Chapter 1 Determinants of culture
Anthropology – the study of the progress of human society and culture.
Concept 1.1 Facets of culture
Society: an organised group of individuals who share functional relations.
Culture: a structure that gives form to behaviour and fixes the framework
of exchanges between the people of this group.
What does culture really mean?
Genelot (1998:195): stresses that ‘men are products of their culture:
their representations, their visions of what is good and what is wrong’.
Hofstede(1980:25): ‘ the collective programming of the mind which
distinguishes the members of one human group from another’.
Groups culture is learned than being innate (aangeboren).
Norms and values
Each culture has three layers.
1. The behavioural/explicit level: the language, the food, the houses.
2. The norms and values: norms are the rules of a society, determining
what is good or bad with regard to behaviour; unwritten rules of a
society. Values are what is considered important or unimportant,
right or wrong.
3. Its assumptions and beliefs
There are 4 categories of values en norms in society:
1. Traditional society, in which religion plays an important role.
2. Rational society, in which the interest of the individual comes first.
3. A society in which survival is the primary concern, where people are
not happy and rather intolerant, where equality between the sexes
had little chance.
4. Post-modern society, tolerant an democratic Netherlands
Politics norms and values
De invloed van de politiek kan groot zijn of niet. Bijvoorbeeld in Iran waar
ze voorschroven hoe Iranesen zich moeten kleden en hoe ze zichzelf
kunnen vermaken. Daarnaast verschilt corruptie bij de politiek per land.
Morin ‘Dialogique’: the union of two forms of logic, of two different
principles, without their duality being lost.
Cultural assumptions in management
Schein defines culture: a set of basic assumptions - shared solutions to
universal problems of external adaption (how to survive) and internal
integration (how to stay together) – which have evolved over time and are
handed down from one generation to the next.
, 1.2 Levels of cultures
Schein: A culture starts developing in a context where a group of people
have shared experience. (family)
In business context: culture can develop at different levels – within a
department or at the various ranks of a hierarchy.
This collective experience can be related to regions of a country, or
regions across countries, or a grouping of nations themselves.
Culture and nation
If culture is defined as a set of historically envolved, learned and shared
values, attitudes and meanings, then this has an influence on
organisations at both micro and macro level.
At the macro level, the nation, in terms of its laws and economic
institutions, must be taken in to account by organisations going
about their business.
At the micro level, the organisation is influenced by cultural
elements relating to employer-employee relationships and to
behaviour among employees.
National culture
Tayeb: two elements and their affect at both micro and marco level.
The physical environment
The history the nation had undergone
a) Family: the basic social unit where acculturation takes place, where
the culture of a particular environment is instilled in a human from
infancy.
b) Religion: religious beliefs can have a significant effect on a person’s
view of the world.
c) Education: the value system on which education is based and the
choices it makes in terms of the curriculum both help in the
formation of a culture, particularly where educational institutions are
well developed.
d) Mass communication media: the ever increasing presence of mass
media has given a new meaning to shared experience.
e) The multinational company: this is a powerful culture-building
institution, whose products and services can influence the way
people live, whose operations can affect how and where they work.
Organisational culture
In organisational terms, Edgar Schein remarks on how cultural elements
affect the way strategy is determined, goals are established and how the
organisation operates. The key personnel are influenced by their own
cultural backgrounds and shared experience.
Definition Schein culture: (A) a pattern of basic assumptions, (B) invented,
discovered or developed by a given group, (c) as it learns to cope with its
Anthropology – the study of the progress of human society and culture.
Concept 1.1 Facets of culture
Society: an organised group of individuals who share functional relations.
Culture: a structure that gives form to behaviour and fixes the framework
of exchanges between the people of this group.
What does culture really mean?
Genelot (1998:195): stresses that ‘men are products of their culture:
their representations, their visions of what is good and what is wrong’.
Hofstede(1980:25): ‘ the collective programming of the mind which
distinguishes the members of one human group from another’.
Groups culture is learned than being innate (aangeboren).
Norms and values
Each culture has three layers.
1. The behavioural/explicit level: the language, the food, the houses.
2. The norms and values: norms are the rules of a society, determining
what is good or bad with regard to behaviour; unwritten rules of a
society. Values are what is considered important or unimportant,
right or wrong.
3. Its assumptions and beliefs
There are 4 categories of values en norms in society:
1. Traditional society, in which religion plays an important role.
2. Rational society, in which the interest of the individual comes first.
3. A society in which survival is the primary concern, where people are
not happy and rather intolerant, where equality between the sexes
had little chance.
4. Post-modern society, tolerant an democratic Netherlands
Politics norms and values
De invloed van de politiek kan groot zijn of niet. Bijvoorbeeld in Iran waar
ze voorschroven hoe Iranesen zich moeten kleden en hoe ze zichzelf
kunnen vermaken. Daarnaast verschilt corruptie bij de politiek per land.
Morin ‘Dialogique’: the union of two forms of logic, of two different
principles, without their duality being lost.
Cultural assumptions in management
Schein defines culture: a set of basic assumptions - shared solutions to
universal problems of external adaption (how to survive) and internal
integration (how to stay together) – which have evolved over time and are
handed down from one generation to the next.
, 1.2 Levels of cultures
Schein: A culture starts developing in a context where a group of people
have shared experience. (family)
In business context: culture can develop at different levels – within a
department or at the various ranks of a hierarchy.
This collective experience can be related to regions of a country, or
regions across countries, or a grouping of nations themselves.
Culture and nation
If culture is defined as a set of historically envolved, learned and shared
values, attitudes and meanings, then this has an influence on
organisations at both micro and macro level.
At the macro level, the nation, in terms of its laws and economic
institutions, must be taken in to account by organisations going
about their business.
At the micro level, the organisation is influenced by cultural
elements relating to employer-employee relationships and to
behaviour among employees.
National culture
Tayeb: two elements and their affect at both micro and marco level.
The physical environment
The history the nation had undergone
a) Family: the basic social unit where acculturation takes place, where
the culture of a particular environment is instilled in a human from
infancy.
b) Religion: religious beliefs can have a significant effect on a person’s
view of the world.
c) Education: the value system on which education is based and the
choices it makes in terms of the curriculum both help in the
formation of a culture, particularly where educational institutions are
well developed.
d) Mass communication media: the ever increasing presence of mass
media has given a new meaning to shared experience.
e) The multinational company: this is a powerful culture-building
institution, whose products and services can influence the way
people live, whose operations can affect how and where they work.
Organisational culture
In organisational terms, Edgar Schein remarks on how cultural elements
affect the way strategy is determined, goals are established and how the
organisation operates. The key personnel are influenced by their own
cultural backgrounds and shared experience.
Definition Schein culture: (A) a pattern of basic assumptions, (B) invented,
discovered or developed by a given group, (c) as it learns to cope with its
