Culture And Universal Professional Values In Global Organizations: Is There A Divergence Or Convergence Of Cultural Values?

Abstract

This article presents and discusses the theory of universal human values, the universal human values of people across cultures, and how culture and values impact organizations. This article reviews the history and research into human values, culture, and behavior, followed by reviews of Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions and Schwartz and Bilky’s Theory of Universal Human Values.

A strong connection exists between these theories and their related empirical research, not only chronologically, but also theologically and methodologically. The subjects are presented in a temporal sequence. Thus, the work of Professor Gert Hofstede is presented first; the work of Schwartz, Bilsky, is more recent, but strongly linked to prior research by Hofstede on values and culture. The objective is to improve ones understanding of work-related values, culture, and the impact that values may have on individuals in different cultural environments that are found in international organizations. This study tests to see if there is a difference in individualism scores of Mexican and American engineers when compared to Hofstede’s original study in 1980. This study also looks at the Mexican and American engineer samples to see if their scores on Hofstede’s cultural dimensions show a correlation with the scores on Schwartz’s culture-level dimensions. The study attempts to determine if there is a divergence or convergence of cultural values. Findings of the study are reported.