The Role of Culture

Culture

• Values
• Behavior
• Beliefs
• Attitudes
• Customs

Characteristics of Culture

• Learned behavior
• Interrelated elements
• Adaptive
• Shared

Element of Culture

• Social structure
• Language
• Communication
• Religion
• Values/Attitudes

Social Structure

• Individuals, families, and groups
• Social stratification - categorization based on birth, occupation, educational achievements
• Social mobility - ability to move from one stratum of society to another

Language

• 3000+ different languages worldwide
• 10,000+ different dialects
• Primary delineator of cultural groups
• Lingua franca

Communication
Forms of nonverbal communication

• Hand gestures
• Facial expression
• Posture and stance
• Clothing/hair style
• Walking behavior
• Interpersonal distance
• Touching
• Eye contact
• Architecture/interior design
• Artifact and non-verbal symbols
• Graphic symbols

Religion

• Christianity: Catholicism, Protestant, Eastern Orthodox
• Islam
• Hinduism
• Buddhism

Values and Attitudes

• Values: accepted principle, and standard
• Attitudes: actions, feelings, and thoughts

 Theories of Culture

• Hall's Low-Context, High-Context Approach
• Cultural Cluster Approach
• Hofstede's Five Dimensions

Hall's Low-Context, High-Context Approach

• Low-Context: words used by speaker explicitly convey speaker's message
• High-Context: the context in which a conversation occurs is just as important as the word spoken; cultural clues are critical to communication

Hofstede's Five Dimensions

• Social Orientation
• Power Orientation
• Uncertainty Orientation
• Goal Orientation
• Time Orientation