The Iceberg Concept Of Culture Essay

The iceberg metaphor is used by anthropologists in their trials to contemplate the nature of culture. Culture resembles an iceberg as it has a visible part above the surface (certain characteristics), and an invisible part below the surface (a huge base of values, approaches, and expectations that strongly affect decision making , conflicts, relationships, and other aspects of international business. Usually, we are accustomed to our peculiarities, but we are unaware of a huge part of our cultural makeup that subsists below the surface (Cavusgil, Knight, Riesenberger, Rammal, & Rose, 2014).

According to the iceberg concept of culture, there exist 3 levels of awareness; high culture (fine arts, drama, literature, classical music) representing

Usually we lean towards liking arts firstly then looking at it. Therefore, people's way of looking at arts is completely dominated by the subjective aspect. Regardless of this fact, it is very important to start forming an informed or objective view rather than just an intuitive response. An objective opinion relies on the object's physical properties as the prime source of information. This does not mean eliminating or undermining people's subjective approaches towards a work; the more informed people become, the more artwork will influence them mentally and passionately. This clarifies that people will acquire alternative methods to deal with arts; methods that let them discover evidences and interpret how arts mirror and influence their lives. It is multifaceted, but the fulfillment of watching arts result from observing the work to discover its significance, not merely avoiding it out of the fear of not understanding it

In order for a leader to successfully deal with the team members who come from a different 'time-based' culture, he/she has to be culturally sensitive and most importantly has to master effective cross-cultural communication (Anbari et al., 2009).

References

Anbari, F. T., Khilkhanova, E. V., Romanova, M. V., Ruggia, M., Tsay, H.-H., & Umpleby, S. A. (2009). Managing cross cultural differences in projects. Paper presented at PMI® Global Congress 2009—North America, Orlando, FL. Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute.

Cavusgil, S. T., Knight, G., Riesenberger, J. R., Rammal, H. G., & Rose, E. L. (2014). International Business: Pearson Australia.

Gupta, S. (2015). International Business. New Delhi, India: McGraw-Hill Education.

Hazleton, V., Cupach, W. R., & Canary, D. J. (1987). Situation perception: Interactions between competence and messages. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 6(1), 57-63.

Marcus, L. J., Dorn, B. C., Ashkenazi, I., Henderson, J., & McNulty, E. J. (2009). Meta-leadership: a primer. National Preparedness Leadership Initiative.

Network, T. C. Art Appreciation. Retrieved from