local culture simply through business restructuring. It is important to identify that cultural interdependency is not only present in business, but can be found sociologically in a variety of different international communities. “Leaders aspiring to be effective in multi-cultural environments must develop an awareness of the different dimensions of culture that are and will be most central to their constituencies” (Shriberg & Kumari, 20). What this is suggesting is that leadership must be flexible in multi-cultural environments and be adaptable to foreign attitudes related to culture and lifestyle. It does not necessarily mean that individuals from foreign countries are, necessarily, going to be able to make changes to how domestic cultures perform their lifestyle and business activities. For example, in certain cultures, there might be a preference for older, traditionalist ways and therefore they resist any changes that bring liberal and individualistic attitudes into the local culture hailing from foreign visitors or business leaders. Cultural interdependency has become a product of a changing globe and the demands that are placed on what was once an under-developed country in order to make the local culture more in-line with flexible and adaptable individualistic mentalities. In an environment where group norms are powerful as it is related to traditionalist values, it becomes more and more difficult to change these attitudes to make them more flexible and progressive especially if the local cultural values greatly conflict with foreign values and attitudes. Group norms are powerful when they influence a variety of different social rewards and when there is individualized uncertainty about how to behave in a variety of social scenarios (faculty.uml.edu, 2). Therefore, when group norms are more geared toward collectivist values and the family-oriented social structure, it becomes more and more difficult to promote any kind of change especially when there is considerable resistance to what is being demanded socially or as related to business restructuring and dynamics. In many Western cultures, there is a phenomenon referred to as peer-group affiliation that helps determine how to behave socially and even determines the level of belonging that an individual feels toward group membership. Peer acceptance is a major predictor of whether an individual feels a sense of belonging (Brown & Lohr, 48). It is not only adults and business cultures that are influenced by culture, even youths look toward others to determine whether they should be collectivist or express their individualized ideas and concepts to their youth social network. Why is this important in understanding cultural differences? Youths are some of the most flexible when it comes to cognitive reasoning and also in terms of their adaptability at the social level. If there is a foreign citizen with high concentration of values associated with self-expression, it might be easier to coerce youths to adopt these new models and systems of individualism that with adults if the promoter of these new values targets a change of attitude using peer acceptance as the platform. To change these attitudes in youths, one might refer to operant conditioning, a form of training where an individual repeats a desired behavior in order to avoid negative consequences (Morris & Maisto, 193). In the United States, as one example, many different socially relevant campaigns have been designed using operant conditioning strategies in order to promote a new set of social norms and social peer acceptance. One primary example of this is the Just Say No campaign to prevent drug use, using a variety of youth actors who continue to reinforce the social norm that it is unacceptable to engage in drug and alcohol behaviors and addictions. By using people that the youths feel comfortable around and also can relate to, a new set of social norms have been created. When using actors that have been negatively influenced by unwanted behaviors, they avoid performing this behavior in order to avoid the negative consequences of breaking away from the social norm and engaging in alcoholic-like behaviors. Thus, operant conditioning is only one strategy to ensure that individuals change their attitudes to be more fitting with the globalized system of cultural norms that is becoming more streamlined across the world. Whether the individual hails from a collectivist nation or whether they have values that are more individualistic with self-expression as a primary need, there are methods to ensure that progressive attitudes are developed and change is influenced in a variety of social systems. The impact of new attitudes entering a foreign region from individuals with radically different social beliefs is systemic and also predictable if tools are used psychologically and also sociologically. Whether the nation is a traditionalist culture with old-world values and family-oriented social systems or whether such values are considered outdated by more progressive cultures, it is clear that the interdependencies between cultures, especially in business, will almost always make changes to long-standing social principles. Whether dealing with youths or adults in a certain foreign culture, developing a new system of social order is both possible and achievable through direct effort or simply through changes to business restructuring and organization. New attitudes bring forward a new set of systemic interdependencies at the social level and it is this impact that is creating the new global society each and every passing day with new developments and new foreign social influences. Works Cited Blodgett, Jeffrey G. & Gregory M. Rose. “A test of the validity of Hofstede’s cultural framework”, The Journal of Consumer Marketing, vol.25, Iss. 5, 2008. Brown, B.B. & M.J. Lohr. “Peer group affiliation and adolescent self-esteem: an integration of ego-identity and symbolic-interaction theories”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, vol.52, 1987. Faculty.uml.edu. “Social Psychology: General Psychology”, 2007. Accessed September 12, 2011 at http://faculty.uml.edu/mhaynes/47.101/lectures_spring07/socialpsychology.pdf Morris, Charles G. & Albert A. Maisto. Psychology: An Introduction, 12th ed. Pearson Prentice Hall, 2005. Shriberg, Arthur & Richa Kumari. “Why Culture Matters: Leveraging Cultural Differences to Create a Business Advantage”, The Business Review, vol.10, Iss.1, 2008. Read More