Institutional Differences

05/24/12 • 11 min

Many of the facts which we know to be true are in fact social facts; they are only true so long as enough people believe them. These self-perpetuating clusters of shared beliefs are referred to by sociologists as ‘institutions.’ Institutions may vary from culture to culture.The idea of a manager is an institution too. Like many institutions you can find different versions of this idea in different locations.

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Transcript -- Institutional Differences

Transcript -- Many of the facts which we know to be true are in fact social facts; they are only true so long as enough people believe them. These self-perpetuating clusters of shared beliefs are referred to by sociologists as ‘institutions.’ Institutions may vary from culture to culture.The idea of a manager is an institution too. Like many institutions you can find different versions of this idea in different locations.

Next Episode

Transcript -- Cultural Differences

Transcript -- Culture affects how we behave in any given situation, it varies between groups in different places, it includes values and is learned as we grow up in a particular social context. At the same time because our own culture is the water in which we swim, most of the time we are unaware of it. It shapes our behaviour and how we understand the world at a level that is mostly out of our conscious awareness.