Cultural Analysis of Austin

Universalism/Particularism 1. Observation: Students here are happy to drink drive after a night out 2. Illustration: Students here are happy to disregard the dangers and rules of drink driving compared to back home in Sydney, highlighting levels of particularism. 3. Typical of Austin: In my experience I cannot say if this is linked to the general behaviour of Austin. I would say it is definitely tied with student behaviour though. 4. If I saw other examples of disobeying rules of this sort, I would conclude that Austin is relatively particularistic however I believe this is an outlying case. 5. Business Culture: I think in general Austin businesses would be typically universalist and follow guidelines and rules in line with federal requirements as well as meeting corporate social responsibilities. Expressive/Neutral 1. Observation: People here have been quite hospitable and overtly friendly with new interactions. I initially though it was just towards foreign students, but I believe I can conclude that it is towards most people in general. 2. Illustration: This exemplifies typical expressive behaviour, which may be attributed to notions of Southern Hospitality 3. Typical of Austin: This behaviour has been typical in residential and downtown areas, however I have found that in some classes this does not typically hold. 4. Based on my wide first and third person observations of various social interactions, I conclude that Austin is relatively expressive. After talking to a few locals however as well, they associate it with Southern Hospitality. 5. Business Culture: Based on this expressive tendency, I would expect employees to generally be outspoken about concerns in everyday business. That being said however, being overtly friendly may be misleading, and conceal genuine feelings.

Individualism/Collectivism 1. Observation: People are generally not willing to look after strangers downtown who are excessively drunk and will just walk straight by them. Bars also dont provide immediate water access rather you have to line up in long queues as if you were ordering a drink. 2. Illustration: This is typical of individualist preferences, with people being unconcerned about the well being of others and primarily looking after themselves. 3. Typical of Austin: This behaviour has been typical of my ventures downtown and the house parties I have been to, however I could not necessarily generalise this general behaviour with everyone here in Austin and in general social interactions. 4. I once had a conversation with a taxi driver here in Austin, who was very anti universal healthcare saying how he believes Americans should work for their own benefits. I have also run into a few Americans who argue against spending the federal budget on social welfare. If I continued to run into similar experiences such as these I would conclude that Austin is generally individualistic. 5. Based on these observations I would expect American employees to be very goal centred, and doing what they can to chase their own careers. I expect that they would be willing to communicate and interact with others if it will help them achieve the goals at hand. I believe individualists will also be good at chasing what they really want.