Culture as an Individual Process - Deficits of National Cultural Theories in Management of Cultural Diversity

Abstract

Most prevalent theories in cross cultural management reduce the variability of individual relations to one single category, the national culture. Based on the assumption that the national cultural values determine individual behavior the individual’s behavior in different national cultures becomes predictable. This over simplistic model pretends to provide “easy” answers for a complex world. In this article a new approach to culture is developed where culture is seen as a permanent individual process. The focus is the individual in its complex correlation to the society. This approach leads to a holistic view of a human being as it takes beside the social relations the individual's personality and it’s reflexivity into account.