Culture

Definitions
· Solomon (2006) defines culture as “the values, ethics, rituals, traditions, material objects and services produced or valued by members of society”.

· “A culture is the configuration of learned behavior and results of behavior whose component elements are shared and transmitted by members of a particular society”. Ralph Linton (1945).

· “The complex whole which includes knowledge, beliefs, art, law, morals, custom and any capability and habits acquired by man as a member of society.” (Taylor in Dubois, 2000)

Culture is represented by “the skin of an onion, indicating that symbols represent the most superficial and value the deepest manifestation of culture.”

Hofstede, Geert: Cultures and Organizations. Intercultural Cooperation and Its Importance for Survival. - London: Harper Collins Publishers, 1994 (1st. ed. 1991).

As outlined in the spider diagram at the beginning, culture is made up of three essential components which are: Beliefs, values and components.
Our beliefs take into consideration the mental and verbal processes which reflect our knowledge and assessment of products and services. For example, we associate green with being environmentally friendly. They are the assumptions we make about ourselves, about others in the world and about how we expect things to be.

Our values are indicators which consumers as guides for what is appropriate behavior. Values tend to be relatively enduring and stable over time and are widely accepted by members of different markets. Values in one’s life are those things considered to be important. In relation to work, values are what give purpose in a job in the eyes of an individual who does it. The effort, commitment and motivation that a person brings to a job is usually in direct proportion to the values that they perceive in it.

Customs include overt models of behavior which constitute culturally approved and acceptable ways of behaving in specific situations.

Christmas in different cultures
This part of the class is probably the part I found most interesting as we discussed how Christmas is celebrated in different cultures.
· In Italy a witch flies on a broomstick to drop the presents down the chimney
· In Scandinavia as in the UK, Father Christmas on his reindeer pulled sleigh brings gifts,
· He uses a camel to bring the gifts in Syria
· In Japan he is called Santa-san (less than 1% of the population is Christian)
· In the northern hemisphere Christmas means lots of bright lights - because it is so cold and dark
· In the southern hemisphere it is about barbeques on the beach.
(Jaclyn Fierman, Christmas shopping around the World, Fortune, December 1987 pp 92-100)
Aside from holidays and Christmas, there are many other ways in which cultures differ. In fact, almost everything we do on a daily basis is influenced by our culture. Hofstede outlined four dimensions to explain variations in culture across national boundaries. These are:
· Power distance (Interpersonal relationships)
· Uncertainty avoidance
· Masculinity/femininity
· Individualism/collectivism.

Hofstede on England
The Geert Hofstede analysis for England illustrates that we have strong feelings towards individualism and masculinity. The power distance and uncertainty avoidance are ranked considerably lower than the first two. Long-term orientation ranks the lowest, indicating that change in England can be achieved more rapidly than in many other countries.

Hofestede on Spain
The Hofstede Analysis illustrates that uncertainty avoidance is ranked the highest for Spain, while the other three dimensions are ranked moderately. This is a result of Spain’s feelings and concerns regarding rules, regulations, and career security. One interesting thing to note is their low masculinity score. While women are still behind men in business equality, they are extremely important in society. As women continue to make progress in the workforce, look for this score to drop even lower.

There are a number of key differences across cultures for example; Language and meaning can cause problems for overseas marketing e.g. People in England associate the colours blue and white with hygiene however this may be different in other cultures. Attitudes to cleanliness and beauty also vary from culture to culture alone with cultural values.

To investigate culture further, we split into groups and each took a different country and investigated the culture from that country. Our group looked at Ireland. We took a look at stereotypes (which might be like the picture above) and also look at favourite sport and hobbies in Ireland. Take a look at the video below. It is interesting that this type of dancing mainly comes from Ireland although it is practiced by a small number of Irish-American people living in America.