Hofstede (1997) defined culture as the “collective programming of the mind that distinguishes members of a group or category of people from others” (p. 6). He referred to mental programming to explain patterns of thinking, feeling and acting. Cultural manifestation is identified as symbols, heroes, rituals and values as learned programming that depends on a social environment. Values represent the deepest manifestations of culture and are considered the constituent elements of culture (Hofstede, 1980). A well-known paradigm introduced by Hofstede is called cultural dimensions which include four independent cultural dimensions: power distance, individualism/collectivism, masculinity/femininity, and uncertainty. avoidance. After further research, he developed the fifth dimension known as long/short-term orientation (Hofstede, 2001). The following section will discuss five dimensions to identify cultural differences between the United States, India, and Thailand. Power distance The power distance index “is the extent to which less powerful members of organizations and institutions accept and expect that power is distributed unequally” (Itim International, 2009). It is a fundamental structure endorsed by followers and leaders of societies in areas such as social status, wealth and sources of power. A high power distance society embraces people with power. Powerful people are expected to have privilege, openly display their status and wealth, and be perceived as good. On the other hand, a low power distance society embraces uniformity and minimizes inequality. Those who hold more power in these societies attempt to appear less powerful than they are (Albers-Miller & Gelb, 1996). Hofstede'...... middle of the paper...... continued, ANOVA is the most appropriate analysis method. Research Question The proposed research question would there be differences in levels of organizational dissent between India, Thailand and the United States. The ANOVA revealed significant differences in levels of dissent between the three groups. Means and standard deviations are displayed in Table 2. Overall, Americans are most likely to express articulate dissent, while Thais are least likely: F(4, 1446) = 5.10, 2 = 0 .01, p < 0.0001. Indians show more widespread dissent, while Thais and Americans show less: F(4,1446) = 15.02, 2 = 0.03, p < 0.0001. Finally, Americans and Indians show the most latent disagreement: F(4, 1445), = 12.24, 2 = .02, p < .0001. DiscussionThe results revealed significant differences between Americans, Indians and Thais regarding expression of dissent.
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