Page 33 - Cultures and Organizations

18 THE CONCEPT OF CULTURE

belongs to a number of different groups and categories at the same time, we
unavoidably carry several layers of mental programming within ourselves,
corresponding to different levels of culture. In particular:

■ A national level according to one’s country (or countries, for people
who migrated during their lifetimes)
■ A regional and/or ethnic and/or religious and/or linguistic affi liation
level
■ A gender level, according to whether one was born as a girl or as a
boy
■ A generation level, separating grandparents from parents from
children
■ A social class level, associated with educational opportunities and
with a person’s occupation or profession
■ For those who are employed, organizational, departmental, and/or
corporate levels according to the way employees have been socialized
by their work organization

The mental programs from these various levels are not necessarily in har-

mony. In modern society they are often partly conflicting: for example,

religious values may conflict with generation values; gender values may

conflict with organizational practices. Conflicting mental programs within

people make it difficult to anticipate their behavior in a new situation.

Culture Change: Changing Practices, Stable Values

If you could step into a time machine and travel back sixty years to the time
of your parents or grandparents, you would find the world much changed.

There would be no computers, and television sets would rarely be seen. The

cities would appear small and provincial, with only the occasional car and
no big retail chain outlets. Travel back another sixty years and cars would
disappear from the streets as well, as would telephones, washing machines,
and vacuum cleaners from our houses and airplanes from the air.
Our world is changing. Technology invented by people surrounds us.
The World Wide Web has made our world appear smaller, so that the
notion of a “global village” seems appropriate. Business companies operate
worldwide. They innovate rapidly; many do not know today what products
they will manufacture and sell next year or what new job types they will