Is country the same as culture?
Country and culture are not the same; culture encompasses shared values and behaviors in various groups, while country serves as a macro-level cultural framework in Country Navigator.
One of the most common mistakes some people make about cultural intelligence is to use the words culture and country as synonyms.
A culture is a group of people that have developed a common set of values, behaviors and attitudes that bind them together. It may be a permanent group, such as a nation or an organization, or a more temporary arrangement, such as a meeting. The group is united by having a shared, unspoken understanding of what is ‘normal’, acceptable, polite, right and good (as well as the opposites).
Country is an easy way to imagine a culture, because there are many other differentiating factors such as nationality, language, traditions, political systems and cultural artefacts. But, in reality, an individual belongs to a near infinite number of cultural groups, from a family unit, to a queue at the coffee shop, to a crowd at a concert or sporting event.
In Country Navigator’s content, we use Country as the biggest unit of culture. It is an easy way to explain cultural differences. When we show a country Worldprism profile, we are showing an average (mean) position of a range of positions. This means that we can use the score shown as a general indication at a macro level but must be open to the strong possibility that at a micro level, this may be a less useful measure.