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What Is Culture?

There does not seem to be any absolute definition for 'culture'. Generally speaking, we can say that culture is the acquired knowledge, enlightenment, beliefs, values, behaviors and customs of a reasonably large group of people at a particular place and time.

If you were looking at the earth from outside, you might say that all earthlings have a particular culture (something we all think is important-like perhaps, cooking the food we eat).

Regions of the planet, nations, cities, ethnic and religious groups, all the way down to relatively small groups like businesses or organizations can have their own individual culture.

People who are involved with the smaller cultural groups, will comply with the culture of that group when they are with that group and then revert to the norms of the larger group they are part of when they leave the smaller group.

The deepest level of culture seems to be the values held by the participants. These may not even be obvious or observable by outsiders. They may not even be obvious to the participants, but are unconscious ways of behaviour common to all the people in that culture.

Organizational Culture