Culture

What is culture and what are the elements?

In our century, we talk about Group culture, Company culture, Eating culture, Bath culture, Clothe culture, Sleeping culture, etc.

But … what is culture and why does so many pay so much academically attention to it?

Culture is based on our learnings (from school and our environmental) and emotions, culture is also based on our values like kindship, obligation, friendship, religion, commercial relationships, but also on “negative” emotions and values, which can cause to negative attitude and results. Culture is changing for the individual and the group, sometimes people are resistant to the changes happen in every culture, this can cause to extreme behavior of the individual and the group.

“We cannot teach a human, we can only help them, to learn it from its own, and to discover it himself.” (Galileo Galilei)

“A company is people. Values make people persons. Values give vitality, meaning and direction to a company. As the people of an organization value, so the company becomes.”

Tomas Q. D. Andres

The wind can blow in any direction but the iceberg will take the direction of the drift. Therefor we need to focus on the drift and not on the wind to be able to change something!

See above picture!

We are always on the side of the emotions, there we have the lever where we have to start and work on. Again, we can only work together with the person; here a change can only happen if the person will learn it from its own and is willing to learn and to change.

Let us have a look to the elements of culture and lets see what is behind each element.

Elements of culture

The following elements are the main elements of what culture defines. This description is valid to all over the world; the individual result is just different to the individual and the group. Have a look to the picture above, you will see each of the elements is connected to each other.

Environmental

Our environmental is providing an impact to us as an individual; our environmental is the room (Private home, work place, daily places we visit, etc.). It is also people (relatives, couples, friends, co-worker, people we meet, etc.) all around us. The places we go to, are always providing an influence to us, it could be the understanding of cleanliness, order, pollution, etc.

The people we meet are having an impact to us because of their acting and how and what they talk. This is happen if we want or not. Because part of all is saved to the hard drive in our brain. Talking can be a very strong weapon; many repetitions will safe it to our mind deep. Repetitions if they are true or not will be in our mind, only if we have very strong values about the subject it is eventually not saved or saved as wrong.

Climate

The climate is also having an impact to us, it could be tropical climate, people will have a siesta, or in cold countries, people may work less time outside, weather conditions etc. will dictate our day and because of that it will become routine. This routine is part of our culture. Because of the high humidity and high temperature of the country, they will possibly have a siesta during lunchtime; it is part of the culture.

Time / Room

The places and the time in which we act is changing from one to the other moment, we realize with our perception and our apperception all around us. Only the apperception is relevant how much is saved in our mind and how it is saved. This is having an impact to our individual culture, (This is part of our ?perception and apperception).

History

It is the history of the family and the history of the country. There are several impacts happen over the years from different cultures. All happen, to the country will have a cultural impact to the individual and the family and again the family will also have an impact to the individual. History is the sum of all coming to us. To understand more and better we need to observe the culture we want to understand, we need to ask questions to learn.

Language

The language of the country is important for all, because it is the / or one medium of communication. The language is changing, in some countries faster as in other and the changes are driven by all media as well as from the History and our youth people. It can happen that the older generation will not be able to understand the younger generation anymore, but still there is one baseline for all.

Religion

Religion is one of the most important parts in many countries. The belief in God and Religion is sometimes strong and it must be accepted, respected and appreciated (never ever make a joke about God or Religion). The kind of religion is forming the belief of the individual.

Attitude

The attitude of the individual is based on the learnings over the time; it depends on the learnings and what the people have heard and seen and save in their memory. The attitude of worker is generally very good; the most benefit will provided to the company or bosses from people who are “hungry”, hungry to learn more, hungry to earn good salary, hungry to grow. If the basic attitude is not the best the only way to change is to talk about the values and see from where it comes.

Values

The values of all people can only be change if we understand the individual reason for the value and the value itself. A change can only be happen if the individual is willing to change. A change can only come from the inner, it cannot be pushed or go against the personal values, attitude or perception. As long as we do not try to have an impact to the main basic values of a person. We can work with them to change the lower surface values, then only together and not with a push, we can work on the basic values. All changes can only happen if the person is reflecting and changing by their own.

Perception

Perception is what we have learned, seen, smell, memorize, read, how we think, our memories, our motivation or our emotions. All of this is part of our perception because our perception is based on what is going to our direction or what is happen in our surrounding. E.g. we are entering a restaurant and we can smell something special and very great, now we order some food and we have a great experience. From now on our mind is connecting the smell from the beginning with a great experience, it is memorized as positive. It also can happen the other way around or if we see something. Our memories are not always on the upper surface, we do not know why we react in a specific way but it is our inner where all is saved.

If you like to learn more, feel free to contact me!