Culture

 Jashim Uddin, PhD

Associate Professor, East West University, Bangladesh
Culture Defined
 The totality of socially transmitted behavior patterns, arts,
beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and
thought.
 The patterns, traits, and products considered as the expression of
a particular period, class, community, or population.
 The predominating attitudes and behavior that characterize the
functioning of a group or organization.
Courtesy:thefreedictionary.com

Learned norms based on the values, attitudes and beliefs of a

group of people is an integral part of a nation’s/society’s operating
environment. Daniels et al. (2015)
The people factor of Culture
☢ Cultural diversity and cultural collision
☢ Sensitivity and adjustment

Cultural Awareness/Cross-cultural
literacy
Cultural awareness simply means the knowledge about a
particular culture and the ability to accept its agreed norms.
All people have culturally ingrained responses to given
situations and sometimes expect that people from other
cultures will respond the same way as people in their own
culture do.
Problems that hinder manager’s cultural awareness:
☢ Subconscious reactions to circumstances
☢ The assumption that all societal subgroups are similar
Delineating Cultures
The idea of “Nation”
Feeling of ‘we’ and ‘they’/ National feeling
Common legal system
Useful but imperfect cultural reference
Nation as a cultural mediator
Cultural formation and change
Sources of change
Change by choice
Change by imposition (Cultural imperialism)
Language as diffuser and stabilizer
Similarity in language
Language diversity and translation
Religion as a cultural stabilizer
Reduced religious practices but increased religious hostility
Differences in food habits, weekly holidays, business ethics

Behavioral Practices Affecting

Business
Social stratification system
Ascribed and acquired group membership
Performance orientation
Opened and closed societies
Gender based groups
Family based groups
Occupation
Work motivation
Materialism and motivation
Productivity and leisure trade off
Expectation of success and reward
Hierarchy of needs
Relationship preferences
Power distance
Individualism versus collectivism
Situational difference: the family
Risk-Taking behavior
Uncertainty avoidance
Trust
Future Orientation
Information and task processing
Perception of needs
Obtaining information: low-context versus high context cultures
Information processing
Monochronic versus plychronic cultures
Idealism versus pragmatism
Communication
Spoken and written language
Silent language
Distance
Time and punctuality
Body language
Dealing with cultural differences
Cultural distance
Culture shock
Company and management orientation
Polycentrism
Ethnocentrism
Geocentrism

International strategy Multidomestic strategy

Global strategy Transnational strategy