Levels of Culture and Individual Behavior

TLDR

Culture influences managerial behavior at multiple levels—from supranational to group—rather than solely at the national level. The study aims to integrate these levels, proposing that the influence of each culture on individual behavior depends on the behavior’s nature. The authors argue that social or value‑laden behaviors are mainly shaped by supranational and national cultures, while task‑oriented or competence‑based behaviors are driven by organizational and professional cultures, illustrated with information‑systems examples. This conceptual framework clarifies when different cultural levels dominate, thereby informing the generalizability of theories and practices across borders.

Abstract

In an organizational setting, national culture is not the only type of culture that influences managerial and work behavior. Rather, behavior is influenced by different levels of culture ranging from the supranational (regional, ethnic, religious, linguistic) level through the national, professional, and organizational levels to the group level. The objective of this study is to integrate these different levels of culture by explicitly recognizing that individuals’ workplace behavior is a function of all different cultures simultaneously. It is theorized that the relative influence of the different levels of culture on individual behavior varies depending on the nature of the behavior under investigation. Thus, for behaviors that include a strong social component or include terminal and moral values, supranational and national cultures might have a predominant effect. For behaviors with a strong task component or for those involving competence values or practices, organizational and professional cultures may dominate. These propositions are illustrated with examples from the IS field. This paper is a conceptual study and therefore extends theory and the current understanding of how culture is examined by not only explicitly recognizing that behaviors are simultaneously influenced by multiple levels of culture but by also specifying conditions under which certain levels of culture dominate. Such an approach has the potential to inform researchers and practitioners about the generalizability or universality of theories and techniques across national, organizational, and professional borders.