National Identity And Culture Influence Domestic Motivations

Introduction With the progress of globalization, the awareness of the global intricacies involved in cross-cultural interactions has been expanding. To be successful in this new environment, it is essential for leaders of nations or organizations to understand other cultures, their cultural values and their associated organizational impact. A decision-making style can produce significant different results or even be counter-productive in another cultural context. A good leader must be able to adapt to its socio-cultural environment. On the aspect of foreign policy-making, the bipolar rivalry presents during the Cold War to some degree overshadowed the domestic characteristics and idiosyncrasies of nations. This is no longer the case†¦show more content†¦Second, we will define culture as it applies to politics, which we will refer to as political culture and argue its impact in foreign policy analysis. We will show that both are affected by the cultural background; hence, dependent on the values and beliefs of the people involved in the process. Defining Culture Before proceeding further, it is important to explain culture as it has been defined in many ways. In social anthropology, culture is a catchword for defining patterns of feeling, thinking and acting when describing a specific group or civilization. Culture has been referred to as a set of values, ideas, meaningful symbols that help individuals communicate, interpret and evaluate as members of the society. Hofstede further defines culture â€Å"as a collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one group from another†. Culture is learned, not intrinsic. Culture will determine the identity of a group the same way that personality will determine the identity of an individual. Numerous researchers have developed a variety of measures in order to explain and quantify the ways in which culture differs between national groups, however, the most recognized work was performed by Geert Hofstede in the 80’. He was the first to characterize national culture into four cultural dimensions. His work also included numerous world-wide researches, mapping the cultural dimensions of