Page 19 - Cultures and Organizations

4 THE CONCEPT OF CULTURE

probably Austrian, watchmaker. The tenth juror is irritated by what he sees
as the excessively polite manners of the other man. But the watchmaker
cannot behave otherwise. Even after many years in his new home country,
he still behaves the way he was raised. He carries within himself an indel-
ible pattern of behavior.

Different Minds but Common Problems

The world is full of confrontations between people, groups, and nations who
think, feel, and act differently. At the same time these people, groups, and
nations, just as with our twelve angry men, are exposed to common prob-
lems that demand cooperation for their solution. Ecological, economical,
political, military, hygienic, and meteorological developments do not stop
at national or regional borders. Coping with the threats of nuclear war-
fare, global warming, organized crime, poverty, terrorism, ocean pollution,
extinct ion of animals, AIDS, or a worldwide recession demands cooperat ion
of opinion leaders from many countries. They in their turn need the support
of broad groups of followers in order to implement the decisions taken.
Understanding the differences in the ways these leaders and their fol-
lowers think, feel, and act is a condition for bringing about worldwide
solutions that work. Quest ions of economic, technological, medical, or
biological cooperation have too often been considered as merely techni-
cal. One of the reasons why so many solut ions do not work or cannot be
implemented is that differences in thinking among the partners have been
ignored.
The objective of this book is to help in dealing with the differences in
thinking, feeling, and acting of people around the globe. It will show that
although the variety in people’s minds is enormous, there is a structure in

this variety that can serve as a basis for mutual understanding.

Culture as Mental Programming

Every person carries within him- or herself patterns of thinking, feeling,
and potential acting that were learned throughout the person’s lifetime.
Much of it was acquired in early childhood, because at that time a person
is most susceptible to learning and assimilating. As soon as certain pat-
terns of thinking, feeling, and acting have established themselves within a
person’s mind, he or she must unlearn these patterns before being able to