Expand Your Borders: Discover Ten Cultural Clusters

by David A. Livermore

In bestsellers such as Leading with Cultural Intelligence and Serving with Eyes Wide Open, David Livermore has taught readers how to develop their cultural intelligence, or CQ—an overall capability for working and relating effectively across cultures.

Now, in Expand Your Borders, you have a compilation of the most important information for improving your CQ Knowledge—your understanding of key cultural similarities and differences.

Rather than rehashing the overused stereotypes of Indians versus Brits or Koreans vs. Brazilians, this book provides you with a macro comparison of the most significant cultural similarities and differences you’ll encounter as you travel across today’s multicultural environment—at home and abroad.

Expand Your Borders takes you on a whirlwind tour across ten cultural clusters around the world. You’ll see why dressing with too much bling could get you in trouble in Nordic Europe. You’ll learn the story behind chopsticks in Confucian Asia, and hear why Livermore needed his own nurse after surviving a serious dune buggy accident in Brazil.

Rooted in academic research and brought to life with stories and best practices, this is a book you can read once for a quick overview, and then return to as needed when preparing for an overseas trip or reflecting on a recent cross-cultural encounter.

And as you learn about the ten cultural clusters, you can improve the quality and enjoyment of your cross-cultural travels, work, and relationships!

Genres: Leadership, Nonfiction, Cultural

104 pages, Paperback

First published September 18, 2013

About the author

David Livermore, (Ph.D in International Education, Michigan State University) is a social scientist, devoted to the topics of cultural intelligence (CQ) and global leadership and the author of ten award-winning books. He leads the Cultural Intelligence Center in East Lansing, Michigan and he’s a visiting research fellow at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Prior to leading the Cultural Intelligence Center, Dave spent 20 years in leadership positions with a variety of non-profit organizations around the world and taught in universities. He’s a frequent speaker and adviser to leaders in Fortune 500’s, non-profits, and governments and has worked in more than 100 countries across the Americas, Africa, Asia, Australia, and Europe.

Reviews

[Rui Gui · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish I could give 1/2 stars. I rate this book solidly in the middle - 2.5.

I found the first 1/2 of the book to be quite insightful. But it is worth questioning why the Western world is divided into 5 cultural clusters, 4 of which are in Europe, yet Sub-Saharan Africa, Confucian Asia, and Southern Asia get only 1 cluster each. The insistence of sticking to these predetermined "cultural clusters" has resulted in some far reaches to justify countries being categorized together, or missing altogether. There is no good reason why the Nordic Cluster, made up of 5 countries with a population smaller than that of Texas, should have the same length of chapter as Sub-Saharan Africa, a region encompassing 46 countries and a population of 1.24 billion.

The theory of high v. low context cultures has fallen out of favor in academic circles, and for good reason. In this text, I saw the conflation of formality, explicit v. implicit contextualization, and direct v. indirect verbalization within the concept of high or low-context cultures. The truth is differences in cultural communication are dynamic and not linear. As a Chinese person, I often find Anglo culture to be frustratingly implicit, even though it is considered to be a "low-context culture."

If only the cultures of the "Global South" could be given the same care and attention as those of the European/Anglo-sphere.

[Andrew Silagi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simplistic for sure, but it acknowledges that. Other viewers have rightly criticized the sparsely populated Nordic countries are grouped as one cluster whereas the many and diverse Southern Asia and Sub-Saharan African countries are each grouped as one cluster. I would love to see an even more extensive and detailed version of this book. If anyone knows any of them, let me know!

Some highlights:
- the Confucian value of harmony and order, or li, is something I would love to learn more about.
- The Arab value of modesty is so looked down upon in the West even though many Arab women see it as a source of honor.
- Sub-Saharan African "Ubuntu" shows the beauty of communal interdependence over individual identity.

[Jessica Garcia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this for my Cross Cultural class and I felt that this was very usual. I learned about etiquette in different cultures that is good for beginners. very basic information, but still useful in starting to learn about other cultures. Really simple to read.

[Franette · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn’t alway agree with some of the icons, but fab intro to certain clusters and has definitely whetted my appetite to explore more

[Trisha Huddleston · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a helpful starting place for learning about cultures around the world.

[Nikaley Chandler · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick easy read that gives a helpful basic overview to understand groups of cultures.

[Dawson Bley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Insightful overview of cultural generalities + some specific facets too

[Sandy H · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very basic overview, but helpful information to use as a launching pad for further research and experience.

[Yiling · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative quick read but of course, apply contextually

[Leslie Johnson]

Excellent book that combines Hostede's work on the dimensions of cultures and other research related to the 10 cultural clusters of the world. With the warning in every chapter of resisting putting people in a box, the general descriptions to watch out for are really helpful.