National cultures revisited

Anthropology can make a holistic contribution to the study of the complex societies of today's nations by identifying key issues, relevant to both the individual and the social system, on which these nations differ in empirically verifiable ways. This is labelled the ‘national cultures approach’ and can be considered an extension, with a broader purpose and more effective research methods, of the ‘national character’ approach of the 1950s. The article describes a large research project by the author covering over 50 nations. That study identified four such ‘key issues’, labelling them Power Distance, Uncertainty Avoidance, Individualism versus Collectivism, and Masculinity versus Femininity. It is argued that this type of contribution by anthropologists can make practical sense to policy makers in the fields of transfer of management skills to other countries, intercultural negotiations, international bodies, and education for intercultural contact.