2.3 A narrow and an expanded concept of culture

Working in virtual teams commonly involves performing tasks with people who were socialised in different cultures and contexts, or what sociologists might call lifeworlds (Husserl, 1936). In this sense we refer to culture to mean the all-pervasive social environment that influences what we value, how we think and how we behave in everyday situations. This is known as the expanded concept of culture as opposed to the narrow concept. A narrow concept or ‘high culture’ distinguishes between culture and civilization and refers to the classics, art, architecture and literature, or ‘the beautiful, the true and the good’. Such a narrow concept of culture was advocated by Immanuel Kant and later by Oswald Spengler and was popular until the middle of the twentieth century.

The figure below illustrates these two conceptual views of culture.

Source: Bolten, Jürgen (2015, p. 46). Einführung in die Interkulturelle Wirtschaftskommunikation. Adapted and translated