Cultural Intelligence—What We Need To Survive As Individuals, Nations Or Organisation

This podcast is an interview with the author of “Rule Makers, Rule Breakers: How Tight and Loose Cultures Wire Our World”, Dr. Michele Gelfand. She specialises in social norms.

In her book she explains how cultural norms shape people's behaviour within groups: Tight groups punish their members harder for deviating from the norms while loose groups are open to change. Individuals, too, can have a T or L personality. Nations, classes and organisations can be classified as T or L as well.

Dr. Gelfand explains the logic behind the development of T&L culture in groups: Threat is one of the factors that can trigger the tight norm, as a group tends to impose more order to protect itself when it feels threatened. This fact may explain why Americans became more tight after 9/11.

She also tackles the idea in the context of class—working class people tend to like rules because they feel they are under the threats of poverty or losing their job, while in the upper class, people tend to be more loose. Interesting research on children from a working class background demonstrated how children as young as three years old show more tight values because of the discipline they receive from their parents. 

Dr. Gelfand applies her theory to different organisations, contexts and political conflicts around the world. This podcast based on her book is extremely interesting.