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Focusing on the development of the craft sector seems to be a good alternative to compensate for the effects of economic crises. Indeed, the handicraft sector is characterised by considerable growth in job creation and wealth production, bringing together ancestral know-how and adaptation to new technologies. Only not all innovations are necessarily adopted. The insertion of technological innovations in the artisanal cluster may face resistance from some artisans or rejection from all of them. This work aims to measure and understand the impacts that the individualistic or collectivist culture could have on the communication and the willingness of the artisans to share their knowledge and, therefore, the capacity of the cluster to disseminate the innovation. The methodology adopted in this research is analytical, materialised by quantitative-qualitative field surveys. This will allow us a better understanding of our research object.

Analysis of Philippine society has largely turned on the collectivist/individualist binary. Taking off from this dualism and from the notion and practice of siblingship (Aguilar, 2013). This chapter looks at two contemporary Filipino family films – Kung Ayaw Mo, Huwag Mo! (If You Don’t Want, So Be It) and Four Sisters and a Wedding. These films articulate and resolve the tensions, ambivalences, and conflicts between self and family, autonomy and dependence, and individualism and collectivism. This chapter also shows how the collectivism–individualism binary has broader political resonance, touches on the relationship between family and democracy, and proposes the family as a complementary point from which to theorize democracy in the Philippines.

In this paper we present the findings of a study on the differences or the harmony of Turkish military vs. Turkish national culture. We approached this issue by using work-related value orientations. Hofstede's research provided an organisation-based look into national cultural differences and we used his work to evaluate the Turkish national culture and its compatibility with the Turkish military culture. The data about the characteristics of the Turkish military culture are based on observations.

A group of Japanese tourists arrive at a 4-star hotel, situated in the city center of Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark. Upon arrival, the Danish-born Japanese tour guide is the first to enter the hotel, while leaving his group of tourists in the bus. He then spends about 15 minutes with the front desk agent, checking details of the stay. Finally, after he is satisfied, he assists the tourists with checking in to their rooms. Afterwards, the guide overhears the front desk agent discussing and venting about the “annoying and time-consuming” process with a coworker in Danish. What should the hotel management do?

In this research the starting point was that a certain gap between military and civilian culture could exist, because of the inevitable difference between typical military values and new values arisen in contemporary societies, with special reference to Western affluent societies. It seems that this hypothesis belong to the culture-free side, since it rests on the concept of a military culture made of specific values, which are the same in every society. There is anyway a different viewpoint, following the trends of studies developed in the intercultural relations domain, mainly dealing with business internationalisation and cross-cultural management topics, generally known as the culture-bound thesis. In the culture-free assumption the consequence should be a pressure of social change on a supposed unique military; in the culture-bound conception a mutual and systemic adaptation of different institutions within each inclusive society driven by one's own culture could be expected. Findings in this research show that if a relative gap can be observed between military and civilian students, this varies greatly according to different groups of countries. Distances seem to be larger in countries belonging to the post-modern cluster (Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands), and lowering down in modern countries such as Slovenia, Bulgaria and Poland, and even less appreciable in Romania, South Africa and Turkey. This could give some support to the culture-free thesis, according to which military culture is specific and find more convergences with so-called traditional societies than with modern or post-modern cultures. But results are not as sharp as needed, and the culture-bound thesis cannot anyway be rejected.

In his influential study The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1971 [1959]), Erving Goffman provides an insightful account of the formation of social selves. Goffman’s work has been extensively discussed in the sociological literature. Yet, the presuppositional underpinnings, let alone the socio-ontological implications, of his conception of personhood have not been rigorously scrutinized.

The main reason for the lack of methodical engagement with the principal assumptions that lie at the heart of Goffman’s theory of the self is that his approach is widely regarded as an eclectic narrative that, while drawing on different sociological traditions, does not make any claim to universal validity.

The persuasiveness of the contention that Goffman’s analysis of the self cannot be reduced to a general theory of human personhood appears to be confirmed by the fact that both supporters and detractors of his sociological project tend to agree that it would be erroneous to deduce a foundational framework of investigation from his numerous studies concerned with the interaction between self and society.

Attention will be drawn to several controversial issues that arise when faced with the task of assessing both the strengths and the weaknesses of Goffman’s understanding of the self.

The aim of this paper is to challenge the aforementioned contention by demonstrating that Goffman provides a fairly systematic account of human personhood. More significantly, this enquiry suggests that a fine-grained examination of his key concepts permits us to propose an outline of a general theory of the human self.

Purpose: This study aims to investigate the effect of culture on innovation within the workplace. Special attention has been paid to Middle East and North Africa (MENA) culture features and their impact on employees’ adaptation to the innovation within their organizations.

Approach/methodology: To achieve this objective, a theoretical study has been carried out. Given its popularity in culture-related research, the Hofstede model has been used to understand the specificities of MENA region culture. An extensive literature review has been employed to investigate the relationship between culture and innovation in the workplace.

Findings: Based on the relevant literature, it can be said that the country’s culture has a considerable impact on how the employees adapt to the changes within the workplace. Some issues of Arab culture that managers should be aware of and suitable solutions have been underlined to improve the adoption of innovation within the organizations in Arab countries.

Research implications: This study contributes to knowledge regarding the association between innovation and culture within the workplace in the MENA region. Findings provide straightforward ways for managers to improve the adaptation of their employees to the growing innovation required by the global market.

Originality/value: This study is among the earliest to focus on the association between innovation and culture within the MENA region. In addition, it is among the rare studies, which explore the main issues of Arab culture that make the adaptation to innovation a complex phenomenon that requires further efforts from managers for successful innovation performance. The limitations, as well as the future research pathways, have been mentioned at the end of this study.

National differences in the demand for voluntary external audits have been linked to multiple factors, such as differences in a country's rate of growth, access to external credit, and institutional quality. Audits, however, also have a psychological cost, whose intensity is genetically and culturally hereditary. Using a sample of 3,072 private firms across 34 industries in seven countries, including five countries or regions from the former Soviet Comecon, we find that a country's share of firms choosing to undergo external audits is negatively related to the prevalence of carriers of the G allele in the mu-opioid receptor gene's A118G polymorphism, also known as the “social sensitivity” gene. Furthermore, the relationship between the prevalence of the social sensitivity gene and audits is fully mediated by a national culture's degree of collectivism. The results are statistically and economically highly significant and remain robust to the introduction of a set of confounding factors at the firm and country levels. Our results have practical relevance in recognizing psychological diversity when conducting audits and, more generally, preventing burnout in the workplace.

This conceptual chapter, based on literature review, aims to elaborate an integrative approach to the study of cultural differences/convergence within and across the borders of Eastern European countries, in order to conciliate the two theoretical perspectives prevailing in the debate on cultural diversity management: the emic and the etic theoretical stances.

This chapter tries to propose a ‘third way’ to cultural analysis that includes the two perspectives, within a wider and complex multiparadigmatic and pluralistic framework, with a specific focus on Eastern European cultures.

Eastern European countries represent a sort of ideal construction that includes several countries, characterized by different trajectories and heritages: Catholic versus Orthodox religions, Slavic versus non-Slavic identities, Capitalistic versus Former Soviet Union values, etc. In spite of the renovated interest towards the regional area of Eastern Europe, empirical data show that there are significant differences in the distribution of cultural values, among national clusters. On the other hand, it is very difficult to say that Eastern European countries should be considered separate sociocultural entities, without any point of contact among other.

The main assumption of this chapter is that to better understand sociocultural dynamics within and across Eastern European countries, it is necessary to go beyond cultural mapping, in search of a more complex theoretical and methodological approach.

This approach may help to conciliate the apparent paradoxes emerging from the comparison of data related to Eastern European national clusters, providing a more complex and deep view of cultural phenomena, within and outside organizational and national boundaries.