There Is a System in the Madness. The 7 Mental Images of National Culture and the Corona Virus
There Is a System in the Madness. The 7 Mental Images of National Culture and the Corona Virus

Summary/Abstract: It is a challenge to make a fact-based comparison between countries in how they are approaching the Corona virus.The problem in comparing countries is that official policies are to a high degree identical. Politicians look at how international colleagues are approaching the crisis and have a tendency to copy what they call "best practices".In finding these issues that are culture specific we have to look through rhetoric and official policies. And also look at the ways the population responds. In the book “The 7 Mental Images of National Culture “(Wursten, 2019), culture clusters are described with specific approaches to management, politics and society.Analyzing how countries are reacting to the Corona crisis evidence so far, it seems that the acceptance of forceful intervention/coercion by Central Governments is central. Looking at the Mental Images a distinction can be made by the degree of this acceptance. The Hofstede scores on Power-Distance (PDI) and Individualism (IDV) are important here ( Hofstede, Hofstede & Minkov, 2010).For a short overview of the Hofstede dimensions and the 7 Mental Images see: Notes at the end of this article.

• Details
• Contents