CULTURE: The hidden part of the organizations

1. CONCEPTS:

Culture: "The relatively stable set of inner values and beliefs generally held by groups of people in countries or regions and the noticeable impact those values and beliefs have on the peoples' outward behaviours and environment." (Peterson, 2004)

Cross-Cultural: "Of or relating to different cultures or comparison between them:". (Oxford dictionary, 2010)

Generalizations: "A general statement or concept obtained by inference from specific cases". (Oxford dictionary, 2010).

Stereotype: "a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing". (Oxford dictionary, 2010)

Values: "A person‘s principles or standards of behavior; one’s judgment of what is important in life" ( Oxford dictionary, 2010)

2. WHICH ASPECTS CAUSES THAT ORGANIZATIONS DON'T DEEPLY KNOW CULTURES?

Culture is a global concept that includes many things in which behaviour plays an important role. It can exist many definitions about the concept but there is a great distance between our culture and the other people's culture, and also there is a difference between our thoughts and our acts. People can say that respect cultural diferences, but How could people respect cultural diferences, if they don't even know?. People and organizations tend to think that their principles, values and behaviors are the same worldwide. Sometimes professionals don't know about the culture of the people with whom they do business, so education is an important cause for understanding culture Organization, is an important tool to learn how they used to do business, as Pat Burke Guild (2010) says: "To understand people's behaviors, we need to look at the roots of their actions. One way to do this is to consider several basic ways in which we all interact with a situation, a person, information, or ideas."

On the other hand, there is a tendency to create stereotypes and generalizations about how other people think or act in certain situations; this represents a barrier to do business with other people, because for example is not the same to negociate in a country with an individual orientation than with a country with a group orientation.

In some cases organizations don't even know their own inside culture, so is more difficult to know other cultures. One of the reasons why organizations don't know cultures is because they don't like to change, as John Steidl (2010) says: "This is not surprising, since most organizations demonstrate an innate tendency to resist change". If an organization is not flexible, it couldn't understand why diferent cultures behave in a certain way and therefore it can not afford to adapt to the changes that globalization generates, for example as John Childress and Larry Senn, say in their book (In the Eye of the Storm), “To truly reengineer the corporation, you need to reengineer the culture.”

3. POINT OF VIEW:

I think that if culture is a concept that contains many aspects of daily life and there is so much cultural diversity, education should be deeper on this subject. Not only managers need to know about how a certain group of society behaves but also everyone should understand what is behind those behaviors. Since childhood education should be more deeply about other cultures.

When an organization is not flexible is likely to have problems as well as the famous phrase: "Whoever does not adapt is doomed to disappear", and even more in this globalized world. Organizations could also establish policies for their employees in order to know and understand also that we don't behave at the same way and that any minimum behavior may cause contempt or admiration instead.

Open mind is the solution, I think there should be more management to people understand that all groups of society behave diferent, which will allow that people respect others, and to have an strategy that should allow profesionals to be more efficient and to know their costumer needs.

"Without an understanding of the unique meanings existing for the individual, the problems of helping him effectively are almost insurmountable". (Arthur Combs)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Peterson, B. (2004). Cultural intelligence: a guide to working with people from other cultures. Yarmounth, Maine: intercultural press.

CYBERGRAPHY

Oxford dictionary. 2010. (online). Available at:

http://oxforddictionaries.com/view/entry/m_en_us1250426#m_en_us1250426

Oxford, dictionary. 2010. (online). Available at:

http://oxforddictionaries.com/view/entry/m_en_us1294280#m_en_us1294280

Oxford dictionary. 2010. (online). Available at: http://oxforddictionaries.com/view/entry/m_en_us1237220#m_en_us1237220

Oxford dictionary. 2010. (online). Available at:
http://oxforddictionaries.com/view/entry/m_en_us1303448#m_en_us1303448.002

 John Steidl. (2010). Culture and Performance-Overcoming the Hidden Barriers to Transformational Change. [Online]: http://www.thomasgroup.com/eLibrary/White-Papers/Culture-and-Performance-Overcoming-the-Hidden-Barr.aspx

Pat Burke. (2001). Guild Diversity, Learning Style and Culture. [Online]: http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/styles/guild.htm 

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Visits Shanghai Expo. Gettyimage. (online).Available at: http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/103720338/Getty-Images-News

Image: Woman Wearing Red Sari. Gettyimage. (online).Available at: http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/3356-000095/Photonica