Religion and Cultural Interaction

Content

• Definition of Culture and Religion• Trade and Cross Cultural Interactions and

History• Role of cultural/religion differences

nowadays• Six Rules of Thumb when Venturing

Overseas• Classifying of cultural differences• Conclusion

Defining Culture & Religion

• Culture is the sum total of ways of living built up by a group of human beings and transmitted from one generation to another.

• Religion is a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature and purpose of the universe, especially when considered as the creation of a super human agency or agencies devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs.

Trade and Cross Cultural Interactions and History

Throughout the centuries trade has produced many benefits for the countries involved, the greatest of these is cross cultural interactions. Each person who traveled to trade with other countries took back not only goods and gold or silver, but also a piece of that different culture. The travelers and traders to new lands brought with them traditions, religion, and languages, knowledge of science and philosophy as well as numbers and works of art.

Throughout the world you can see the influence that different cultures had played upon each other. Without trade and cross cultural interactions many countries would not exist today. Through this interaction we are also able to see how the preverbal other half lives and how they go about their daily existence. We as travelers and traders have taken a piece of each culture with us as we make our way throughout the world. Promoting world tradeIn early years were trade roads and the oldestone is silk road.

cultural/religion differences nowadays

Cultural characteristics are in a state of flux resulting from the evolution of values as

new forces of change emerge from rise and decline of religious belief systems, economic political and technical changes and the

process of internationalization. These changes lead to gradual evolution of new values that eventually alter norms of behavior thereby changing the process of human interaction, including business interaction.

cultural/religion differences nowadays

The internationalization of business has exposed firms to a large range of norms for doing business. The more firms move away from business transactions with similar cultural groups the more difficult it is to use Home-based norms for conducting business activities.

Six Rules of Thumb when Venturing Overseas

• Be prepared• Slow down• Establish trust• Understanding importance of language• Respect cultural differences• Understand that no culture is inherently

superior in all aspects

Classifying of cultural differences

• Low-context cultureA culture in which communication is usually taken at face value without much reliance on unspoken context.

• High-context cultureA culture in which communication relies a lot on the underlying unspoken context, which is as important as the words used.

Adoption to Differences

Adoption to Differences

Adoption to Differences

Adoption to Differences

Conclusion

An understanding of cultural differences provides the starting point for the design of policies to manage cross-cultural business activities. However, the demands of modern capitalism often require national cultural vales to be modified to meet the needs of competitive environments.