My topic for today’s lecture is "Communication, Culture and Work". When most

My topic for today’s lecture is "Communication, Culture and Work". When most people use the word culture, they think of people from different national backgrounds. National cultures certainly do exist, and they play an important role in shaping the way people communicate. But there are other dimensions of culture too. Within a nation, regional differences can exert a powerful influence on communication. New Yorkers and Alaskans may find one another’s styles of behaving so different that they might as well be from different countries. Race and ethnicity can also shape behavior. So can age. The customs, values, and attitudes of a 20-year-old girl may vary radically from those of her parents who were raised in the 1960s, or her grandparents, who lived through the Great Depression and World War II . Still other differences can create distinctive cultures: gender, sexual orientation, physical disabilities, religion, and socioeconomic background are just a few.
    All of these factors lead to a definition of culture as a set of values, beliefs, norms, customs, rules, and codes that lead people to define themselves as a distinct group, giving them a sense of commonality. It’s important to realize that culture is learned, not innate. A Korean-born infant adopted soon after birth by American parents and raised in the United States will think and act differently than his or her cousins who grew up in Seoul. An African-American who grew up in the inner city will view the world differently than he or she would if raised in the suburbs—or in a country like France, where African heritage has different significance than it does in the United States.
    The norms and values we learn as part of our cultural conditioning shape the way we view the world and the way we interact with one another. In short, culture has such an overwhelming influence on communication that famous anthropologist Edward Hall once remarked " culture is communication and communication is culture".