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Category: Business and Industry
Date Submitted: 01/29/2013 11:26 AM
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)...