People living in different areas have intercultural variation, while people from the same cultural group experience intracultural differences. Although Hofstede established a cultural dimensions model to explain behavioral distinctions between nations and find ways to manage them, there needs to be more research on intracultural variations. On an intracultural level, everyone’s personal experience and individual beliefs shaped by his social and economic resources affect the differences and sameness with the culture.
The distinction between my survey results with the country’s average statistics proves that there are certain discrepancies between individuals within the same culture. Especially in diverse countries such as the United States, “individual, social, and cultural forces interact to create intracultural variation in beliefs and behavior” (Messner, 2020, p. 130). In one culture, several subcultures might force people to have differing views. For example, the criminal subculture aroused due to discrepancies in economic and environmental conditions, normalized crime, meaning its members would have different individualism-collectivism and long-term orientation figures. Therefore, average Hofstede dimensions demonstrate little within-country consensus.
Meanwhile, there is similarity within one culture influenced by common established beliefs by the majority. For example, my power distance and long-term orientation results match my country’s results. It happens because, at educational institutions, children are encouraged to work in groups, while during adulthood, Americans prefer enjoying their current conditions instead of d planning their future. Such behaviors learned from early childhood through interactions establish intracultural similarities.
To conclude, since culture is heterogenous, including people from various backgrounds with different personal experiences, there are some intracultural differences in Hofstede survey results. As one person has more social and economic opportunities to hold authority, he has differing uncertainty avoidance and individualism-collectivism data. Meanwhile, people from one region having more generally accepted perceptions of social phenomena show similar results. These individual and social forces create variations and similarities within one culture.
Reference
Messner, W. (2021). Connections between cultures: Using empirical distributions for measuring cultural differences. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 52(2), 129–154. Web.