What is Culture?What is Culture?Components of CultureFolkways and MoresCulture, Society, and the Nation StateThe Determinants of CultureSocial StructureReligious and Ethical SystemsReligious and Ethical SystemsLanguageEducationCulture in the WorkplaceWork-Related Values for 20 Selected CountriesProblems with HofstedeCultural ChangeCultural ChangeManagerial ImplicationsLooking Ahead to Chapter 4Chapter ThreeDifferences in Culture3 - 3McGraw-Hill/IrwinInternational Business, 6/e© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., All Rights Reserved.What is Culture?“Culture is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and other capabilities acquired by man as a member of society.”- Edward Tylor3 - 4McGraw-Hill/IrwinInternational Business, 6/e© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., All Rights Reserved.What is Culture?“A system of values and norms that are shared among a group of people and that when taken together constitute a design for living.”- Hofstede, Namenwirth, and Weber3 - 5McGraw-Hill/IrwinInternational Business, 6/e© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., All Rights Reserved.Components of Culture• Values• Norms• Society3 - 6McGraw-Hill/IrwinInternational Business, 6/e© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., All Rights Reserved.Folkways and Mores• Folkways: Routine conventions of everyday life.- Little moral significance- Generally, social conventions such as dress codes, social manners, and neighborly behavior• Mores: Norms central to the functioning of society and its social life- Greater significance than folkways- Violation can bring serious retribution• Theft, adultery, incest and cannibalism3 - 7McGraw-Hill/IrwinInternational Business, 6/e© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., All Rights Reserved.Culture, Society, and the Nation State• A society is a group of people bound together by a common culture• There is not a strict one-to-one correspondence between a society and a nation state• Nation State:- Is a political creation - May contain a single culture or several cultures3 - 8McGraw-Hill/IrwinInternational Business, 6/e© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., All Rights Reserved.The Determinants of Culture3 - 9McGraw-Hill/IrwinInternational Business, 6/e© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., All Rights Reserved.Social Structure• Social structure refers to its basic social organization• Two dimensions that are particularly important include:- The extent to which society is group or individually oriented- Degree of stratification into castes or classes3 - 10McGraw-Hill/IrwinInternational Business, 6/e© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., All Rights Reserved.Religious and Ethical Systems• Religion: a system of shared beliefs and rituals that are concerned with the realm of the sacred • Ethical systems: a set of moral principles, or values, that are used to guide and shape behavior- Most of the world’s ethical systems are the product of religions• Among the thousands of religions in the world today, four dominate in terms of numbers of adherents:- Christianity with 1.7 billion adherents- Islamwith 1 billion adherents- Hinduism with 750 million adherents- Buddhism with 350 million adherents3 - 11McGraw-Hill/IrwinInternational Business, 6/e© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., All Rights Reserved.Religious and Ethical Systems3 - 12McGraw-Hill/IrwinInternational Business, 6/e© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., All Rights Reserved.Language• Spoken- Verbal cues- Language structures perception of world• Unspoken- Body language- Personal space3 - 13McGraw-Hill/IrwinInternational Business, 6/e© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., All Rights Reserved.Education• Formal education plays a key role in a society- Formal education: the medium through which individuals learn many of the language, conceptual, and mathematical skills that are indispensable in a modern society - Also supplements the family’s role in socializing the young into the values and norms of a society - Schools teach basic facts about the social and political nature of a society, as well as focusing on the fundamental obligations ofcitizenship - Cultural norms are also taught indirectly at school• Examples include: respect for others, obedience to authority, honesty, neatness, being on time• Part of the “hidden curriculum”- The use of a grading system also teaches children the value of personal achievement and competition3 - 14McGraw-Hill/IrwinInternational Business, 6/e© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., All Rights Reserved.Culture in the Workplace• Four dimensions of culture- Power distance - cultures are ranked high or low on this dimension based on the particular society’s ability to deal with inequalities- Individualism versus collectivism - this dimension focuses on the relationship between the individual and his/her fellows within a culture- Uncertainty avoidance - this dimension measures the extent to which a culture socializes its members into accepting ambiguoussituations and tolerating uncertainty- Masculinity versus femininity - this dimension looks at the relationship between gender and work roles3 - 15McGraw-Hill/IrwinInternational Business, 6/e© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., All Rights Reserved.Work-Related Values for20 Selected Countries3 - 16McGraw-Hill/IrwinInternational Business, 6/e© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., All Rights Reserved.Problems with Hofstede• Assumes one-to-one relationship between culture and the nation state• Research may have been culturally bound• Survey respondents were from a single industry (computer) and a single company (IBM)3 - 17McGraw-Hill/IrwinInternational Business, 6/e© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., All Rights Reserved.Cultural Change• Culture is not a constant; it evolves over time- Since 1960s American values toward the role of women have changed- Japan moved toward greater individualism in the workplace• Globalization will continue to have impacts on cultures around the world3 - 18McGraw-Hill/IrwinInternational Business, 6/e© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., All Rights Reserved.Cultural Change3 - 19McGraw-Hill/IrwinInternational Business, 6/e© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., All Rights Reserved.Managerial Implications• Cross-cultural literacy• Culture and competitive advantage• Culture and business ethics3 - 20McGraw-Hill/IrwinInternational Business, 6/e© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., All