What is culture?
The knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, religions, symbols, and possessions acquired be a group of people who have lived in the same region or country for generations
How is culture transmitted from generations?
Through education and by example
What is a subculture
- A culture group within a larger or predominant culture. - distinguished from from it by factors such as class, ethnic background, and religion,
- unified by shared beliefs and interest
What is a counterculture?
A culture that has values or lifestyles that are in opposition to these of the current accepted culture
- members openly reject the established cultural values around them
What are examples of countercultures?
Punk, emo, nu metal, gangsta rap
Cultural determinants
The main factors that shake the culture of a specific group
= religion, politics, topography, climate, history
Saudi Arabia culture
- revolves around the religion of Islam
- activity stops 5 times a day for prayer
- Friday = holiest day
Muslim weekend = Thursday to Saturday - clothing = loose and flowing
- women = only hands, feet, face bare
- criminal cases tried under sharia courts which enforce a strict conservative version of Sunni Islam
The culture of Japan
- religious beliefs = Shintoism and Buddhism
- belief in the natural order of things has translated into hierarchical relationships among people
- western culture embraced
- traditional Japanese culture dominant in food, sports, entertainment
- definite sense of etiquette and rules of behaviour
What are criminal cases tried under in Saudi Arabia
Sharia courts which enforce a strict conservative version of Sunni Islam
What is there a definite sense of in Japan?
Etiquette and rules of behaviour
What has caused hierarchical relationships among people in Japan?
Belief in the “natural order of things”
What must you consider when entering a foreign market
Climate and religion
Ex. No market for Canadian pork in Israel as Jewish culture forbids eating this product
Failing to consider culture could…
Ruin a negotiation, derail a marketing campaign, and cause labour unrest
Explain how Canada’s financial services industry has successfully entered foreign markets
- attitudes towards money often culturally determined
- Canadian banks in foreign countries must understand their clients culture to meet their savings
Ex. Japanese families save for specially made kimonos for their daughters
Who regulates the labour force in Canada
The Canadian government
What our labour laws influenced by
Labour unions and cultural values
What do labour laws regulate
- minimum wage
- mandates workplace safety
- prevents discrimination
- legislates holidays and hours of work
Rationalization
Any attempt to increase a company’s effectiveness or efficiency
Examples of rationalizing
Downsizing, cutbacks, layoffs, and relocating corporate functions and activities to countries that have cheaper labour and few or no union problems
Different countries may have different values of labour and workplace….difference may be found in what areas….
- Child labour
- Discrimination
- Wages
- Standards and practises
- Indigenous culture
4 factors of meeting culture
- Time perception
- Spatial perception
- Non-verbal communication
- Business etiquette (appropriate convo)
What are the two ways to perceive time?
- Monochronic - time is seen as linear and sequential - focus placed on one thing at a time in a logical process
- Polychronic - time is seen as involving many things happening simultaneously with the participation of many people - time is flexible and schedules are not primary importance
Who identified cultural dimensions
Geert Hofstede
Power Distance
PDI
How the difference in power between people is perceive
