Geopolitics Magazine November - December 2015 | Page 81
Among the hundreds of Culture’s definitions we need to reach a consensus in the description that will
back us up for the needs of this article and that is the opinion of Goffman et al (1967):” Observed
behavioral regularities when people interact: the language they use, the customs and
traditions that evolve, and the rituals they employ in a wide variety of situations”.
Initially this specific definition was solely attributed to the term “Culture”. The notion can easily be
widened by the fact that within the society new members run through an intense period of education
either in formal education establishments and or in family environments during their upbringing,
additionally a shared learning of attitudes, norms and values that constitute the current “National
Culture”. Reality is that all members of any society are incessantly being involved within this process,
although for senior members that is no longer a systematic effort.
Culture and Leadership
If someone wishes to relate leadership to culture, he/she will quite easily jump to the conclusion that
leadership creates and changes cultures, while management and administration act within a culture, all
in line with the ideas of Schein (2004).Too much discussion has been held for the fact that Greek
society strongly opposes to all necessary changes that need be imposed so the economy can revive
and come out of the financial slump. Political parties strongly concur to the idea that people are their
obstacle and their vested interests. On the one hand, it can be argued that the only thing of real
importance that leaders do is to create and manage culture; that the unique talent of leaders is their
ability to understand and work with culture; and that it is an ultimate act of leadership to destroy
culture when it is viewed as dysfunctional. On the other hand, cultural norms define how a given nation
will define leadership-who will get promoted, who will advance or supersede or lastly who will draw all
the attention of the citizens.
Cultures do not easily change unless serious efforts
will be held, in time intervals, no sooner than seven
years, in normal conditions. The fact that Greece
already has exceeded a seven year period and still
there are no evident results of people or political
leadership being able to see things differently is a
proof that culture’s management is left unattended
and culture itself is suffering. Of course formal
leaders are not the only determiners of culture. In
occasions that official leadership fails to create the
conditions for a guided change effort then the society
itself wil