Natoinal Culture

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National Culture
Introduction
The research paper is a critical evaluation of the concept of national culture. Similarly, the paper brings forth the various dimensions of national culture, the concept of culture shock and how top overcome it, various influences on national culture, effects of national culture on doing business in the global arena among other issues relating to culture.
Culture has been defined as a group’s or a society system of shared values, beliefs, norms, language that dictates the way in which a given group lives. On the same not national culture refers to those assumptions, beliefs and values that they are learned while one is a child and help differentiate one society from the other. This definition is in line with Hostede’s in which he thought of it being the software of human mind (Tayeb, 1994).
It has been noted that societies differ in varied degree along cultural dimensions, on the same note, culture do change over time due to influences such as religion, language, economic development as well as changes in social structure. Similarly, cultural differences within and without a nation do greatly affect the environment in which people work there by implicating directly as well as indirectly on business (Ohame, 1990). For this reason then, cultural understanding is an integral part in relationship building hence in doing business in this global village.
Influences on national culture
As noted previously, although national culture is learned form childhood, there are key factors that influence it. According to Ohame 1990, the four major influences on national culture include the following, dominant religion, social factors that comprise of class structure and system of education, the political system and finally economic development.
The social factor categorized as social class is dictated by income as well as wealth; this is in most case fluid and can change at any time. Additionally, hereditary or seniority systems usually limit social economic competitiveness within any given societal setting. Education system in developed countries is inclined more towards science and technical, on the other hand third world countries have education systems that are in most cases elitist and less technological and inclined more toward arts (Alexander & Seidman, 1990). This indeed greatly influences the varied kind of nation culture that we see at present.
Economic and political system effects on national culture are notable. As various countries industrialized, competitive low context behaviors tend to pass from urban regions that are developed to rural regions that are less developed. In addition, traditional way of doing business or rather economies is characterized with a culture of a nation that is less competitive, turbulence way of doing business that is much community focused. In political terms, in scenarios that the government polices and r...