THE ETIC APPROACH TO CLASSIFYING CULTURES
The etic approach is based on the notion that underlying cultural differences between
nations are a set of variables that can be applied uniformly and which cover all
dimensions of difference between one culture and another. This approach seeks
dimensions of cultural variability. Studies of this kind by Hall (1973), Hofstede
(1991) and Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner (1997) were all undertaken before the
recent revolution in cross border communication, the accelerated movement of
peoples between countries, the rising level of globalisation and the information
revolution led by the Internet. Are their resulting dimensions as relevant in the new
millennium as when they were originally developed?
Furthermore these approaches were derived from large scale surveys based on
‘western’ cultural dimensions and measured according to ‘western’ interpretation of
measurement descriptors (ie very high; high; somewhat high; neither high nor low;