“Human beings extract about 15 million tons of raw material—that’s 30 trillion pounds—from the earth each year, and from that they make every kind of stuff that you can find in every kind of thing. Mined ore becomes metal becomes wire becomes part of motor becomes a cooling fan in your computer. Harvested wood becomes lumber becomes a home. Drilled petroleum becomes chemical feedstock becomes synthetic rubber becomes automobile tires. Natural gas becomes polyethylene becomes milk jugs and oversized, multicolored yard toys. Mined silica sand becomes silicon crystals becomes the base of microelectronic chips. Each kind of stuff is a link to enormous industrial trains whose workers process the world’s raw materials into useable forms that constitute the items of our constructed landscape.”(Amato,1997)
Culture exists in every society. It is the specific learned norms based on attitudes, values and beliefs. Culture is often based on long standing traditions that have been passed from elders to the younger generation. It can be evolved through societal and religious influences. Changing culture, though difficult, can be done through choice or imposition. When culture are isolated they tend to stabilize and change is slow or ceases. When culture makes contact with other cultures, a type of cultural borrowing takes place and is more prominent when languages are similar or identical.
Culture not only influences daily life but also effects business transactions that take place in that community. Because culture can vary from country to country and even area to area doing business in a foreign country can cause complications for even the best of business managers. The culture of the country a company does business in can and will effect many of the business decisions that the company has to make.
Cultures are made up of group affiliations. Ascribed group memberships include......
