CULTURE

Ing. Jiří Šnajdar 2013 Mgr. Evžen Staněk

Culture

Cultura (lat) means cultivation.

So CULTURE is “cultivation of spirit”

Culture can be understood narrowly, as the reception of artistic activity, a product of artistic creation.

 The culture we can widely understand as bringing people spirit and art into things and people and creating their cultivation of spirit and better condition.

Culture is relative integrated whole including people behaviour and its creations, that all happens in specific community.

Culture is accumulated experience of particular social whole. 

Basic function of culture :

Intro Confirming Culture confirms and presents further to individual members the sense of social whole (national, concern, family). It orients to cultivate those elements, that are important for keeping, surviving, identity of whole. 

 

To respect the culture of particular whole means also to respect the evolutionary process.Continuation is included in history of the culture (victories and defeats), it is memory of society (national consciousness, particularity, tradition). 

Basic function of culture:

Security of continuation

Culture is defined also as complex of formula of behaviour. It is also an instrument thanks to its has the behaviour destructive or integrated character. Individual behaviour in limits of particular culture allows a person to live in harmony with this culture.

 

Basic function of culture

Correction of individual behaviour

 Respecting of common principles of behaviour allows to foresee the consequence of own behaviour and also of others members of this culture. It enables to react better, to prepare for situations of life. 

 

 

 

Basic function of culture:

Identification

Creating of specific social formation (particular cultures) with historical progress also with behaviour specifics results the differentiation from other subjects in given social ambience. Acceptation of given culture means differentiation from other cultures.

 

  

Three spheres of culture

Each society (social group, organisation) has its own culture. However people mostly penetrate in many social wholes and these wholes mutually influence. They have a mutual denominator in mutual history :

• sphere : religious

• sphere : national sphere

• sphere : individual social subjects

It is inexact designation, because since establishment, constitution of individual religious, underwent also the culture inside extensive changes and historical “conservative” culture symbols are not always identical with reality. Many symbols developed in past time and their meaning dissipated even if they once stabilised the system.   

Religious sphere

Prohibition in consummation of pork meat at Muslims and Jews is logic. In climatic conditions of southern Mediterranean pork meat decays very fast, it is hard to preserve in that time with the most common method – drying. The civilisation today knows pasteurisation, fridge. However the religious restriction is a part of cultural tradition and is observing.  

Note :

National sphere

National cultural sphere breaks through historical as the most extensive community, in its scope are cultivating national interests. 

The nation is historical – cultural phenomenon, community arisen in own specific evolution.

National culture has priority specific sign – language – implement to tell and keep meaning. It is a symbolic system of most powerful bindings. 

Note:

 

The idea that the Czech national character is beer is different here and elsewhere in the world . For the Far East nations is the beer nation Americans, even if they do not differentiate beer non-alcoholic and alcoholic.

They drink light the same way like real „Budvar“. This would not accept the Czech beer drinker at all.

In ideas of Danes are the biggest beer specialist themselves, the rivals are beer drinkers from Bavaria. Of the opinion no Prague or Pilsen, but Munich is the “paunch of beer world”. 

Sphere of individual social groups 

Family, economy organisation, professional groups, political organisations are the assemblages with the culture the same kind, that differentiate them from other groups organised on similar basis. They have system of motivation, own behaviour – ethical codex. They have mutual history and mutual targets.

 

 

 All other causes are derived from the first.

 

The first is the unwillingness to listen.

Inability to communicate in international relations has many causes.

• domination in sanction (reward, penalty)• keeping of rules (including time)• rationality versus emotionality in action • relationship old-young 

 

can be determinate according to described relations :

•relationship to authority•relation individual and society•conception masculine and feminine•way of conflict solution •relation to insecurity and uncertainty •short-term and long-term orientation

Dimension of culture

.

• Communication is the basic stone of management, but also source of complications and reason of conflicts.

• Misunderstanding, misconception, different interpretation, diverse kind of task solution – these are sources of marketing failure.

• New dimension occurs by communication between different cultures.

• Skill of communication consist not only of perfect knowledge of language and professional terminology.

Intercultural communication

Mutual action (reaction influence) individual and groups. It is based on Social perception. Perception (recognition) is a process, where we perceive through our sense information from our surrounding. The basic implement is social experience. A part of it is interpersonal reception – registration of manifestation of other person. 

• Social interaction• Social communication• Cultural dimensions and standards 

One of essential segment of intercultural communication is Social contact.

Social interaction

 

Three components of interpersonal reception. (accord. Johns) 

• perceiving person (subject of reception)

• perceived person (object of reception)

• situation context

  Perceiving person (subject of reception) Results of perceiving affect physiological, psychological and

social factors.What we see, hear and feel is subjective vision.Often occurs reception defence.

 

 

Reception defence

We do not take in signals that can be understood as endangered (do not see, do not hear).

Generally we go in for positive signals, that are in harmony with our value preferences.

(In practice the person , to whom we have positive pose, we take in firstly his positive qualities, negative we take in the person, to whom we have negative pose).  

 

 

 

Perceiving parson is together the person perceived.

We are the part of social interaction and communication. Perceived person (object of reception)

•physical appearance and outer adaptation•verbal and non-verbal manifestation•cultural and social surroundings•behaviour•extent of correspondence with comparable (individual, demographic etc.)•results of activity

 

 

 

Complements information, that we have about object of reception and influent their interpretation.In different cultures has the situation context different importance. In Czech is strong, not everything we say directly, it is necessary to count with non-verbal speech and with different reaction in different ambience and situation. Conversely Germans communicate without respect on situation in the same way and mainly verbal – they are less influent in situation context. 

 

Situation context

 

 

• We notice outer signs : appearance, verbal and non-verbal speech, behaviour in situation

• We compare everything with our experience according to our identification rules. (Category honest, non-honest, helpful, negative etc.)

• We go in for quality of contents of communication.  

 

 

Progress in process of social perception

Causal attribution

 

On the basis of one marked observational quality we do not hesitate to top up further characteristics, that we expect from the whole image of personality. We endeavour to create integral (even if skewed) vision about a person. 

Implicit theory of personality

We afford to vindicate our feeling, opinion. We search and find explanation, why the other behaves so and not differently.These reasons of social behaviour of other person we can review incorrectly, when we are not a part of his culture, or we do not know his culture well. 

Effect of sequence 

Are inseparable part of perception of other person. We must count with them, to know them to eliminate them.

 

 

Perceptions mistakes

It is tendency to overcome by first impression. (By correct understanding of this effect it is possible to work with it in own benefit.) Especially top managers (often persuaded about their abilities “guess people”) are overcome by this effect.Often is in the special literature notion Halo-effect, which is overcoming by first impression. The person is unduly influenced by some characteristic sign of the other person – negatively or positively. Here come in useful distinctive, but not essential characteristics.

Halo-effect in other cultures

 

If we are overcome by this effect in our own culture, it ispossible by deeper knowledge to decode a person and later correct this knowledge. In other cultures we can make lasting wrong image about a person when we have not knowledge about communication ambience.   Note

 

A Chinese businessman agreed with a contract under condition that it confirms with the family. He becomes immediately a label, that he is a submissive person. We do not think about that in the culture Konfucia is the family on the first place. Also a dominate individual, possibly as certain ritual form, qualifies the agreement with approval of family. 

 

Stereo presentation 

  The contrary situation can happen.

We sort some characteristic qualities to a person according to deep-rooted conception about his social or racial membership. Again we often mistake in intercultural situation. 

 

Note

The same Chinese does not say he must ask the family. But we know, that Chinese do it. When this businessman does not behave so, as he should in condition with his culture, we will consider him for premature, or we will think that we made disadvantageous business when he immediately agreed. But the Chinese only wanted to behave like European. 

 

Projection

  

A person “screens “ his own characteristic into other people, attaches his feelings and formulas to other people. When your business partner is extraordinary suspicious and sees frauds everywhere, this can be caused by his own behaviour formula.  I fraud that is why I think that everybody frauds ! In intercultural relationship is such a projection a big barrier in communication. When we think that every Jew frauds and every Arab lies, there is no reason to do intercultural communication.