Culture

1
Culture Management

• Definitions of culture
• Theoretical frameworks of culture
• How culture affects management

2
What is culture?

• For a culture to exist, its members need to have
• shared meanings
• shared understanding
• shared sense making

3
Culture

• Culture is a collection of behavior patterns
• such as thoughts, manners and actions which
  members have shared, learned and passed on to
  succeeding generations

4
At a fundamental, basic level, culture is a
groups solution to human needs and problems
(individual and collective) that has evolved over
generations.

• Each culture has its own
• logic, rules of behavior conduct

5
A culture cannot exist without a society

• A society is the group of people who create and
  give significance to its shared ways.

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Other definitions of culture

• A collective programming of the mind (Hofestede)
• A complex whole which includes
• knowledge, belief, art, morals, laws, customs,
  habits, and values

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Sathes levels of culture

• Basic assumptions
• underlying assumptions of societys relationship
  to nature/others/themselves
• expressed values
• values beliefs - shoulds oughts musts
• observable aspects/manifest culture
• artifacts, symbols, rituals, gestures, dress,
  heroes

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Beliefs

• Statements of fact about the ways things are

9
Values

• Preferred states about the ways things should be
• Ideals

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Key elements of Culture - humans relationships
to
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How is culture learned?

• Primary socialization - a complex process through
  which we learn appropriate age, gender, ethnic
  and social class behavior

12
How else is culture learned?

• Subculture socialization appropriate behavior in
  a distinct cultural group that might differ from
  the dominant group
• secondary socialization knowledge skills to
  achieve adult roles -such as educational and
  workplace training

13
We learn culturally appropriate behaviors from
our families, friends, schools,
religious institutions media
14
Organizational culture

• Like national cultures, organizations have their
  own cultures that consist of
• structured systems of policies/procedures
• shared assumptions and values
• a collective sense of belonging

15
Culture Management

• Culture affects management in various ways
• It informs such questions as
• What is valued?
• Whom is the company for?
• What are are goals?
• How far ahead do we plan?
• Who are we as company - collective identity

16
Culture Management

• Historically, culture has been the most
  neglected influence on management practices.
  Nonetheless, management means different things to
  different people in different cultures

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Theoretical frameworks for understanding culture

• Hofestede
• Hall
• Kluckhohn Strodbeck
• Tropenaars

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Hofestede

• 4 distinct dimensions
• power distance (hierarchy)
• uncertainty avoidance (the need to avoid
  ambiguity)
• individualism vs. collectivism (attachment to a
  group)
• career success (masculinity) vs. quality of life
  (femininity)

19
Strengths Weaknesses

• Work-related values are not universal
• Local values affect interpretations of rules
• He assumes cultural homogeneity
• He worked within a single industry company

20
Edward Hall

• High Context vs. Low Context cultures

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High context

• High context depends heavily upon
• external environment
• situational context
• non-verbal behavior
• meaning indirectly conveyed
• relationships are long-lasting
• agreements may be verbal changeable

22
Low context

• External environment less important
• Direct, often blunt communication
• Non-verbal behavior less important
• Explicit information given, ambiguity avoided
• Meaning directly conveyed
• relationships are shorter-term

23
Kluckhohn Strodtbeck

• 6 basic orientations
• What is the persons relationship to nature?
• What is the persons relationship to others?
• What is the modality of human activity?
• What is the temporal focus of human activity?
• What is the persons concept of space?

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What is the nature of people?

• Fixed
• Changeable
• Good
• Evil
• Mixed

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What is the persons relationship to others?

• Lineal (hierarchical)
• Individualistic
• Collectivist

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What is the modality of human activity?

• Doing
• Being
• Contained (controlling)

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What is the temporal focus of human activity?

• Future oriented
• Past oriented
• Present oriented

28
What is the persons concept of space?

• Private space
• Public space
• mixed

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Tropenaars- Seven parameters

• Group/individualism collective vs. individual
• Feelings/relationships neutral vs. emotional
• How far we get involved specific vs. diffuse
• How we accord status achievement vs. assigned
• Nature control vs. harmony
• Time a commodity or relational
• Relationships/rules universalism vs. paticularism