A society's culture reflects its values, beliefs, behaviors, customs, and attitudes Culture is learned behavior that is transmitted from one member of a society to another. The elements of culture are interrelated and reinforce each other. These elements are adaptive. changing as outside forces influence the society. Culture not only is shared by the society's members but also defines the society's membership.
A society's culture comprises numerous elements. The social structure reflects the culture’s beliefs about the individual's role in society and the importance of mobility within that society. Language is another important cultural element because it allows members of the society to communicate with each other. Approximately 85 percent of the world's population claims some Religious affiliation. Religion influences attitudes toward work. Investment, consumption, and responsibility for one's behavior Religion may also influence the formulation of a country's laws.
A society's culture reflects and shapes its values and attitudes, including those toward time, age, status, and education. These affect business operations in numerous ways, such as in hiring practices, job turnover, and the design of compensation programs.
Researchers have grouped countries according to common cultural characteristics. Hall and Hall developed the low-context-high-context classification scheme, which focuses on the importance of context within a culture. To some extent, the existence of cultural clusters eases the difficulties of doing business internationally. Researchers have discovered that many countries share similar attitudes toward work roles, job satisfaction, and other work-related aspects of life. Often countries within a cultural cluster share a common language.
The pioneering research of Geert Hofstede has identified five basic cultural dimensions along which people may differ: social orientation, power orientation, uncertainty orientation, goal orientation, and time orientation. These differences affect business behavior in numerous ways and often lead to cross-cultural misunderstandings.