Showing papers on "Culture change published in 1989"

Changing culture : new organizational approaches

Abstract: Personnel professionalism requires directors and managers to keep fully abreast of current business strategy; this series aims to provide the tools for them to make a full contribution to organisational success. First published in 1989, this book draws on wide-ranging research and the experiences of companies like Abbey National, BP Chemicals and Rank Xerox to reveal how culture change can help drive through significant improvements in performance, efficiency and profitability. Strategic thinking is vital, but the core personnel skills - appraisal, communication, renumeration and training - also play a key role. This edition explains just why culture remains crucial and includes up-to-date case studies from The Royal Mail, McVitie's, Exxon UK and James Cropper plc.

Is there a way to talk about making culture without making enemies

Abstract: We are seeing the beginnings of a process of folkloricization of various Tukanoan cultural traits. Perhaps in the future we shall see the commoditization of them. Elsewhere in the hemisphere various interest groups, including indigenous groups themselves, package and promote “Indianness.” The cultural forms that are retained from earlier traditions can therefore totally change in meaning. This poses problems when we talk about cultures using an organic model, because we find we cannot describe these processes in other than negative language. Both anthropologists and pro-Indian activists at times find it academically and/or politically expedient to talk of culture as enduring over time: while changing, these cultures are nonetheless seen as remaining the same in some fundamental ways. But when, as is beginning to occur in the Tukanoan case, traits are retained, cast aside or redefined as part of a self-conscious awareness and promotion of a particular kind of Indian identity as a political strategy, the meaning of these traits has often radically changed. We cannot use a quasi-biological model to account for these similarities over time. Since resemblances between earlier forms of Tukanoan culture and later forms may be superficial, conceiving of a culture in terms of traits that persist over time can be misleading. We need to think of culture change over relatively short periods of time in a more dynamic fashion, rather than as either the “same” or “syncretized” or “lost.” We need to see Tukanoans and others as creating and improvising, rather than possessing, culture. And we need to create and invent models and metaphors that analyze this process in nonderogatory terms. Some of the ways in which Tukanoans, over the last twenty years, in some respects have come to represent “authentic” Indians who possess moral superiority have been described. However, Tukanoan culture, like Indian culture in general, will also continue to be seen pejoratively — as backward, foreign, “savage.” Tukanoans will respond to these contradictory and ambivalent evaluations and will dialogically derive new self-representations in creative, unforeseen ways. Outsiders will not necessarily be privy to the process of creating these new meanings and may misinterpret some aspects of the new Tukanoan self-representations because they will sometimes be encountering only thetok masta version of the culture Tukanoans are inventing, the part for public consumption. But because these outsiders —priests, highland Indians, anthropologists, etc. —have their own axes to grind about which cultural forms should be valorized and which are better left where they fell by the wayside, and because interactions between Tukanoans and these outsiders occur in conditions of asymmetrical power relations, these outsiders will have played an important role in the creation of any new representations of Tukanoan identity. Our analytical language makes it difficult to describe these processes without using negative, valueladen words, even when we especially wish to sound as neutral, descriptive, and objective as possible. In Colombia, discussion of Indian culture and identity occurs daily. Present-day Indians are becoming part of Colombia's national heritage, just as the historical Andean Indian groups have been for decades. But the pre-Colombian Indians are dead and have no say in determining how their culture and identity are fashioned by the dominant ideology. Tukanoans, on the other hand, and other living Indians, assume an active role in this process. Regardless of the motives of those in the metropole — to somewhat paradoxically create unifying symbols of pluralism, avoid guerrilla-Indian alliances, promote tourism, win votes —Tukanoans and non-Tukanoans are locked together in this ongoing act of creation. We are witnessing the beginnings of a self-conscious indigenism, wherein Tukanoans' vision of themselves as Indian is generated out of their fundamental embeddedness in the larger society. Tukanoans in Mitu witnessed bare-breasted Tukanoan women dancing in a celebration of Mitu's fiftieth anniversary in 1986, even though women have covered their breasts in ceremonies and everyday life for a number of years. Or they can visit a cultural center in Mitu whose goal in part is to recreate the traditional longhouse and the artifacts it contains. The structure and the artifacts are to some extent “authentic,” but the notion of a longhouse built for this purpose is utterly foreign. Tukanoans also see artifacts on the walls of rooms in the Prefecture and other public buildings in Mitu, and they themselves manufacture replicas for sale to tourists. Insofar as Tukanoans — rather than Catholic missionaries — come to control these activities, they will be validating their past with a form appropriated from the dominant culture. As such, the meaning of the architecture, the artisanal skills, the dances, etc., will have radically changed. Tukanoans are appropriating new, politicized and folkloricized frameworks, such as CRIVA's newspaper and the culture center, as a means of expressing their cultural identity. Hence, we can see Tukanoans beginning the process of coming to see themselves as “having” a culture. They are learning how to think of themselves in this fashion with input from both whites and other Indians. Newly introduced notions of Tukanoan culture, such as the Mitu cultural center, are perhaps a very preliminary example of Handler's discussion of how nationalist ideologies prove the existence of the nation through possession of a culture. This essay is about how the meaning of Tukanoan culture and identity is constantly being rethought, reshaped, and negotiated. Meaning is often spoken of in anthropology in overly static terms. For example, Geertz speaks of cultural man as “an animal suspended in webs of significance he himself has spun.” As Mattingly notes, this is an image of meaning as something contained and held. Pidgin-creole languages offer a useful way, similar to Bakhtin's notion of dialogics, to see culture and identity as something in flux, something negotiated and grasped for, as opposed to acquired and possessed. Tukanoans are beginning to formulate self-representations in a process similar to other Indians elsewhere on the two continents. This process, of course, happens in non-Indian contexts, as well. The ambivalence towards Tukanoans as representatives of tropical-forest Indians is analogous to how Bedouin symbols are used in the Jordan valley or images of traditional villagers in Japan. What we need is a more creative language that neither overly romanticizes nor denigrates this process. This essay has suggested looking at pidgin-creole studies for inspiration. Pidgin-creoles were earlier seen as “barbarous dialects,” disdained by laymen and linguists alike. Only recently have linguists begun to speak of this stepchild as a potential Cinderella for linguistic theory. The study of “inauthentic,” “public,” “created” culture is now being upgraded, if the amount of articles and books is any indication. Perhaps analogous to the contributions pidgin-creoles have made to linguistic theory, we may see an equivalent contribution to anthropological theories about culture from understanding “inauthentic” cultural forms like the Tukanoan examples discussed in this essay. If we are forced to find new ways to talk about situations like the one emerging among Tukanoans, we may find our theory and method much enhanced.

Black Entrepreneurship in America

Abstract: At a time of rapid economic change in black American communities, this important study provides fresh thinking about black values, institutions and economics. Black Entrepreneurship in America defines the cultural context of economic changes taking place in this most critical segment of American life. It is well known that economic culture undergoes constant generation and regeneration, and with sufficient motivation, culture change; analysts also agree that entrepreneurship is the driving force behind sustained economic progress in modern industrial societies. This volume shows how black Americans can become equal participants in the American dream. To do this, the authors argue, they must overcome their former lack of participation, and galvanize the entrepreneurial potential of their own families and communities. This bold and pioneering effort outlines a strategy for translating the overall expansion of the American economy into specific modes of black economic development. As the authors emphasize, the impetus for change must come from within the black communities. Despite good intentions and a twenty-five fold increase in welfare spending since 1967, centrally designed and administered social programs have largely failed to strengthen the indigenous cultural institutions upon which economic advancement depends. Low levels of business growth have retarded savings, investments, and jobs within black communities. This book describes how public policy decisions can support community-based entrepreneurship. Solidly grounded, the conclusions are based on interview data, consultations with a wide variety of academic and business experts, and a thorough review of relevant literature. The book will be of great interest to social researchers and policy analysts interested in black studies and social and economic change.

A Passion for Quality

Abstract: Discusses why, if quality is concerned with changing behaviour, we leave so much to chance. Asserts that organisations need to design into their TQM programmes the means for people to tackle and solve quality problems. Demands a clear focus on the customer and total commitment throughout the organization. Asserts that what is lacking is an effective balance between the goals and tasks of achieving quality and organizational values and behaviours. Contends it is balanced attention to values as well as goals which will drive the “culture change” required for long‐term success of TQM. Stresses responsiveness to customer needs. Believes that quality improvement depends on people changing their behaviour. Observes that to create change both passion ‐ shared vision and values ‐ and systems are needed.

Acculturation, Biculturalism and Marginality: A Study of Korean American High School Students

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to see what was happening to the newly arrived Korean-American high school immigrant students in the Aurora Public Schools. Were these students being assimilated into the American culture? Was this process of culture change causing them problems such as acculturative stress and feelings of marginality? The study led to the following conclusions: These students were bilingual and bicultural as well as in a marginal situation i.e. between two cultures. However, they did not seem to have many negative characteristics but their bilingual-biculturalism was accompanied by positive outcomes and positive self concept. Their marginal situation was not a negative status. These Korean-American high school students retained their culture and language while adding on the culture and language of the dominant group. Bilingual-biculturalism seemed to be related to preserving a positive and healthy self concept in a marginal situation.

Reconstructing Migrations in California Prehistory

Abstract: SNTHROPOLOGISTS WORKING IN CALIFORNIA have, virtually from the inception of the discipline, cited the immigration of ethnic groups as one of the most likely ways to account for the tremendous cultural diversity in the area as documented by ethnologists. Likewise, following on an early theoretical interest in the relationships of language and culture, California ethnologists quickly began to implement a cultural taxonomy using language as the primary classification attribute. This classificatory relationship between culture, language, and ethnicity remains firmly entrenched and has had a considerable influence on the development of archaeology in California. In the past decade there has been a resurgence of studies which link archaeological and linguistic reconstructions of culture history in California. Such studies are labeled "paleolinguistics," "archaeological linguistics," or "linguistic prehistory," and the fact that both linguists and archaeologists use these labels for their work, further emphasizes the relationship between the two fields on this avenue of study. Certainly the most elegant archaeological statement in this regard for California prehistory is that by Michael Moratto in his book California Archaeology. Along with the rejuvenation of linguistic prehistory in California archaeology came the resurrection of migration as a (perhaps the) primary mechanism for the diffusion of language. Then too, some archaeologists and linguists have sought to discover material culture correlates of language and population movements (read ethnic groups), and we rather quickly find ourselves back into the sort of diffusionist modeling of culture change which the "New Archaeology" worked so hard to dispel. This "return to history" should, however, jog our memories about some earlier anthropological approaches to culture change, particularly those that address acculturation and assimilation processes involving migratory groups. I should make it clear that my discussion of the archaeological interpretation of migrations applies only in the context of the California culture area, specifically relating to those gatherer-hunter economies which characterize the area. Extrapolations of this discussion and its interpretations would not be appropriate for groups with significantly different economic and socio-political organization. It should be noted,

Peace Lifestyle and Peace Cultures.

Abstract: Peace lifestyles are possible in social environments that endorse peace activism. This discussion of community change processes provides an outline of mechanisms needed for successful community activism working at the cultural level. The Community Peace Cultures Program (CPCP) is an approach to building supportive environments for peace lifestyles. It is based on the normative systems culture change model for promoting change and community activism. This approach has been successfully used in areas such as litter reduction, health promotion, and other concerns in business, government, and community settings. Applied to peace activism, the program helps participants understand how their subcultures and the overall culture influence their abilities to achieve inner, interpersonal, inter-organizational, and international peace. Program participants are given an opportunity to identify what aspects of their cultures and lifestyles fail to match their personal commitments to peace. They then join with others in working towards peace lifestyle goals of their choosing. Individual action plans, and a four phase culture change process promote individually tailored peace lifestyles for families, businesses, and community organizations. (AS) ItIVIrt*W**************************A**********************it******W******** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ************************w********.***********,,************************* PEACE LIFESTYLE AND PEACE CULTURES Judd Allen, Ph.D. U S DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION OPv-e no I ovretronsI Research sod Improvement E UCATIONAL RE SOURCES INFORMATION CENTER tERICI it's prxurment nes peen reproOuted as f prved from me person or oritermzahon onernetetp 4 Mmor cirenges neve (* en merle to nnpreee reprolluctlf ctu!:lr._______ . PaInts 0? oe* or r,pouOnS stated im Ma emumem (so not necesssot Tel:Yet:fent "mar MRIporAmnormvcv -PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY