What is organisational culture? - L. Küng-Shanklemanc (2000)
Q On page 15 Küng-Shanklemanc explains Schein's model of cultural inheritance within a company:
“The group behaves in a certain way based on the founder’s beliefs and values, and either succeeds or fails;
(…) If it succeeds, and this process repeats itself, the founder’s beliefs, values and assumptions come to be validated in the shared experiences of the group.”
Will the group always follow the set of beliefs and values held by the founder?
A To me this seems highly unlikely; that way there would be no room or possibility for change. A related question could be whether we’re dealing with the Marxist concept of ideology or the Gramsci concept of hegemony. Gramsci expands Marx’s idea of ideology and introduces hegemony, which he posits as a ‘constant contradiction between ideology and the social experience of the subordinate that makes this interface into an inevitable site of ideological struggle' (Fiske 1992: 291). My preference goes out to hegemony. Otherwise the lower classes (in a company represented by the common workers) could never change the policies and mission of the company. I feel they can influence the assumptions a company has by for instance going on strike.
Dimensions of culture - M. de Mooij (1998)
This article was very clear and so I don't have any questions, rather some notes:
In my view there must be more categories by which to define a countries culture. Culture is such a part of our lives, to me, it seems impossible to define it in five simple categories. Culture is what it is because of many more factors. Perhaps De Mooij should have thought of the way a culture deals with age, history, political systems or religion. Having said that, I found it a very interesting and informative article.
In how far are the examples given still correct? Haven’t there been many changes since the publication of this article. Natural disasters, war or a change of government might change the way a people look at life.
Also, I found the assumptions quite stereotypical. Obviously there is some truth in all of this – stereotypes have to come from somewhere – but the fact of the matter is that even regionally or locally there are many differences between cultures. Compare outgoing southern people (Noord-Brabant,
It would have been helpful had De Mooij explained some of the differences between advertisements from different countries. Perhaps she does this in a later chapter but now it seems that she only mentions there are huge differences but it never becomes clear what those differences exactly are.
Advertising Cultures - S. Nixon (2003)
Q Is the culturising of goods in Western societies really something that has only been happening since the post-modern are?
A Going back as far as prehistoric Man there has always been art. Human beings have always sought for symbols to communicate feelings or represent certain abstract aspects of life. Perhaps today it is happening on a far grander scale than ever before as economies flourish but even extremely impoverished peoples and nations use aesthetic ways to express themselves and form their own identity. When we look at countries destroyed by war or decease there’s still music and theatre there.
We’re moving towards an era of re-enlightenment; a Re-Renaissance if you will. Knowledge was seen as the most important of all goods in Ancient Greece and
