What Is Culture and How Can It Be Changed?
Culture is the accumulated beliefs, attitudes and behaviors that distinguish one group of people from another. It is reflected in the physical elements of a society, including food, clothing, art and language; and the non-physical elements, such as traditions, beliefs, and values.
Cultural anthropology is the study of human cultures, their development and change over time. The discipline is concerned with the way in which human beings create meaning through their social interaction and how these meanings shape individual identities and relationships.
Anthropologists have debated the definition of culture for over a century. The early nineteenth century works of Charles Darwin and other naturalists influenced the work of ethnographers like Tylor, who defined culture as a complex system of learned behavior patterns that are based on an individual’s environment, capabilities, and needs. He considered that cultures were similar to plants and animals, evolving through stages such as savagery, barbarism and civilization. The early twentieth century work of anthropologists such as Benedict, Mead and Boas further defined culture as a collective programming of the mind that distinguishes one group from another. They established the concept of enculturation and stressed the need for holism in research approaches that consider the entire context of a society. The work of later anthropologists such as Kroeber and Clifford Geertz helped to establish the role of language in culture and the idea that symbols, or cultural artifacts, are the primary means by which a culture is transmitted from generation to generation.
For business leaders, the most important thing to know about culture is that it can be changed. It takes a great deal of effort and energy, however, to shift a culture from one that is inefficient or obsolete to one that supports the desired results. A key step in the process is to clearly define what the culture should be based on core values that are unique to your organization. Then, you can begin to develop and implement the artifacts that will reflect that culture.
A growing body of research in organizational psychology has shown that the culture of a business is closely related to its success or failure. A company with a strong and well-defined culture can better attract and retain employees, provide them with a sense of purpose and identity and encourage them to be productive. Conversely, a company with weak or inconsistent cultural characteristics can suffer from low productivity, high turnover and even morale problems.
A number of studies have tried to link specific cultural products with psychological traits, such as openness or creativity. Most of these studies, however, have been correlational and have reported small effects with limited temporal stability and replicability. Further, they have tended to focus on the influence of particular cultural products, such as music, movies and literature, rather than a generalized impact on these traits. These limitations suggest that more sophisticated methods should be used to explore the relationship between cultural products and psychological traits. These methods may include the use of natural experiments or the application of a new theoretical framework to examine these relationships.
Culture is the accumulated beliefs, attitudes and behaviors that distinguish one group of people from another. It is reflected in the physical elements of a society, including food, clothing, art and language; and the non-physical elements, such as traditions, beliefs, and values. Cultural anthropology is the study of human cultures, their development and change over time. The discipline is concerned with the way in which human beings create meaning through their social interaction and how these meanings shape individual identities and relationships. Anthropologists have debated the definition of culture for over a century. The early nineteenth century works of Charles Darwin and other naturalists influenced the work of ethnographers like Tylor, who defined culture as a complex system of learned behavior patterns that are based on an individual’s environment, capabilities, and needs. He considered that cultures were similar to plants and animals, evolving through stages such as savagery, barbarism and civilization. The early twentieth century work of anthropologists such as Benedict, Mead and Boas further defined culture as a collective programming of the mind that distinguishes one group from another. They established the concept of enculturation and stressed the need for holism in research approaches that consider the entire context of a society. The work of later anthropologists such as Kroeber and Clifford Geertz helped to establish the role of language in culture and the idea that symbols, or cultural artifacts, are the primary means by which a culture is transmitted from generation to generation. For business leaders, the most important thing to know about culture is that it can be changed. It takes a great deal of effort and energy, however, to shift a culture from one that is inefficient or obsolete to one that supports the desired results. A key step in the process is to clearly define what the culture should be based on core values that are unique to your organization. Then, you can begin to develop and implement the artifacts that will reflect that culture. A growing body of research in organizational psychology has shown that the culture of a business is closely related to its success or failure. A company with a strong and well-defined culture can better attract and retain employees, provide them with a sense of purpose and identity and encourage them to be productive. Conversely, a company with weak or inconsistent cultural characteristics can suffer from low productivity, high turnover and even morale problems. A number of studies have tried to link specific cultural products with psychological traits, such as openness or creativity. Most of these studies, however, have been correlational and have reported small effects with limited temporal stability and replicability. Further, they have tended to focus on the influence of particular cultural products, such as music, movies and literature, rather than a generalized impact on these traits. These limitations suggest that more sophisticated methods should be used to explore the relationship between cultural products and psychological traits. These methods may include the use of natural experiments or the application of a new theoretical framework to examine these relationships.