 In this topic we will be defining national culture and looking at the definition of culture as well as national culture from an academic and cultural point of view. So first of all we are going to discuss the definitions of culture. Culture is basically a very much woolly concept which has aroused controversy and confusion among scholars as its precise meaning and definition. So culture, it is something which is intangible, it is something which you cannot point out that well this is culture, it is not something which is physical, it is not something which is tangible. So it is a woolly concept, it's a cloudy concept. That is why it is very difficult to define what is culture and therefore there has been a lot of controversy and confusion on what is the exact definition of culture. So it can be assessed from this particular fact that Krober and Klockhorn cited 164 definitions of culture and that was in 1952, 50 years ago, more than 50 years ago. So now you can imagine how many definitions would be existing regarding culture. But nonetheless, although there are a number of very definitions, but there are basically two broad meanings of culture depending on the context in which it is discussed. Now what are those two broad meanings? One is the aspect of the anthropological and sociological aspect and it is from the academic aspect and from that aspect culture refers to values and attitudes that people belonging to a given society, they hold. The academic definition, academic aspects, the sociological and anthropological aspect that considers culture as the values and attitudes of people, collective values and attitudes of people. And the other aspect of culture which is outside the academic world and in day-to-day life, culture is usually identified with the arts and literature, for example poetry, theater, music, opera, painting, ballet and so forth. So usually the laymen who talk about the academic circle culture relate to fine arts. And the performing arts relate to them, they consider them to be culture. But that is only a manifestation of your values and attitudes that actually you see in your songs, in your art, in your paintings, in your dramas, in movies. So that is only a cultural representation. The philosophical background is that the academic definition guides you, it is because of the values and attitudes that people hold in a particular given society. So we will be concerned with the academic definition of culture and not with the laymen's definition of culture. So when we talk about culture, it's not the art, it's not the music. It is the values and attitudes held by people of a particular society. Now when we come to national culture, it has also been defined in a number of ways. First of all, we will discuss the definition of Hofstede. You must have heard of Hofstede in the context of culture. How did Hofstede define culture? He has defined it as the collective programming of the mind based on a broad tendency to prefer certain states of a fear over others. So basically your mind is because of your external factors, your background, your income background, your familial background, your religious background, your national and social background. On the basis of that, your mind is programmed. When you are born in this world, you have a blank slate. And then as you grow up, your mind is programmed with the things that you experience. And what you experience is based on the national and social cultural values. And because of that, you end up preferring certain things over others, whether you are materialistic, whether you are individualistic, whether you have a long-term tendency to plan things, or you have a short-term tendency to plan things. There could be a number of different preferences that you hold because of this programming, and that happens at the social and national level. It is a collective kind of programming. Then Tayyab has defined culture as historically evolved values, attitudes and meanings, which are learned and shared by the members of a given community and which influence their material and non-material way of life. So in this definition, there have been various different elements that have been identified. The first important thing is that your values and attitudes are historically evolved. It's not something which is evolved in a point of time, in a cross-section of time. It is something which is historically evolved. So for example, the stories that we listen about partitions, the stories that we listen about 1965 war, the stories that we listen about 9-11 event, and so many other things that happen in our historical background that defines the values, attitudes and meanings. Then it is something which is learned and shared by the members of a given community. So it is a shared meaning-making, a shared sense-making process. On the basis of that, it affects our material as well as non-material way of life. And you can very well imagine that material and non-material way of life may. There are a number of elements which are involved in that. So that is how Tayyab has defined culture and there are a number of elements that he has added to the first definition of half-state. Now then Hick and Poo have defined culture that it is the shared values that typify a society and lie beneath its characteristic arts and architecture, clothes, food, ways of greeting and meeting, ways of working together, ways of communicating and so on. So in this definition, the author has actually pointed out the thing that we had already discussed that culture is a shared meaning which is a shared meaning of the society and then it is manifested in your art and in your architecture and then in all the ways of life that are held by you. For example, if Japanese, like the author said, it also affects the ways of meeting and greeting. So the Japanese, they bow to greet somebody. So if someone would bow to someone in Pakistani culture, they would say that this person is trying to be a sycophant or trying to impress the other person too much. But in Japanese culture, bowing is a normal way of behaving and greeting other person. So all the values that you hold, so in Japanese culture, respect is highly valued. In American culture, that is totally on the opposite side. They do not value the open expression of respect. They consider that respect is something which is held within your implicit mind and does not need to be explicitly stated. So that is why you see that in American culture, parents are also called by their names. Whereas in Japanese culture, respect is highly valued. So if you value respect, in your behavior, in your attitude, in your ways of greeting, in communicating, all these things will reflect. Alright, then finally, Danny points out that it is clear that culture is different between nations. A nation's culture or national character is shaped by historical, geographical and philosophical factors as each country has a different view of history, geography and philosophy, so they have different culture. So in this definition, you have seen that definitions are evolving. You can see this definition in the literature in 2003. You have seen the first one in the earlier literature. So it is evolving. The author has highlighted historical, geographical and philosophical factors that define your national culture. Since different points of view are different, your historical points of view are different, your geographical points of view are different, your philosophical points of view are different, your national culture or values are different in different countries. Alright, so it is very important for the management students and the management practitioners to understand the cultural differences between different peoples because it is important and essential to understand the motives and behaviors of people why they are acting in a particular way. So if you do not know why someone is bowing his head, then you will not understand what is his motive, what is his behavior, but if you clearly know that he belongs to the Japanese culture which values respect very much and this is his way of bowing his head, then you will be clear that there is no other motive in it, there is no ulterior motive in it. So it is important for us to understand because as human resource management scholars as well as practitioners, we really need to understand the motives and behaviors of people so that we can manage them well. Another reason why we need to understand the national culture and differences is that the soft aspects of the organization like human resource management, they are more readily influenced by the culture. So the hard parts for example production facilities or financial aspects do not affect your culture as much as your human resource management soft aspects of organization are affected. So it is important for us that the scholars of human resource management try to understand the national culture.