International Business - the Role of Culture

Chapter 4: The Role of Culture

Characteristics of Culture :

Def: Culture is the collection of values, beliefs, behaviors, customs and attitudes that distinguish one society from another. A society’s culture determines the rules that govern how firms operate in the society.

Characteristics relevant to International Business:

* Culture reflects “learned behavior” that is transmitted from one member to another. It can be transmitted intergenerationally (parents to children) or intragenerationally (seniors of a uni to the freshers)

* The elements of culture are interelated

* Because culture is learned behavior it is adaptative: the culture change in response to external forces that affect the society

* Culture is shared by members of the society and as a result defines the membership of the society

Elements of Culture

A society’s culture determines how its memebers communicate and interact with each other. The basic elements of culture are:

Language

Language

Values and Attitudes

Values and Attitudes

Religion

Religion

Communication

Communication

Social Structure

Social Structure

CULTURE

CULTURE

Social Structure:

Def: The overall framework that determines the roles oof individuals within the society, the stratification of the society, and individual’s mobility within the society.

* Individuals, Families, and Groups:

Societies differ in the way they define family and in the relative importance they place on the individual’s role within groups:

- US view of family: focuses on the nuclear family

- Arab view of family: extended family is far more important

- Somalian view of family: Somalia’s society is organized in clans, each of which comprises individuals of the same tribe who share a common ancestor

=> These differing social attitude are reflected in the importance of family to business (Neoptism is discouraged in the USA but is a common manner in Arab-owned firms or in Chinese-owned firmed)...