A Continuum of Culture

The importance of cross-cultural research has never been more apparent. A survey of education and teaching literature has generated findings of limited practical use (Festing & Maletzky, 2011) as there has been an overreliance on so-called universal cultural methods for analysis of data. This occurs as a result of researchers from one culture entering a new culture and imposing their own views and beliefs whilst carrying out cross-cultural research. This imposed etic approach to research has overshadowed the importance of emic approaches. Due to this, I find it hard to understand why emic and etic approaches are viewed as antipodes and instead suggest that there is a need to merge emic approaches with the frequently used etic approach to understand cultures in a more rounded way. More specifically, rather than viewing emic and etic approaches as a dichotomy, it is suggested that viewing emic and etic and a continuum would help to improve cross-cultural research.

Morris et al., (1999) supports this view and argues that combining the approaches would result in overcoming problems of each approach; the emic approach relies on the researcher’s interpretations of a culture and so can be biased, whilst the etic approach can miss out on distinctions of cultures. Having an emic-etic continuum allows for detailed accounts of a culture and its’ behaviour along with the benefits the etic approaches have that are already used frequently. In light of this, I believe it crucial to aim to work with etic perspectives that incorporate emic perspectives in a more cross-cultural method.

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References

Festing, M., & Maletzky, M. (2011). Cross-cultural leadership adjustment—A multilevel framework based on the theory of structuration. Human Resource Management Review, 21(3), 186–200. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2011.02.005

Morris, M. W., Leung, K., Ames, D., & Lickel, B. (1999). Views from the inside and outside: Integrating emic and etic insights about culture and justice judgment. The Academy of Management Review, 24(4), 781–796. https://doi.org/10.2307/259354