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Topic outline

 

  • Time: 4 hours
    Level: Introductory

 
 

Introduction

  • Introduction Resource
  • Culture is just one perspective that can help us to understand more about a business. 'Business culture' is not just about how others see a business, but also about how the individuals within an organisation...
 

Business cultures

  • Business cultures Resource
  • Why are we studying ‘business cultures’? Culture is a metaphor which can be used to explore the identity of a business. It is about how others see the business, but also how the individuals who work...
 

1 National cultures

  • 1.1 Hofstede's five Cultural Dimensions Resource
  • A series of perspectives that we might use to achieve a different insight into business was introduced by Morgan (1986) in his book entitled Images of an Organization. One of these was the business as...
  • 1.2 Working abroad Resource
  • The extract from a newspaper article in Example 1 provides insight into the problems of working abroad.
 

2 Definitions of organisational culture

  • 2.1 Culture as socialisation Resource
  • The cultural perspective has become popular in business studies because it offers a way of explaining performance and understanding difference. It is only one way of analysing business, but it is an interesting...
  • 2.2 Symbols within business Resource
  • How have academics and managers attempted to diagnose these largely hidden aspects of business? One well-known example is provided by Trice and Beyer (1984), who concentrated on the idea of there being...
 

3 Factors influencing culture

  • 3 Factors influencing culture Resource
  • Where the culture of a business comes from, and how it develops, is the subject of much discussion within business studies. Every commentator seems to have their own list of key factors. One example is...
 

4 Conclusion

  • 4 Conclusion Resource
  • Culture is just one perspective that can help us to understand more about a business. In this Unit we saw how the concept of culture developed from research into differences between cultures at a national...
 

References and Acknowledgements

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