Culture Stabilization Patterns
The model of Figure 1, taken from Iguisi and Hofstede (1993), indicates how we sassume culture patterns in a country to stabilize themselves through feedback loops, but also to change under the influence of outside forces.
Figure 1. The stabilization of culture patterns
The system of this model in Figure 1 implies that one cannot understand one element-such as, management practice philosophy within the local environment-without its societal and cultural value context.
In the center is a system of societal norms, consisting of the value systems shared by major groups of the population. Their origins are in a variety of ecological factors (in the sense of factors affecting the physical environment). The societal norms have led to the development and pattern maintenance of institutions in society with a particular philosophy, structure and way of functioning. These include the family, education systems, politics, and legislation. These institutions, once they have become facts, reinforce the societal norms and the ecological conditions that led to them. According to Hofstede, in a relatively closed society, such a system will hardly change at all. Institutions may change, but this does not necessarily affect the societal norms; and when these remain unchanged, the persistence influence of a majority value system patiently smooth the new institutions until their structure and functioning is again adapted to the societal norms. Change comes mainly from the outside, through forces of nature (change of climate, silting up of harbors) or forces of man (trade, colonization, scientific discovery) (Hofstede, 1980). The arrow of outside influences is deliberately directed at the origins, not at the societal norms themselves. It is believed that norms change rarely by direct adoption of outside values, but rather through a shift in ecological conditions: technological, economical, and hygienic. In general, the norm shift will be gradual unless the outside influences are particularly violent (Hofstede, 1980a).