What is culture? Define and discuss the different aspects of culture.
Culture is the characteristics and knowledge of a particular group of people, defined by everything from language, religion, cuisine, social habits, music and arts.
Culture can also be defined as shared patterns of behaviors and interactions, cognitive constructs and understanding that are learned by socialization. Thus, it can be seen as the growth of a group identity fostered by social patterns unique to the group.
culture" is also used to describe specific practices within a subgroup of a society, a subculture.
Cultures are internally affected by both forces encouraging change and forces resisting change. These forces …show more content…
Importance of Culture in international management
It is important for international managers to understand the cultures of the societies in which they work because it will allow them to be better at managing their workers and understanding their business partners.
Different societies have different cultures. This means their people might have different attitudes towards authority or different customs regarding how those in authority should treat their subordinates. They might have different attitudes towards explicitly telling others what they think. These different kinds of attitudes can affect businesses. If managers do not understand local ideas about relations between subordinates and superiors, the workers may get offended. If they do not understand local attitudes towards things like saying “no” they might think they have agreements with partners when in fact they have none.
In these ways, it is important for managers to understand the cultures in which they work.
The sociologist Geert Hofstede studied employees working in a multi national corporation observed the following cross cultural differences and gave the four dimensions of culture as