Culture in Moral Behavior: Lesson 3

Lesson 3:
Culture in Moral
Behavior
Define Culture
• Culture refers to the cumulative deposit of knowledge, experience,
beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of
time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and material
objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in the course
of generations through individual and group striving.
• is the systems of knowledge shared by a relatively large group of
people.
• Culture is the sum of total of the learned behavior of a group of
people that are generally considered to be the tradition of that
people and are transmitted from generation to generation.
THEORY OF CULTURAL DETERMINISM
• Some anthropologists suggest that there is no universal "right way" of
being human. "Right way" is almost always "our way"; that "our way" in
one society almost never corresponds to "our way" in another
society.
• The optimistic version of this theory postulates that human nature
being infinitely malleable, human being can choose the ways of
life they prefer.
• The pessimistic version maintains that people are what they are
conditioned to be; this is something over which they have no control.
Human beings are passive creatures and do whatever their culture tells
them to do. This explanation leads to behaviorism that locates the
causes of human behavior in a realm that is totally beyond human
control.
Cultural Relativism
• Different cultural groups think, feel, and act
differently. There is no scientific standards
foreconsidering one group as intrinsically superior or
inferior to another. Studying differences in culture
among groups and societies presupposes a position
of cultural relativism.
CULTURAL ETHNOCENTRISM
• Ethnocentrism is the belief that one's own culture is
superior to that of other cultures. It is a form of
reductionism that reduces the "other way" of life to
a distorted version of one's own.
MANIFESTATIONS OF CULTURE
Cultural differences manifest themselves in different waysand differing
levels of depth.
-Symbols are words, gestures, pictures, or objects that carry a particular
meaning which is only recognized by those who share a particular culture.
-Heroes are persons, past or present, real or fictitious, who possess
characteristics that are highly prized in a culture. They also serve as models
for behavior.
-Rituals are collective activities, sometimes superfluous in reaching
desired objectives, but are considered as socially essential. They are
therefore carried out most of the times for their own sake(ways of
greetings, paying respect to others, religious and social ceremonies,
etc.)
-The core of a culture is formed by values. They are
broad tendencies for preferences of certain state
of affairs to others (good-evil, right-wrong, natural-
unnatural).
Symbols, heroes, and rituals are the tangible or visual
aspects of the practices of a culture. The true cultural
meaning of the practices is intangible; this is revealed
only when the practices are interpreted by the insiders.
Layers of cultures
• The national level: Associated with the nation as a whole.
• The regional level: Associated with ethnic, linguistic, or religious
differences that exist within nation.
• The gender level: Associated with gender differences (female vs.
male)
• The generation level: Associated with the differences between
grandparents and parents, parents and children.
• The social class level: Associated with educational opportunities and
differences in occupation.
• The corporate level: Associated with the particular culture of an
organization. Applicable to those who are employed
MEASURING CULTURAL DIFFERENCES
A variable can be operationalized either by single- or
composite-measure techniques. A single-measure
technique means the use of one indicator to measure the
domain of a concept; the composite-measure technique
means the use of several indicators to construct an index for
the concept after the domain of the concept has been
empirically sampled. Hofstede (1997) has devised a
composite-measure technique to measure cultural
differences among different societies:
• Power distance index:/ The index measures the degree of inequality that
exists in a society.
• Uncertainty avoidance index: The index measures the extent to which a society
feels threatened by uncertain or ambiguous situations.
• Individualism index: The index measure the extent to which a society is
individualistic. Individualism refers to a loosely knit social framework in
a society in which people are supposed to take care of themselves and their
immediate families only. The other end of the spectrum would be
collectivism that occurs when there is a tight social framework in which
people distinguish between in-groups and out-groups; they expect their
in-groups (relatives, clans, organizations) to look after them in exchange
for absolute loyalty.
• Masculinity index (Achievement vs. Relationship):The index measures the
extent to which the dominant values are assertiveness, money and
things (achievement), not caring for others or for quality of life. The other
end of the spectrum would be femininity (relationship)
RECONCILIATION OF CULTURAL
DIFFERENCES
• Cultural awareness:
Discussions and reading about other cultures definitely
helps build cultural awareness, but opinions presented
must be carefully measured. Sometimes they may
represent unwarranted stereotypes, an assessment of only a
subgroup of a particular group of people, or a situation that
has since undergone drastic changes. It is always a
good idea to get varied viewpoints about the same culture
• Clustering cultures:
Some countries may share many attributes that help mold their
cultures (the modifiers may be language, religion, geographical
location, etc.).Based on this data obtained from past cross-cultural
studies, countries may be grouped by similarities in values and
attitudes. Fewer differences may be expected when moving within a
cluster than when moving from one cluster to another.
• Determining the extent of global involvement:
All enterprises operating globally need not have the same degree of
cultural awareness. Figure 2 illustrates extent to which a company
needs to understand global cultures at different levels of
involvement. The further a company moves out from the sole role of doing
domestic business, the more it needs to understand cultural differences.
Moving outward on more than one axis simultaneously makes the
need for building cultural awareness even more essential
Figure 2. Cultural Awareness and Extent of
Global Involvement
Thank You!

Culture in Moral Behavior: Lesson 3

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Culture in Moral Behavior: Lesson 3

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Culture in Moral Behavior: Lesson 3

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Lesson 3:

You might also like