Today we start using another orientation basis.

• It can be called a germ cell orientation basis.

Why is it called a germ cell?

• Germ cells produce eggs or sperm from which an organism grows. They are like seeds.

• We will be talking about the seeds of culture, and how cultures grow and transform themselves.

• To become more effective adaptations to the environment.

Orientation basis

• Orientation because we can use this diagram to get our bearings amid all the variety, confusion, and complexity of the world around us.

• Basis because using this diagram will give us a foundation for building understanding of ethics, macroeconomics, and related practices and institutions.

The box on the inside of the small circle represents the ethics

of western modernity.

The inner circle represents culture.

The outer circle represents the physical natural world that culture

must adapt to.

It will also be useful to make some additional related interpretations of

the same diagram.

OK. The inner circle represents culture.

• The idea is that the box is part of culture

• But not all of culture• And not part of every

culture• BUT WHAT IS

CULTURE?

“Culture” is an indispensable and elusive concept.

• “Culture” is like “God.”

• It can give you strength to live your life.

• But it is beyond your understanding.

• It is a word with a long and complex history.

• And with many disputed interpretations.

• We cannot live without it.

In 1982 Peters and Waterman published In Search of Excellence

• Since 1982 “culture” has been a hot topic in management.

• Many business academics were not happy researching “soft” topics like “culture.”

• But since the facts showed that “culture” was the biggest factor in company success, the academics were forced to adjust.

For example, an “excellent” business studied by Peters and Waterman was Disney

• Every new employee at Disney takes a course called “Traditions I”

• Followed by another course “Traditions II”

• She or he becomes part of “the Disney corporate culture”

• The attendants who help you park your car at Disneyland think of themselves as part of the show and part of the tradition.

• Tradition=culture =• Success !

A company´s “culture” is aligned with its strategy, business model, and mission.

When everybody on the team knows what the strategy is, then top management does not have to micro-manage by keeping track of everybody´s decisions

People are self-governing and know what to do when they have internalized the norms of the company culture

Leaders of an organization devote much of their time to improving its

“culture”• For example:• Building a culture of service,

or a culture of excellence,

or quality, or innovation. • “IBMers agree that the essence of our company

´s greatness is our values.”• “Value Number One is dedication to every client

´s success.”

---IBM Chairman Sam Palmisano

“Culture eats strategy for breakfast …operational excellence for lunch… ..and everything else for dinner.”

--a quote from Peter Drucker, made famous by Mark Fields, chief operating officer of Ford Motor Company

“Culture” has become a transformational concept for all social science. “Culture theory confronts and displaces an

older theory of human order known as liberalism.”

“Culture theory displaces liberal theory as the Copernican system replaced the Ptolemaic.”

--James Boggs Current Anthropology, 2004

In other words, the theory of culture developed by anthropologists Disproves the liberal assumptions that since the

early nineteenth century have formed the basis of economics, political science, and other disciplines

Liberals thought the “box” could be a basis for a universal social science, but that is not true.

The box is a particular local cultural form peculiar to a certain culture (the modern West)…

…during a certain historical period (the last three centuries worldwide, earlier in certain places)

“The culture theory of anthropology replaces liberal theory as Copernican astronomy replaced Ptolemaic astronomy.”

Let´s look at the history of the concept of “culture.”

“Culture” comes from Latin. At first it meant the cultivation of plants, as in “agriculture” which comes from Latin “agri” meaning “field.”

It came to include raising animals such as cattle and chickens.

History of “culture” continued. Before 1780 in the languages derived from

Latin “culture” came to include the physical development of the human being.

As “physical culture” including exercise and other means to improve the body.

In the last part of the 18th century “culture” was extended to include the cultivation of the mind.

History of “culture” continued again.

Then the word “culture” made an important shift.

It was recognized that there could be different kinds of “cultivated minds”

Depending on when and where one was educated.

So now there were different “cultures.”

History of “culture” continued yet again.

In the first half of the nineteenth century the social sciences we know today were formed.

“Culture” became the flagship concept of the new science called “anthropology.”

Its classic definition was given by E.B. Tylor in 1871.

Classic Definition of “Culture” E.B.Tylor 1871

Culture is the complex totality that includes knowledge, beliefs art, morals, law, customs, and whatever other capacity or habit is acquired because of being a member of a society.

After biologists developed the theory of evolution… …culture came to be regarded as the

ecological niche of the human species. Humans had an evolutionary advantage

because they could learn new behaviour and pass it on by cultural transmission.

Unlike species that had to rely on mutation and natural selection to adjust to changes in the environment.

Nancy Tanner 1985

On Becoming Human U. of California Press

The human body evolved as the body of a cultural animal, physically wired to be social.

A recent definition of “culture” Culture can be understood as “designs

for living that are based on the accumulated knowledge of a people, encoded in their language, and embodied in the physical artifacts, beliefs, values, customs and activities that have been passed down from one generation to the next.”

-- Cole and Cole, Development of Children, 2001, p. 36

Now let us consider macroeconomics.What are its main problems?

INFLATION –and generally problems of money,

money supply and interest rates. UNEMPLOYMENT –and generally problems of

creating jobs at decent wages for all who need jobs.

INEQUALITY –and generally making social justice compatible with productivity.

THE “BUSINESS CYCLE” – periodic crashes

GROWTH WITH EQUITY

IT SHOULD BE OBVIOUS THAT THESE PROBLEMS HAVE NOT BEEN SOLVED

Nowhere in the world is there sustainable full employment at decent wages with a decent GINI coefficient with satisfactory productivity growth and without inflation.

So maybe it is time to rethink these problems as CULTURAL problems that can only be solved by thinking outside the box.

Moldoveanu Martin

To begin rethinking, let us consider again The distinction between using an algorithm and talking the walk We can reframe this as a distinction

between a puzzle and a problem

--The Future of the MBA, Designing the Thinkers of the Future

For a puzzle there is an algorithm For example if you want to calculate return

on equity (ROE) you divide net income by shareholder´s equity. You follow the rule and you get a correct answer.

But a problem is not about a conventionally defined calculating procedure. IT IS ABOUT WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN OUT THERE IN THE REAL WORLD.

We can think of cultural change as …

…gradually adjusting our algorithms and our social norms that govern conventional behaviour

…so that they give better results in terms of impact on the physical bottom line

We can also interpret our orientation basis in terms of price, value, and physical bottom line.

Within the box, that is to say, the legal framework of sales, we get prices.

At the level of culture we get satisfaction of people´s desires, value.

At the level of ecology, the culture functions more or less well on the physical bottom line.

STAND BY FOR MORE ON PRICE AND VALUE IN

THEIR PHYSICAL CONTEXT