Week 8 Flashcards
Why is culture relevant?
- Culture eats strategy for breakfast”
- The way in which a group of people solves problems & reconciles dilemmas
- “The collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one category of people from another
- “A system of values and norms that are shared among a
group of people, and, when taken together constitute a design for living.” - A set of shared solutions to universal problems of external adaption & internal integration, which are handed down from one generation to the next.”
- Social constructed constellation consisting of practices, competencies, ideas, shemas, symbols, values, norms, institutions, goals, constitutive rules, artifacts -> internalized rules create tradtitions that go deeper than reason
- Understanding culture has great implications both deomestically and internationally
- culture is a invisible control mechanism operting in our thoughts, we become only aware of this control mechanism when it is serverely challenged -> by exposure to a different culture
- Culture influence behaviour as well as the intepretation of behaviour
Iceberg
Culture consitsts of two levels:
invisible: level of values -> area that is not immediately visible but that can be dervied by careful attention to the visivle elements of the cultural system as we understand
visible: behaviour or arefacts
Culture is shared set of basic assumptions and values, with resultant behvioural norms, attitudes and beliefs which manifest themselves ins systems and institutions as well as behavioural patterns and non behavioural items. Culture is shared among members of one group or society. Culutre is shared and modified by the individual personality.
Are cultures around the world becoming more similar (convergence hypothesis) or dissimilar (divergence hypothesis)?
- in some cases more similar, in some cases more dissimilar
- moving to traditionals values, religion,
Layers of Social Behaior:
Universal
- Fight
- Freeze
- Flight
- Fear
- need for security
*
Layers of Social Behavior 2:
Cultural
Plants and animals have mastered their environments via bodily (somatic) adaptation
* Dense, smooth, insulating feathers
* Strong beaks with serrated margins for catching fish
* Powerful forelimbs as flippers
* Flat bones bound together
* Thick layer of fat under the skin
Humans rely on culture (i.e. extra-somatic) means of adaptation for survival
* Horn & bone from other animals
* Technology & tools
* Wood & other plants products
* Fur, & skins from other animals
* Language
Layers of Social Behavior 2:
Culture -> Geographical Diversity → Cultural Diversity
Values, ethics, norms, behavior, etiquette, and communication patterns, are shaped by a particular group of people who share specific conditions that require specific solutions of adjustment that fit this particular context.
Layers of Social Behavior 2: Culture -> The Function of Culture
Naturally we are responding out of fear / judgment
Social norms help build trust
-> Higher level of trust lead to lower levels of interpersonal violence
-> Lower levels of violence allows for organzation of people into a workforce
-> Better organization leads to greater efficeny of production
-> Better efficeny leads to greater production and richer society
Layers of Social Behavior 2: Culture -> Culture at Two Levels
The Psychological Level:
Focuses on internalized norms, attitudes, values and behaviors of individuals from a particular culture
The Institutional Level:
National or group culture embodied in institutions (i.e. government, education, economic or business organizations etc.).
Swiss
* federal system
* direct democracy
* sovereignty
* independence
* self-sufficiency
Layers of Social Behavior 3:
Personal
- Unique biology
- unique biography
Layer of Behavior
Universal / Culutral / Personal
Universal
* Running from a dangerous animal -> dangerous cultural
* Learning one’s native language
* Eating regularly
* Feeling sad at the death of your mother
Personal
* Sleeping with bedroom window open
* Disliking having to wear mourning clothes for 30 days after the death of your mother
Culutral
* Considering snakes to be “evil” -> China delicious, little dragon
* Men opening doors for women
* Respecting older people
* Speaking Arabic as a foreign language
* Eating with knife, fork, and spoon
* Wearing white mourning robes for 30 days after the death of your mother -> Japan
What is a cultural problem? / What is not a culutral problem?
May every problem seems like a culutral problem, but not every problem is a culutral one
Stereotyping
- a common but oversimplified and fixed image or idea of a particular type of person or thing
- Based on the tendency to group things together
- Often unconscious and in line with our own cultural programming
- By stereotyping, we tend to exaggerate similarities of things within the same group and differences between groups
Why do we stereotype?
Cognitive Economy
* Efficient categorization: negates the need to re-assess specific situations
* Predictive ability: assumes knowledge of how an “other” group will act, behave, respond, etc.
Social Categorization
* Social identity: a person’s sense of who they are based on their group membership
* Group membership: source of pride and self-esteem, source of sense of belonging
Pygmalion / Golem Effect
Pygmalion Effect:
Higher expectations (positive prejudice) lead to increased
performance
Golem Effect: Lower
expectations (biased, prejudice, etc.) lead to decreased performance
Stereotypes vs. Generalizations
Stereotypes
* Categorizing all members of a group as having the same characteristics
* Selective and inflexible perception
* Observations are subjective, judgmental
* Clichés
Generalizations
* Categorizing many members of a group as having similar
characteristic tendencies
* Flexible perception
* Observations are neutral, objective
* Tendencies
dilemma
Cultural dimension models work from a dilemma, which is a choice between equally unfavorable alternatives.
There is no final answer to a dilemma, but one position or choice must be made
Culture gives us the “right” answer to a dilemma
Trompenaars-Hampden-Turner’s
(THT) Cultural Dimensions
Countries -> Would not expect their friend to protect them (%)
Universalism
Universalism searches for sameness and similarity and tries to impose on all members of a class or universe the laws of their commonality
Universalist societies tend to feel that general rules and obligations are a strong source of moral reference. Universalists are inclined to follow the rules, even when friends are involved, and look for the ‘one best way’ of dealing equally and fairly with all cases. They assume that their standards are the right standards, and they attempt to change the attitudes of others to match theirs.”
Universalism
at its best…
- Provides equality opportunity and equal treatment: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “ dream” emphasized the need for equality and equal treatment of all Americans, regardless of their race, religion, creed, or gender.
- Demands equal treatment under the law: Archibald Cox, special prosecutor for the Watergate investigations, said “Whether this is to be a government of laws or men, must now be decided.”
- Encourages competition, leading to higher value
products at lower costs and is crucial to mass
manufacturing and mass marketing.
Universalism
when taken too far…
- Can lead to simplistic moral formulas and dogmas including religious, political and social fundamentalism
- The stereotyped nature of objectifiable or “universal” criteria (as seen in beauty pageants, for example) are ludicrously limited to a narrowly construed “ideal”.
- Can quickly become very challenging to legislate, as exceptions to the rule cannot be easily reconciled with universalist thinking.
- Results in a litigious society as more and more
rules are created to accommodate the everincreasing circumstances and exceptional characteristics of real life
Universalism
when taken to the
extreme…
Universalism, in the form of fundamentalism, has led to horrors of humanity including eugenics and human rights violations, all in the name of the common good.
The universal and universally applied principles of science, when taken to the extreme, have led a fundamentalist dogma around it where, ironically, it becomes the very thing it purports to be the antithesis of: religion.
Taken to extremes, laws, applied without a consideration of the circumstances of the case, result in abuses of justice
Particularism
Particularism searches for differences, for unique and exceptional forms of distinction that render phenomena incomparable and of matchless quality
Particularism
“Particularist societies are those in which particular circumstances are more important than rules. Bonds of particular relationships (family, friends) are stronger than any abstract rules. Response to a situation may change according to the circumstances and the people involved. Particularists often argue that ‘it depends’.”
