Eighteenth International Conference on Diversity in Organizations, Communities & Nations

Abstract

At the global level, there are countless dynamics that show confrontations between people, groups, and nations that show remarkable differences between ways of thinking, feeling, and acting in different situations. These traits through which we interpret and face reality can be understood within what we call culture. Schwartz (2006; 2008), proposes a theory for the understanding of national cultures, defining six basic cultural dimensions. While the practices carried out within organizations tend, on average, to receive a direct influence of the national cultures that host them, at the individual level there may be several members whose origin is based in different national cultures. Level of interculturality in each social group may have some effect on the development of such practices. Earley and Ang (2003) developed the construct defined as cultural intelligence, understood as the capacity for management and effective functioning under different cultural configurations, to understand how to effectively deal with situations framed in cultures different from its own. This research determines the cultural dimension of different organizations in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Peru, and how open is each of their cultures to interpret the unfamiliar and ambiguous gestures of someone foreign.