Jorge Bernardo Martínez de los Reyes A.

– A00399003

Essay 2

Compare and contrast the linear active and multi active cultural orientations

Differences in culture´s societies among the world

Globalization has created a demand on skills or abilities for cross cultural negotiations. Culture is very
different in almost every aspect among societies that are far from each other, it is said that the longer the
distance, the more differences will be found between these two cultures. Some important attempts to
describe culture are Edward Hall with “the silent language”, Geert Hofstede with his “cultural dimensions
theory” which helps us to measure culture and know how much it differs from another, and many other.

When we explain what culture is, it is important to know that there are two orientations of culture that will
include all types of culture in the world, one it is the linear active and the other one is multi-active culture
orientation.

Edward Hall says that the most important differences in culture are the proximics of how people interact
with each other, the high and low context of the cultures, and whether the culture is polychronic or
monochronic in doing things.

The linear active cultures tend to orient into a long distance proximic when intereacting with other people;
have low context which includes more explicit messages in their communicaction, and little attention for the
status of the person for them to socialize, they are more task oriented; also have a monochronic working
style, they focus on one task, committed to the job, adhere religiously to plans, accustomed to short-term
relationships, etc.

The multi active cultures tend to be societies that interact in a smaller proximic when socializing, the
distances are shorter / warmer; they have more of a high context, it is important for them the status of a
person, the message in their communication is not the only that matters, but who is telling it, and are more
relation oriented; in this branch, we find more polychronic cultures than monochronic, which means that
people in these societies tend to do many things at once, are highly distractible, subject to interruptions,
they are more committed to people and human relationships, change plans often and easily, and they have a
strong tendency to build lifetime relationships.

Geert Hofstede is an phsycologist analyst of societies who discovered a way to measure the cultures
punctually. In his analisys he includes five dimensions to measure culture which are power distance index,
individualism, uncertainty avoidance index, masculinity, and long term orientation. These five dimensions
are included in every culture and the level of each one differs on every culture.

In Linear active cultures we find more of low power distance, which is similar to what Edward Hall explained
with what low context societies have. In low power distance cultures, people at work have relationships of a
boss – partner instead of a boss – employee.
This branch of culture has high individualism, and high long term orientation. And in the other hand it has
low masculinity and low uncertainty avoidance.

Hofstede´s dimensions in the multi active cultures are more of high in power distance, uncertainty
avoidance, and masculinity; and low in long term orientation and individualism, they tend to be very
collectivistic societies, work in teams, include all members in a task, etc.

In conclusion we have that the two main branches of cultures (linear and multi active cultures) involve all
types of cultures in the world, and that it is important to know the differences between them in their
artifacts, values and assumptions for international businesses and building relationships with people from
other countries.