Major Socio-Cultural Elements of Business and Their Interaction with Business Activities
Major Social-Cultural Variables:
1) Social institutions and systems.
2) Social values and attitudes.
3) Education and culture.
5) Social groups and movements.
7) Social
problems and prospects.
Their Interaction with Business:
1) Social Institutions and Systems:
This one developing through history, culture and heritage. The caste system, the joint family system, the child marriage, the patriarchal family all these are the examples of social institutions and systems. In Indian society of recent past, the caste system ensured a very simple occupational division of Laboure. The place of individual was very clearly defined in the social hierarchy of the joint family system where decision-making was centralized on the head of the family, who command respect by way of age and experience. The position of women and children was also defined by the then social set-up.
2) Social Values and Attitudes:
Social values and attitudes play a major role in this context. In India, most of the age-old social institutions are dying fast today because the social values and attitudes are changing very fast. The Western values of individualism have caught up our imagination. Indian women do not any longer remain satisfied as housewives. Business does not remain confined any more within a given community or caste, customs, traditions and conventions are no longer rigid. Sociological environment of business is influenced by the society's attitude towards business as a profession; view towards achievement and - work; view towards ownership and management.
3) Education and Culture:
Education and culture are an important ingredient of sociological environment. It includes attitudes towards education; need for business education; education's match with skill requirement of industry and manpower utilization; role of business schools and executive development programmed; education viz. training; correlation between formal literacy and the level of culture; spread of education and its impact on business ethics; material progress and business morality; business culture and the organisation culture.
4) sole of Government:
The Government is the apex social institution particularly in a democracy. Its most responsible function is maintaining of social order and harmony in view of the interests of the majority. It has to make sure that social progress is not handicapped by the tyranny of the majority, otherwise social tensions will mount even under democracy and certainly, business cannot grow under social tension. India is a welfare state. The Government is trying hard to balance the level of achievement and aspirations at society level and remove social tensions and frustrations.
5) Social Groups and Movement:
In a society, individuals form groups on the basis of caste, creed, religion, language, trade and profession, and similar other factors. Social groups and the social movement that they engineer is a very crucial and critical variable of non-economic environment. Some of those groups have direct business interests. Thus, consumerism trade-unionism, co-operative movement, professional management, shareholders' association pose challenges for business operation.
6) Socio-economic Order:
India is a plural society. It is a land of variety of food, dress, language, religion and culture. There is dual economy with traditional (subsistence or unorganized) sector coexisting with modern (commercialized or organized) sector. Technological dualism is very pronounced-the bullock carts ply on the road and the Airbus flies through the sky. All these make a very unique socio-economic order for India today. This social order gets disturbed and modified, hopefully for the better, through social movements and social policy formulation on subjects like science and technology, ecology and forestry, family planning, animal husbandry, etc.
7) Social Problems and Prospects:
These are offshoots of a changing socio-economic order. Consequent to industrialization and socio-economic development in many developing countries, the death rate falls faster than the birth rate, and this results in explosive population growth leading to growing unemployment and poverty, poor housing and sanitation, urban congestion, pollution and increasing incidence of anti-social activities. The economists, therefore, suggest that one should always attempt a social cost-benefit analysis of industrial development. As the society moves from "pre-industrial" towards "postindustrial" stages of development, social benefits must outweigh social costs, otherwise, the emerging new social order will prove unstable. In India, population problem has been nullifying efforts of development on a stable basis.