Unpacking Cultural Metaphors: Software, Spice Blends, and Toolkits

When trying to make sense of the complex concept of culture, metaphors can be illuminating...or limiting. Let's dive into three provocative metaphors and see which ones resonate.

The Software of the Mind

Made famous by researcher Geert Hofstede, this metaphor views culture as being hardwired into our mental programming from a young age—almost like software installed on a computer. The idea is that our foundational beliefs, values, and behaviors are imprinted by the culture we're born into.

The metaphor highlights how deeply ingrained culture becomes. It shapes our unconscious thoughts and automatic ways of operating in the world. Like software, our cultural programming runs in the background, shaping how we interpret reality.

However, a downside of this metaphor is that it can depict culture as overly rigid and deterministic. Humans aren't static computers simply executing cultural code. We display more agency, flexibility, and heterogeneity than that metaphor implies.

The Cultural Spice Blend

This is a metaphor that Melissa Hahn and I actually introduce in our new book Forging Bonds in a Global Workforce - and it emphasizes the fact that individuals have multiple "cultures" shaping their identities. Our national culture is like one spice, but we also contain influences (other spices) from regional, organizational, and professional cultures we belong to. We aren't one-dimensional caricatures of a single culture, but rather dynamic mixtures of diverse cultural flavors.

The Culture Toolkit

Proposed by sociologist Ann Swidler, this view depicts culture as a toolkit of beliefs, habits, and skills that people strategically apply (or don't) in different situations. Rather than passively absorbing culture, we actively use culture as a resource when it's useful or advantageous.

I like how this framing emphasizes human agency. We aren't hapless victims of cultural programming, but curators who make purposeful choices about which cultural "tools" to use. It allows for more creativity and heterogeneity in how we express culture.

My Personal Take

While all three metaphors offer insights, I lean towards favoring the cultural spice blend and toolkit metaphors. The software idea has value in highlighting how core culture is to our operating systems. But ideally, it needs an update—culture isn't static coded uploaded once, but constantly evolving systems of beliefs and behaviors shaped by our environments and choices.

The spice blend celebrates the heterogeneity and intersectionality of our cultural influences. And the toolkit emphasizes our agency as people who can thoughtfully and strategically apply cultural practices. Both capture more of the dynamic complexity of culture.

Let me know your thoughts! How would you metaphorically describe the multi-dimensional phenomenon of culture? I'm excited to blend in some new flavors to my perspective.