Culture and diversity
« European powers fought over Africa’s resources, markets, and lands, with little regard for local cultures and citizens » (Griffin et al.,2003, p91). It is more important today for companies who want to move in a foreign country must adapt their own culture to the dominant one (in the chosen country); at first to respect the nation, but also to enhance their competitive advantage through cultural diversity.
Lots of theorists as Ricardo or Smith mentioned ideas about the notion of culture in countries, influencing international business.
Different definitions of culture exist, because many theorists are, or were interested in that point: “Culture consists in patterned ways of thinking, feeling and reacting, acquired and transmitted mainly by symbols, constituting the distinctive achievements of human groups, including their embodiments in artefacts; the essential core of culture consists of traditional (i.e historically derived and selected) ideas and especially their attached values. “ (Kluckhohn, 1951, p.86, n.5). (Hofstede, 2001, p.9). Tea time for example, is a traditional value in Great Britain.
Culture is “transmitted and created content and patterns of values, ideas, and other symbolic meaningful systems as factors in the shaping of human behaviour”
(Kroeber and Parsons, 1958, p. 583)(Hofstede, 2001, p.9). Thus culture might be taught by someone who has already assimilate elements of culture.
Culture is “the collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from another” (Hofstede, 2001, p.9). Here, culture can be explained through religion. Believing in God or Yahve makes a difference between groups. “Rituals are collective activities that are technically unnecessary to the achievement of desired ends, but that within a culture are considered socially essential, keeping the individual bound within the