Culture and Its Impact on Organizations

Culture and Its Impact on Organizations

Deniz Zaptcioglu Celikdemir
Copyright: © 2023 |Pages: 20
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-7212-5.ch006
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Abstract

Different types of organizations are established to meet the demands and needs of humans around the world. Regardless of their size and the sector in which they participate, each one strives to be effective and efficient. All organizations are managed by human beings which produce goods or render services using human labor. The customers of the organization are humans as well. Therefore, humans naturally have a critical role in the function of organizations. It is important to understand their behavior and the variables that affect their behavior. Since the world has become a single market as a result of globalization and the drastic development in technology, it is crucial to comprehend the effect of culture as a variable in determining the behavior of individuals and effectiveness and efficiency of organizations. The aim of the chapter is to analyze the impact of culture on individuals and organizations.
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Culture

The definition of culture is complex since there are various definitions of culture throughout the literature. The widespread definition which is widely used by many scholars is culture is to society what memory is to individuals (Kluckhohn, 1954). Culture is a result of the experiences which have been useful in the past and forwarded to forthcoming generations. If something that has worked out in the past as an experience of a society; would be expected to be passed on future generations as well. On the other hand, according to Skinner (1981) culture can be defined “as a complex schedule of reinforcements”, whereas Hofstede (1991) states culture as being to humans what a program is to a computer.

Some other scholars have indicated culture as shared behaviors, cognitive systems or meanings. (Goodenough, 1970; 1971/1981; Pelto & Pelto, 1975; Shweder & LeVine, 1984) Tylor describes culture as a complex whole which consists of knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society (Tylor, 1871). Each human being has its own specific way of feeling, thinking and acting that is shaped by his/her own parents in early childhood.

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