THERE’S CULTURE AND THERE’S CULTURE. Culture is an ambiguous concept. We use the following definition of culture: “a fuzzy set of attitudes, beliefs, and behavioral norms, and basic assumptions and values that are shared by a group of people, and that influence each member’s behavior and his/her interpretations of the ‘meaning’ of other people’s behavior” [33]. Triandis divided culture into a subjective and material culture. Material culture consists of elements, for instance food, houses and tools. Subjective culture, on the other hand refers to the characteristic way in which a specific group perceives its environment [36]. When referring to culture, we are referring to subjective culture. Usually, when scholars are looking at a culture – and the differences between cultures, the level of analysis is the nation, or sometimes subcultures within a nation. Xxxxxxxxx et al. [22] defined different levels of cultures, these being supranational, national, and levels within a nation, such as the professional, organizational and the group level. Over the years, there have been several scholars like Xxxxxxxx [18] and Xxxxx [30] who described differences between national cultures according to different dimensions. In a study by Xxxxxxx et al. [11] participants (N=6823) from over 33 countries were asked to rate the appropriateness of twelve behaviors in fifteen everyday situations, and, whether or not there were clear rules for appropriate behaviors in these situations. It was found that there was a high within-nation agreement about the level of constraint in everyday situations, and a high level of variability between- nations. The nation as unit of analysis appears to have proven to be an useful unit of analysis. A common belief is that society is becoming more and more individualistic, in part due to IT advances. As Xxxxx [21] puts it: “[…] many researchers find culture to be a dynamic, constantly changing field. Cultures are merging, technology is changing the way we communicate, and globalization is changing the way we trade and interface”. Thus, the question arises if cultures as a whole are also becoming more individualistic. Xxxxxxxx [15] compared national studies studying individualism-collectivism in the U.S. and Japan over time. In contrast to the common belief they concluded both cultures did not become significantly more individualistic. Similar, Xxxxxxx et al. [11] concluded that social constraint appeared to be more or less stable over time in the United States. Due to various reasons, ...
