comparative value priorities of chinese and new zealand

An additional issue of concern is country as a monolithic cultural unit. Few researchers
accept this; many ignore the implications.
COUNTRIES AS CULTURAL UNITS
The validity of “The Nation-State as a Useful Variable in Cross-Cultural Behavioural
Research” is discussed further on p. 183 and following pages. Regardless of the
questions as to the validity of a nation as a single variable, almost all large, comparative,
cross-cultural studies treat countries as their cultural unit. Countries are rarely
homogeneous societies with a unified culture. Inferences about national culture may
depend on which subgroups are studied. The research on Schwartz’ cultural dimensions
with the SVS used country scores from teacher and student samples rather than
representative national samples. This makes it especially important to establish that
scores derived from different types of samples order countries in the same way on the
dimensions. If a meaningful general culture influences upon varied groups within
countries, the order of countries on cultural dimensions should be quite similar whether
we measure culture using one type of subsample from the dominant group or another.
The same countries should score higher and the same countries lower on each cultural
orientation whether the set of samples consists, for example, of older or of younger
respondents. Schwartz (2006) assessed consistency in the relative scores of countries on
his seven cultural orientations measured with the SVS, using three types of subsamples,
secondary school teachers, and tertiary students. Schwartz stated that closely matching
the characteristics of the samples from each country is critical when comparing national
cultural orientations, e.g., all teacher samples, all student samples, or all properly drawn
national samples.
CLUSTERS OF CULTURES
Several authors propose that there are culturally distinct world regions with similar
cultures (Hofstede, 2001; Huntington, 1993; Inglehart, 1997; Schwartz, 1999). The
major theorists map national cultures into clusters. Hofstede, Inglehart, Schwartz and
the GLOBE project identify cultural regions around the world generally as African,
Confucian, Ex-Communist East-Central European, Anglo or English-Speaking, Latin
American, South Asian, and West European. There is still sparse data concerning the
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