Diversity and Cross Cultural Management

Introduction:

Despite the fact that there are many similar cultural traits throughout different countries and regions, as a result of the historical, economic and geopolitical background a unique society and culture is formed in each and every single one of them. (French, 2007) suggests that national culture can be defined in terms of six factors. These factors are values/ shared meanings; political system; religion/ philosophical beliefs; economic prosperity; language; and education system (French, 2007). This paper will aim to discuss the key characteristics of national culture in Palestine , focusing on the custom values, political system, religion, economic situation, language and the educational system.

Values /shared meanings

Common values and shared meanings create a very important dimension of national culture on its own. The official state religion of Palestine is Islam, religion plays a big role in the Palestinian society. From young age, population's morals are being built on religious values as those are taught both at schools as well as at homes (Yasin, 1989). Studying religion is compulsory for a period of twelve school years. Thus, most morals and values of the population have their roots in the religion . For example, people mention the name of their God before starting any job, donating to the poor and in promotion of prohibition of a theft. Furthermore, 'sharing with others' is another feature in the nature of Palestine behavior (Yasin, 1995). Close friends become part of the family, they share food, they are welcome to stay at each other's place any time, and they also help each other as if they were related by blood which is considered as a strong indicator for socialization within our community.

Political system

As Bartle said 'whereas politics and political science include discussions about other things, such as political ideologies, the political dimension of society is limited to power, and leaves ideology to the values dimension of culture' (2007) . The Palestinian culture, with its political, economic, and traditional orientation, presents a unique setting for this exploratory research. For a long time , Palestinians have experienced some serious difficulties due to the many years of Israeli occupation. This in turn has left its mark on the Palestinian culture. The drastic economic and political realities which characterize the Palestinian culture have had a severe practices on culture and organizations of Palestine . 'Peace with Israel remains as elusive as ever, despite promising potentials' Yasin et al (2008).

Religion

To continue with the depiction of cultural dimensions, religious beliefs need to be implemented.

The major religions practiced by the culture and society of Palestine are those of Islam with a major section of the Sunni Muslims, Druzism, Christianity, Samaritanism and Judaism. (Ethredge 2011). Though the Arab culture tends to be, somewhat, homogenous, it consists of two distinct subcultures. The first subculture is considered conservative and consists of the Persian Gulf States, while The second includes the rest of the Arab countries including countries such as Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine, among others (Yasin and Zimmerer, 1995). This subculture is considered the liberal part of the Arab culture where the influence of religion is less dramatic. As such, 'while