chapter 12 Summary

Chapter 12 Summary
Culture Inside and Out


What is Corporate Culture?
Culture refers to an organization's values, beliefs, and behaviors. In general, it is concerned with beliefs and values on the basis of which people interpret experiences and behave, individually and in groups. Cultural statements become operationalized when executives articulate and publish the values of their firm which provide patterns for how employees should behave.
Why is it important to learn the company's corporate culture?
Simply stated, there's no getting around it. If you want to be successful at a company, and enjoy where you work, you need to adapt to the company's culture. The company won't adapt to you, unless, of course, you're hired as the chief executive officer! Only then will you be in a position to change and shape corporate ways.
If you look at people who succeed and move ahead in the corporate environment, you'll find they are people who are able to fit their individuality and personal style within the boundaries of the culture.
Intercultural Communication Styles
It is surprising to some that intercultural communication does not often generate comprehensive descriptions of culture, or ethnographies. While such descriptions are crucial for any cross-cultural study, they do not in themselves constitute cases of cross-cultural interaction. An intercultural perspective leads researchers to hypothesize, given some difference in the described cultures, how members of the cultures might interact.

Another useful distinction in this context is that between cultural interaction and cultural comparison. When social science studies deal with culture at all, they frequently compare one aspect of a culture to a similar phenomenon in another. For instance, psychologists might compare how Northern European depth perception differs from that of Amazonian Indians. Or sociolinguists might analyze the differences in ritual greeting between European Americans and African Americans. While interculturalists use these kinds of
comparisons for their knowledge base, they focus less on the differences themselves and more on how the differences are likely to affect face-to-face interaction.
Intercultural communicationThe globalization process is forcing organizations to rethink their strategies. Intercultural communication, skills assume an ever larger role in global marketing strategies. Future managers must acquire effective intercultural competence. The "one world" market has forced organizations to think global, act local, and integrate. Intercultural communication serves a vital role in that it can forestall miscommunication, prevent misunderstandings, and avert mistakes.
Verbal skills developed in learning to write effectively provide the foundation for all forms of communication. Writing provides the letters or symbols written that represent the sounds or words of language. It is then language that provides the framing for the window to our inner thoughts and even our souls.
Workforce Inclusion and Diversity
Throughout the 1990's, diversity continued to be about the numbers of different kinds of people in the workforce as a whole and at each level. Diversity staffs tried to increase the number of people of color and women in their organizations. They saw this primarily as a hiring task.