What is Culture

• culture


  set of ideas, beliefs, attitudes and traditions that we share with large groups of people and gives us a sense of identity
• cultural norms


  these are the rules which indicate the expected behaviour in a group
• 2 types of culture

  surface culture and deep culture
• Surface Culture


  demonstrated by the explicit and visible elements such as clothes and music
• Deep culture


  invisible and implicit like beliefs, attitudes and values inside
• what is cultural dimensions

  how values of a society affect behaviour (describes trends of behaviour in a given culture)
• What did Hofstede do?


  conducted a large survey across 10 years on 117,000 employees of multinational company IBM, from 40 countries. asking employees to fill in surveys about morale in the workplace
• what is his research an example of

  etic approach and it looked at the 40 most represented countries in the surveys. The trends he noticed he called "dimensions"
• what are the 6 dimensions

  power distance index; individualism vs collectivism; uncertainty avoidance index; Masculinity vs femininity; long term vs short term; indulgence vs restraint
• Power Distance Index


  the extent to which a culture respects authority and status
• Individualism vs. Collectivism


  degree to which people are integrated into groups, sometimes referred to as I vs we orientation
• uncertainty avoidance index

  a society's tolerance for ambiguity
• tolerance for ambiguity meaning

  less strict rules in society and an openness to change
• Masculinity vs. Femininity

  masculine societies are defined by focus on achievement, competition and wealth whilst feminine societies focus on cooperation, relationships and quality of life
• long term vs short term

  the connection to the past and attitude towards the future
• short-term orientation


  means that traditions are kept
• long-term orientation


  has more of a focus on the future
• indulgence vs restraint

  indulgent cultures allow people to enjoy life and have fun, restrained cultures have stricter control through strict social norms
• individualism


  identity is defined by personal characteristics (
• collectivism


  identity is defined more by the characteristics of the collective groups to which one belongs
• Conformity


  tendency to change what we do, think or say in response to the influence of real or imagined pressure from a majority group
• informational conformity


  occurs when people conform to group social norms because they believe that the group is better informed than they are
• normative conformity


  occurs when people conform to group social norms when they want to be included in the group, to feel that they belong
• negatives of conformity

  prevents people from acting according to their innermost beliefs resulting in a loss of identity as the group is surrendered to
• Positives of conformity


  helps people to agree, work together and form cohesive attitudes, beliefs and behaviours
• collectivist cultures


  one in which the group takes precedence over the individual