Thursday, October 2, 2008
Week 6 - CULTURE
The text book gives a very clear and good explanation about culture, about what is culture, its definition etc. Culture is such a big topic and I believe it depends on many different aspects, such as national culture, international culture, policies of organization, professionalism, language etc. Every area has its importance in creating a culture in an organization. I would like to give an example of the difference in cultures in the universities of India and USA. In India students address all the professors and instructions by sir or madam which is not the same in USA. In USA students address professors by their first name or last name (with the addition of professor to it) but this behavior would be considered rude in India. The culture followed in India would not work here and in the same way the culture followed in USA would not be accepted here. It does not mean that one is right and the other is wrong but it is about what people are habituated to.
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Indeed, when it comes to culture, there is no right or wrong, it is all about what people are used to. I would like to add that culture might vary even inside one same country. Before moving to the U.S. my family and I moved from one city located in São Paulo, to another city – also located in the State of São Paulo, Brazil.
So my mother decided to continue her studies in Campinas, the new city we moved to. During her first week of classes she noticed that the students addressed professors as Madam or Sir. This sounded so weird to my mother, because in the former city we were living, we used to address our professors by their first names, or simply as “professor” – either female or male professor.
Then we realized that the culture of our former city would never be the same as the culture in Campinas. However, like you said, “it does not mean that one is right and the other is wrong but it is about what people are habituated to.”
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