National & Corporate Culture Question: Q&A

As an important part of the course is focused on the readings and its comprehension this post will answer to the questions proposed for the subject National & Corporate Culture.

National Culture: when does it matters?

In order to understand why is culture important or unimportant, we must try to elucidate the  meaning of the word culture. Despite many experts have tried to give a single concept for culture according to the document "International Management: Cross-Cultural Dimensions" by Richard Mead (see further readings), the most accurate concept is that of Hofstede which considers culture as being:

"The collective programing of the mind which distinguishes the members of one human group from another ... Culture, in this sense, includes systems of values; and values are among the building blocks of culture." (Mead, Richard, 2004)

Corporate Culture: a myth?

As discussed in class the Topic of Corporate Culture includes the shares values, beliefs, symbols and behaviors of the group of people that form part in an organization, therefore to understand it is a key element when relating to an organization. But the proposed reading for this topic that is titled: "Corporate Culture: more myth than reality?", says that corporate culture is "weakening or disappear(ing)"[Gregory M.J. 2007] in the new globalized world.

Ethnographic Research: Q&A

As part of the course my lecturer has asked me to "find and explain in (my) blog 2 examples of how ethnographic research can be used for international business." In order to answer this question I have chosen to present a video and a short international marketing example.

What's next?

Not so long  since I did my first meaningful entry to this blog (hope it is organized), and I wanted to say that since next week I will begin posting formally the course contents.

In order to make it simple I will post the summary and the proposed questions in the same entry, but for the first two topics in which there is a post for ethnography, a post for national culture and another one for the topic of organizational culture those are the summaries, the questions and answers will be in two separate posts one for ethnographic research and the second one for the bonus question and the question for national and organizational culture.

Ethnographic Research: become an insider, think as an outsider.

Since this is my first entry on a blog ever, I've chosen to discuss one of the topics of the course: Etnographic Research ( as indicated by the title), previous to the formal entries of the topics that this blog is going to be all about.

The objective of this entry, besides its obvious academic interest, is to start getting familiar with design and editing tools.