Introduction
For Mexico, culture is a way of life. The 100 million citizens take pride in their history, ethnicity and lifestyle. Many people around the world are aware of Mexico’s religious tradition in Catholicism, have heard of “Poncho” Villa and have eaten Mexican food, but are unaware that the culture stems much deeper. While the collective image of Mexico may not be absolute to all individuals, the data that has been collected gives a close reality to the overall cultural framework. To help interpret the complex society, Geert Hofstede, Alfons Trompenaar and Project GLOBE data can be consulted.
By analyzing a wide variety of data, several characteristics of Mexico’s culture can be discovered. Loyalty, independence, decision making and many other dimensions of Mexico can reveal information on how international business is done and how leadership behaviors are affected. It is also important for those outside of the culture to realize the effect of violating these norms.
The categories in which data has been collected can be organized together to help create a better overall understanding of Mexico’s culture. While the history and information about the political and economic systems will be incorporated, the interpretation of Mexico’s culture will be assembled into the following six groupings: independence & self interest, conflict management, status, gender egalitarianism, relationships and time horizon. Grouping of the data measurements will allow for a more cohesive study of the collected research.
Independence & Self Interest
Understanding the degree to which Mexicans feel obliged to take care of themselves versus show loyalty to a group will help in comprehending the extent to which allegiance is shown. To best become aware of these traits, Hofstede and Trompenaar’s dimensions of Individualism V. Collectivism and Project GLOBE’s dimensions of In-group Collectivism and Societal Collectivism will be analyzed. One thing to remember is that the...