What is culture?
Culture - as we see it - is the unwritten rules of the social game. It's what allows people to communicate and to organize their world without having to re-invent the wheel all the time. It is a powerful mechanism for achieving both change and stability at the level of society. It's much faster than genetic change.
It is also the latest trick stumbled upon by natural selection - culture is now part of our nature. Human beings do not survive or perish alone. We all die, but some of our cultural innovations survive - and they do so at the level of our societies.
How do we acquire culture?
We are born with a big brain ready to absorb what happens in the world around us. If all goes well, our parents and the other members of our community then educate us into being good members of the community, or as I like to call it, the moral circle.
More about culture
See the site that my father and I maintain: www.geerthofstede.eu (or .nl, or .com). This site has some more background, links to interviews with Geert, culture dimension scores and the VSM (Values Survey Module).
For a business audience there is the site www.geert-hofstede.com. Mind you, this is not my father's or my site. It is maintained by a consultancy that has a licence to use our ideas.
If you really want to know about culture, read our books. The point of entry for most would be Cultures & Organizations, or one of its many translations. Or if that is too formal to your taste, try my Exploring Culture.
