UNDERSTANDING CULTURAL VALUES DIFFERENCES AND SIMILARITIES AMONG INDONESIA’S FIVE MAJOR ETHNIC GROUPS

Abstract

Given the tendency to present Javanese culture as the culture of Indonesia and worsen by the lack of studies which discuss Indonesia’s cultural variations, there may be confusion and generalization toward Indonesia’s cultural values. For instance, this study was conducted with the aim of proving that there are cultural differences among Indonesia’s ethnic groups. In order to achieve that, Hofstede’s cultural dimensions framework was chosen and his Value Survey Module 1982 (VSM 82) was employed. VSM 82 measures 4 cultural dimensions: Power Distance, Uncertainty Avoidance, Individualism versus Collectivism, and Masculinity versus Femininity with scores normally ranging from 0-100. The respondents of this study were drawn from employees working in paid jobs originating from five major ethnic groups: Javanese, Sundanese, Batak, Minangkabau, and Chinese Indonesian. Quasisnowballing method was employed in collecting the responses. A total of 699 respondents participated in this study. The results show that there are significant differences among ethnic groups studied. However, the Javanese dimensions scores show similar results to those of Hofstede. Furthermore, when all the responses were recalculated, the dimensions scores also form similar results to those of Hofstede. These conditions raise the question of whether Hofstede’s samples were indeed drawn from Javanese respondents only or whether a culture majority within a nation is able to represent the national culture of the country. Despite the fact that the VSM 82 was proven to be able to capture significant differences among the ethnic groups studied, such approach lacks deeper insights on how exactly they are different. In this regard, future research is needed with more advanced research design such as conducting in-depth interviews after scoring has been done to gain better insights to the findings.