4 Conclusion

Culture is just one perspective that can help us to understand more about a business. In this Unit we saw how the concept of culture developed from research into differences between cultures at a national level. Many cultural elements of a business are not obvious, but there have been some attempts in the academic literature to develop definitions and identify influencing factors. It is possible to see, or ‘feel’, that one business is different from another, and that this involves more than just how it presents itself to the outside world. Business values and accepted ways of doing things are often reflected in a business's socialisation programmes.

3 Factors influencing culture

Where the culture of a business comes from, and how it develops, is the subject of much discussion within business studies. Every commentator seems to have their own list of key factors. One example is by Drennan (1992), who proposes twelve key factors that shape the culture of a business. These are:

2.2 Symbols within business

How have academics and managers attempted to diagnose these largely hidden aspects of business? One well-known example is provided by Trice and Beyer (1984), who concentrated on the idea of there being symbols within a business. They divided these into, first, high-level symbols, which are the more obvious ones such as company buildings and logos, and, second, low-level symbols. They suggested four categories of low-level symbols: practices, communications, physical forms and a common language. These are explained below.

2 Definitions of organisational culture: 2.1 Culture as socialisation

The cultural perspective has become popular in business studies because it offers a way of explaining performance and understanding difference. It is only one way of analysing business, but it is an interesting one as it focuses particularly on the insider point of view, or on what it is ‘really’ like to work in an organisation. There have been many definitions of organisational culture. One definition that is often cited is:

Culture is a pattern of beliefs and expectations shared by the organisational members. These beliefs and expectations produce norms that powerfully shape the behaviour of individuals and groups within the organisation.
(Schwartz and Davis, 1981, p. 33)

1.2 Working abroad

The extract from a newspaper article in Example 1 provides insight into the problems of working abroad.

Example 1

Working abroad is often considered the chance of a lifetime. Living and working in a foreign country with all expenses paid; what more could anyone want?
In a surprising number of cases the answer is actually: ‘Quite a lot’. Finding yourself adrift in a different culture might seem exciting when you're on holiday, but it's an entirely different proposition when you're living and working. Codes of business practice may be radically different and the expatriate lifestyle can be lonely… yet many multinational companies have made little effort to prepare their employees for the shock.

1 National cultures: 1.1 Hofstede's five Cultural Dimensions

A series of perspectives that we might use to achieve a different insight into business was introduced by Morgan (1986) in his book entitled Images of an Organization. One of these was the business as a culture, a type of micro-society where people work and ‘live’ together on a daily basis, with certain rules and understandings about what is acceptable and what is not. The idea of a business having a culture was developed from the work of Hofstede on national cultures (1980). His research focused on ways of measuring national culture and how these ‘measures’ might work differently in different contexts. The cultural values that are important in a national culture, he suggested, could be reflected in the way businesses within that country are operated and organised.
Hofstede's five dimensions (he developed four in 1980, then added a fifth in 1991) were:
Power distance This concerns the extent to which less powerful members of organisations within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally. National cultures that demonstrated what Hofstede called a ‘low power distance’ are ones in which there is a concern to minimise inequalities. Hofstede included Sweden and New Zealand as examples of this. In general, Hofstede found that Latin American and Latin European (France and Spain) countries had higher power distance scores. The less powerful in these societies tend to look to those with power to make decisions, and inequalities within society are more acceptable. This is represented by a tendency for the centralisation of power and the subordination of those with less power within businesses.
Individualism/collectivism In an individualistic society, people are expected to look after themselves and their families. In the case of business this is reflected in, for example, employment contracts based on hiring and firing. Two examples of countries with high scores on this dimension were Australia and Canada. In more collective societies, people are more concerned for others and the culture is based around more cohesive groups, such as the family, which offer protection in exchange for loyalty. This tendency is reflected in businesses as well as elsewhere in society. Hofstede cited Ecuador and Indonesia as examples of more collective societies.

Business cultures

Why are we studying ‘business cultures’? Culture is a metaphor which can be used to explore the identity of a business. It is about how others see the business, but also how the individuals who work there understand it. Culture offers us a powerful insight into the business and what it is like to work within it.

An introduction to business cultures: Introduction

Culture is just one perspective that can help us to understand more about a business. 'Business culture' is not just about how others see a business, but also about how the individuals within an organisation understand it. In this unit we explore how the concept of culture developed from research into differences between cultures at a national level. It is possible to see, or ‘feel’, that one business is different from another, and that this involves more than just how it presents itself to the outside world.