Evaluation of Prevailing Worldviews and Value Systems in Relation to How They Are Shaped by Culture and Identity

Abstract

Globalization has interconnected modern enterprises across borders and cultures, presenting leaders with complex challenges in navigating diverse worldviews, value systems and identities shaping stakeholder communications and decisions. This analysis examines prevailing cultural perspectives globally and implications for executives maneuvering multiplicity. Defining worldviews as shared assumptions explaining existence, humanity and nature, it outlines dominant paradigms like Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, naturalism and postmodern relativism arising from faith traditions, philosophies and ethnic identities. As scientific rationalism spread through modernization, traditional worldviews endured. Value systems denoting shared norms around integrity, achievement, collective good and social order also diverge, seen through cultural dimensions like individualism versus collectivism, power distance, masculinity/femininity and uncertainty avoidance. Group identity forges worldviews and values via aspects like ethnicity, nationality, language and customs. Subcultures sprout distinct affiliate identities too. For leaders, cultural intelligence in grasping diverse mindsets enables nuanced navigation across complexity. Key dilemmas include directing dispersed teams amidst preferences like assertiveness versus reticence, resolving ethical relativism when practices deemed acceptable locally violate global norms, persuading hierarchical cultures to embrace agility and planning strategy attuned to profit motivations or collective stability as fits contexts. Blending Eastern and Western priorities, Carlos Ghosn rescued Nissan. Microsoft's Gates aligns global health equity and business growth despite belief barriers. Such cultural bridging represents a critical capability. Essentially, leadership demands appreciating varied worldviews, contextualizing appropriately across cultures and communicating vision attuned to local values, rituals and motivations while upholding ethical universals for optimal resonance and solidarity.