National Cultures at the Dinner Table: An Exploratory Inquiry into Measurability of Hofstede’s Dimensions in Everyday Settings

ABSTRACT: Hofstede's cultural dimensions are considered as a benchmark for measurement of culture differences between several nations. Yet, the sole method of measuring such cultural differences until now has been through survey data that have been collected and reconfirmed by various studies over the past decades. Compared to the self-reported, formal, survey-based method of data collection where participants are aware that they are being measured, a non-invasive and discreet method of measuring cultural values in natural settings would be far more appropriate. Realizing this need and inspired by game-theory studies in economics and cognitive studies in psychology, this study explores whether similar simulations can be designed to measure cultural dimension values in actual or designed real-life settings. The setting in our study was the behaviors of family members at dinner table and the comparisons were made between Turkish and Nigerian cultures. By using semi structured interview techniques, data was collected from Nigerian and Turkish students within the university campus and Turkish people living in North Cyprus. Findings confirm the literature on power distance, individualism, and masculinity, and deviate from the literature on uncertainty avoidance. Most importantly, the exploratory study process reveals that trying to observe cultural differences at every day settings require far more detailed observations along a much longer time period and more sophisticated analysis than a master‟s thesis allows. The divergence of behaviours do indicate the potential benefits of using such natural setting experiments especially for human resource field. Keywords: Hofstede, cultural dimensions, table manners, comparative culture. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………