1A very early definition of culture

Culture is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other

capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.

Edward Burnett Tylor, 1871

What is culture?

Roots in anthropology

Different levels of culture

Different models of culture

Definitions, definitions, definitions, but no

agreement...

Culture

2A somewhat more recent definition of culture

Culture consists of patterns, explicit and implicit of and for

behavior acquired and transmitted by symbols, constituting the distinctive achievements of human groups, including their embodiments in artifacts: the essential core of culture consists of traditional (i.e. historically derived

and selected) ideas and especially their attached values; culture systems may, on the one hand, be considered as products of action; on the other, as conditioning elements

of future action.

Kroeber & Kluckhohn (1952)

Levels of Culture

A national level according to ones country (or countries for people who migrated during their lifetime)

A regional and/or ethnic and/or religious and/or linguisticaffiliation level, as most nations are composed of culturally different groups and/or ethnic and/or religious and/or language groups

A gender level, according to whether a person was born as a girl or boy

A generation level, which separates grandparents from parents and children

A social class level, associated with education opportunities and with a persons occupation or profession

For those who are employed, an organizational or corporatelevel, according to the way employees have been socialized by their work organization

Hofstede

How culture ended up in management

Beginning of the 80s:

What characterizes successful companies?

Whats the secret behind the success of the Japanese?

...its the organizational culture!

Peters and Waterman In Search of Excellence

Organisational culture as the universal recipe for

everything was partly abandoned during the 90s

But the interest for organizational culture is still strong...

Why Culture in Management?

3Why is it still interesting?

Flexibility needed rules change slowly have to control people

through something else...

Knowledge workers and specialists involvement and

enthusiasm needed

Going from mass-production to knowledge, services and

information attitude of employees important!

...

Why is culture still interesting?

Why do we need culture?

Share common ideas

Share a common purpose

Use the same language

Share common interpretations

We need shared meaning to achieve common

activiy!

The two sides of culture

The positive one shared understanding,

feelings of clarity, direction, meaning and

purpose

The negative one manipulation, stops critical

thinking, dominating ideas, less creativity

4How can you study culture?

Depends on your basic view of

culture

Objective or subjective?

Survey

Observation

Ethnography

Cultural Expressions

Symbols

Artifacts

Habits and routines

Expressions and the meaning of words

Rites and rituals

Metaphors

Stories and myths

Heroes and crooks

Some well-known names

Geert Hofstede

Fons Trompenaars

Edgar Schein

Edward Hall

Clifford Geertz

5Geert Hofstede

Who: Researcher

Background: Engineering/business

What: Collective programming of the mind (problem-

based)

When: 70s-

How: Survey IBM

Results: 5 dimensions of (national) culture

organizational culture symbols heroes and rituals

Fons Trompenaars

Who: Consultant/researcher

Background: Organization/business

What: Culture is how people solve problems

When: 80s -

How: Surveys for training participants

Results: 7 dimensions of culture

Edgar H. Schein

Who: Researcher (but also consultant)

Background: Psychology

What: Shared basic assumptions (problem-solving)

When: 50s -

Results: Among many - Scheins Pyramid

6Clifford Geertz

Who: Researcher

Background: Anthropology

What: A system of common symbols and meanings

When: 70s -

How: Ethnography (thick description)

Results: Symbolic Anthropology

What culture is

Believing, with Max Weber, that man is an animal suspended in webs of significance he himself has spun, I take culture to be

those webs, and the analysis of it to be therefore not

experimental science in search of law but an interpretive one in

search of meaning.

Geertz(1973), p.5

What culture is not

culture is not a power, something to which social events, behaviors, institutions, or processes can be causally attributed; it

is a context, something within which they can be intelligibly

that is thickly - described .

Geertz(1973), p.14

7Background: Anthropology

What: Communication

When: 50s -

How: Observation

Results: Among other things time, space, and context,

culture as communication

Space

8Hall on Polychronic and Monochronic systems of time:

Time

M-time systems emphasize schedules, segmentation

and promptness. Time is almost something tangible.

P-time systems stress involvement of people and

completion of transactions rather than adherence to

preset rules. Several things happen at the same time.

One of the functions of culture is to provide a highly selective

screen between man and the outside world. In its many forms,

culture therefore designates what we pay attention to and what

we ignore.

Hall (1976), p. 85

Context

Context

me

an

ing

HC

LC

What the

receiver is

expected to

do

pre-programmed

information

The

communicated

code

9 in real life the code [information in the figure], the context

and the meaning can only be seen as different aspects of a single

event.

Hall (1976), p. 90

Context

Context

me

an

ing

HC

LC

High-context:

HC communications act as a unifying, cohesive force,

are long-lived, and are slow to change

HC communication is economical, fast, efficient and

satisfying, but time must be devoted to programming

Context

Low-context:

LC systems are unstable, the rate of change is high,

things get obsolete fast, and there is a risk of

information overload

LC communications do not unify, but can be changed

easily and rapidly

10

Context

me

an

ing

HC

LC

High-context inevitable in the long run?

The screen helps us structure reality

To control behavior you need awareness of that

structure

Awareness of the structure high rate of change

Need to preprogram some of that information to avoid

information overload

Context

One wonders if it is possible to develop strategies

for balancing two apparently contradictory needs:

the need to adapt and change (by moving in the

low-context direction) and the need for stability

(high-context). History is replete with examples of

nations and institutions that failed to adapt by

holding on to high-context modes too long.

Hall (1976), p. 101

11

CULTURECULTURECULTURECULTURE

How can we get out of our cultural box?