ople within one culture belong to multiple, and often conflicting, subcultures. Subcultures can include levels of education (intellectual culture), professions or specializations (professional culture), normative beliefs about right and wrong and organized religion (religious culture), places of work (organizational culture), geographic locations within a country (regional culture) , and so forth. What this means is that people can also acquire additional cultural tools from the various subcultures to which we belong. Culture is a collective, socially constructed phenomenon that exists or emerges whenever a set of basic assumptions or beliefs is commonly held by a group of people. Thus, multiple subcultures co-exist within organizations, industries, and nations. Cultural makeup is thus layered and influenced by varied group memberships. These subcultures may be overlapping, superimposed, or nested, and may interact with each other. These multiple layers of culture shape individuals attention, interpretations, and actions, and the cultural layer that is salient can vary over time. As such, in a single point in time, people simultaneously belong to one culture and many cultures, making the study of cultural differences even more problematic.corporationsa typical company in any culture is a challenge, but perhaps nowhere is this challenge more acute than with respect to American firms. Like elsewhere, US companies reflect the culture (s) where they do business, and since the US is so strongly multicultural, it is not surprising to find major differences across companies - even in similar industries. Still, it is possible to develop a general portrait of what such a company looks like in terms of its basic organizing structure and management processes. To accomplish this, however, it is useful to first consider how we might describe American culture.cultural patternson the Anglo core cultural dimensions discussed in Chapter 3, we might begin by suggesting that the dominant central tendencies of American culture are moderately egalitarian, strongly individualistic , strongly mastery-oriented, strongly monochromic, and moderately universalistic. This description helps us build a platform - albeit an imprecise one - for further analysis. Now let s go a step further. What happens when we add to this picture the observations of people who have spent considerable time with Americans? Journalists and social scientists from various countries have tried to do this for many years. While acknowledging that the US probably has greater diversity than many other countries, these writers have nonetheless tried to characterize Americans using a small number of adjectives.starters, Americans tend to be highly individualistic. Perhaps no other country in the world stresses individual rights and responsibilities more than the US. Here, a man s home is his castle and success is determined by personal effort. It is important to be independent and stay out of other people s business. At the same time, Americans tend to be materialistic. As a society that is focused on achievement, material possessions often represent symbols of success, and conspicuous consumption can become a lifestyle. This belief often leads to a short-term focus that requires considerable energy to achieve immediate results. Americans also tend to be informal. Americans tend to be laid back and spend their time hanging out. They are often uncomfortable with formal...