Page 34 - Cultures and Organizations

The Rules of the Social Game 19

need in five years. Mergers and stock market fluctuations shake the busi-
ness landscape.
So, on the surface, change is all-powerful. But how deep are these
changes? Can human societies be likened to ships that are rocked about
aimlessly on turbulent seas of change? Or to shores, covered and then
bared again by new waves washing in, altered ever so slowly with each
successive tide?
A book by a Frenchman about his visit to the United States contains
the following text:

The American ministers of the Gospel do not attempt to draw or to fi x all
the thoughts of man upon the life to come; they are willing to surrender
a portion of his heart to the cares of the present. . . . If they take no part
themselves in productive labor, they are at least interested in its progress,
and they applaud its results.

The author, we might think, refers to U.S. TV evangelists. In fact, he was
a French visitor, Alexis de Tocqueville, and his book appeared in 1835. 16
Recorded comments by visitors from one country to another are a rich
source of information on how national culture differences were perceived
in the past, and they often look strikingly modern, even if they date from
centuries ago.
There are many things in societies that technology and its products
do not change. If young Turks drink Coca-Cola, this does not necessarily
affect their attitudes toward authority. In some respects, young Turks differ
from old Turks, just as young Americans differ from old Americans. In the
“onion” model of Figure 1.2, such differences mostly involve the relatively

superficial spheres of symbols and heroes, of fashion and consumption. In

the sphere of values—that is, fundamental feelings about life and about
other people—young Turks differ from young Americans just as much as
old Turks differ from old Americans. There is no evidence that the values
of present-day generations from different countries are converging.
Culture change can be fast for the outer layers of the onion diagram,
labeled practices. Practices are the visible part of cultures. New practices
can be learned throughout one’s lifetime; people older than seventy happily

learn to surf the Web on their first personal computer, acquiring new sym-
bols, meeting new heroes, and communicating through new rituals. Cul-
ture change is slow for the onion’s core, labeled values. As already argued,