MAN 4602 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Ethnocentrism, Geert Hofstede
Document Summary
This chapter looked at the nature of social culture and studied some implications for business practice. Culture is a complex whole that includes knowledge, beliefs, art, morals, law, customs, and other capabilities acquired by people as members of society. Values and norms are the central components of a culture. Values are abstract ideals about what a society believes to be good, right, and desirable: norms are social rules and guidelines that prescribe appropriate behavior in particular situations. Values and norms are influenced by political and economic philosophy, social structure, religion, language, and education. The social structure of a society refers to its basic social organization: two main dimensions along which social structures differ are the individual group dimension and the stratification dimension. In some societies, the individual is the basic building block of social organization. These societies emphasize individual achievements above all else: in other societies, the group is the basic building block of social organization.
