The Protestants' Dilemma: When Cultural Mismatches Motivate Creative and Strategic Action

• In Event: 2331 - Moral Crisis and Meaning in the Sociology of Culture

Abstract

What role do values, beliefs, and norms play in shaping creative and strategic action? This article examines a case study in which corrupt or unethical workplace practices are the norm, and actors face an ethical dilemma. In this study I find that actors are often caught between acting against their best interests due to deeply held values and beliefs, or compromising these same values and beliefs, only to feel guilt afterward. This article complicates and challenges the extremities to which action theories have been taken and seeks to build a middle ground by drawing on elements of pragmatism and practice theory and extending existing cultural models of action that emphasize the interaction of cultural knowledge (beliefs, values, norms) and cultural pragmatics (practices). I identify common strategic and creative responses that result from a cultural mismatch-a misalignment of actors' beliefs and values with contextual practices. I present data from 24 months of ethnographic fieldwork in workplace and church settings and 60 in-depth interviews with Protestant elites, professionals, and workers in China.

Author

• Grace Tien, Princeton University