HRM 4480 Lecture 1: Chapter 1 & 2

• School: York University
• Department: Human Resources Management
• Course: HRM 4480
• Professor: Christophor Chan

Document Summary

The function of culture is integration, adaptation, communication and expression. Societies are organized politically into nations, but within this national unity subcultures may exist with specific cultural characteristics. These groups use the society in which they are embedded as their framework of reference, and share their nationality, language and institutions, while being delineated by their socio-economic, historic or geographic characteristics. There is no one definition of culture. Hofstede refers to culture as the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one human group from another". When elaborating on his definition, he says: culture, in this sense, includes systems of values; and values are among the building blocks of culture. Collective programming of the mind implies that members of a group are programmed by that group to perceive the world in a certain way, themselves and others included. In other words, the group shares meanings that hold them together.