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The Cultural Imperative: Global Trends in the 21st Century Richard D. Lewis. 2003. Yarmouth, ME: Intercultural Press. [ISBN 1-877864-98-6. 338 pages, including index. $29.95 USD.]
In his must recent book, The cultural imperative, Richard Lewis proposes that history defines differences between cultures. He explains how cultural beliefs that have lasted through time (such as Chinese Confucianism, the Protestant work ethic, and so on) will survive modern trends and resist attempts to adapt to or compromise with contradictory beliefs. As international business increases, in part because of the expansion of information technology, cultural awareness is imperative.
People in various cultures have different values, communication styles, and organizational patterns. According to Lewis, these differences can cause communication problems to varying degrees depending on the level of dissimilarity between cultural core beliefs. Lewis creates a model that separates cultures into three basic groups: linear-active, multi-active, and reactive.
A linear-active culture (for example, Germany or the United States) values a highly organized plan that follows a linear agenda, "facts and figures" often taken from "printed or computer-based sources," the development of the product rather than relationships, and written rather than verbal contracts (pp. 70-71). Lewis describes a multi-active culture (for example, Latin America, Italy, or Spain) as "emotional, loquacious, and impulsive people; they attach great importance to family, feelings, relationships, and people in general" (p. 71). Reactive cultures, contrastingly, "rarely initiate action or discussion, preferring to first listen to and establish the other's position, then react to it and formulate their own...