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Subject COMMERCE

Paper No and Title 5 – Business Environment

Module No and Title 24 - Social Values and Attitudes

Module Tag COM_P5_M24

COMMERCE PAPER No.5 : Business Environment

MODULE No.24 : Social Values and Attitudes
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Learning Outcomes
2. Introduction
3. Social Values and Attitudes
4. Relationship between values and attitudes
5. Factors affecting values and attitudes
6. Impact of values and attitudes on Business Environment
7. Summary

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MODULE No.24 : Social Values and Attitudes
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1. Learning Outcomes
After studying this module, you shall be able to

 Know the meaning of social values and attitudes

 Learn the relationship between social values and attitudes
 Identify the factors affecting social values and attitudes
 Analyze the impact of social values and attitudes on business environment

2. Introduction

Socio-Cultural Environment

Socio-cultural environment includes both the social system and the culture of the people of a
society. It consists of all man-made elements which have positive or negative influence on
human’s behaviour, relationship and perception towards way of life. In simple words, the social-
cultural environment can be defined as an environment consisting of all factors which designs the
individual’s personality and strongly influence his attitude, behaviour, decisions making power
and performances. Such elements include beliefs, values, attitudes, habits and life styles of
persons which are learned and developed from cultural, religious, educational and social settings
and are transmitted from generation to generation within that society. Thus the components of
social environment are-
1. Social institutions and systems
2. Social groups
3. Social values and attitudes

3. Social values and Attitudes

3.1 Social values

Values are the moral beliefs and convictions of an individual, an organization and a society
regarding what is right and wrong. Social values have strong influence in shaping the social
attitudes, ideologies, decision making and performance behaviour of people.
Different societies have different value system as one society promotes a particular behaviour but
some other society may discourage the same behaviour in its value system. Thus different value
systems have different influence on business environment. One value system may favour wrong
practices to flourish in the business, while the other value system may condemn such practices.
The value system of business is generally shaped by individual’s own socially oriented personal
values and code of business ethics which sets moral principles and code of conduct for business
to determine what is good or bad, what should be done and not to be done and inculcate the
concern for social responsibility. For example a monopolist may charge reasonable prices instead
of very high prices for his product inspite of its monopoly situations in the industry due to his
value systems.

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3.2 Attitudes

Attitude refers to the way in which an individual perceives the things in a given situation to
understand his social world. Attitudes evaluate the various objects stored in one’s memory and
then reflect how an individual thinks and perceives others and behave towards them. Thus an
attitude of an individual is a mixture of three elements i.e. affect (what he feels), cognition (what
he thinks) and a behaviour (how he performs).
People of different culture have different attitude towards business and work. Attitudes to work
differ from country to country and individual to individual. For example Japanese have achieved
a huge success in business because of their positive attitude towards work. In India Bihar has not
achieved a great success in business inspite of having huge natural resources because of the poor
attitude towards work of its people. On the other hand Punjab has progressed much in agricultural
and industrial sector (like green revolution, the biggest woolen industry etc.) because of its hard
working people as they have positive attitude towards work.
Thus the basic condition for business prosperity and growth is a good attitude to work or
commitment to work. That is why human resource management’s aspects of motivation and
morale are based on workers’ attitude to work.

4. Relationship between Values and Attitudes

The socio-cultural system in which individuals live provide a set of values on the basis of which
personal values and thinking pattern of people are shaped, and these in turn influence the positive
or negative attitude of individuals towards a particular object or entity.

Figure 1

Socio-Cultural
Environment

Values Beliefs Attitudes

Belief or perception that a An organized pattern of Learned behaviour to

particular mode of knowledge which is assumed respond in a persistent
conduct is personally or to be true by an individual way to a specific object.
socially preferable to about the world without any
another mode of conduct judgment.

Values are shared beliefs and ideologies of any culture and society which defines the parameters
within which individual norms of behaviour or attitudes are rooted, designed and condemned, if
necessary. Thus values define or reflect into attitude by defining opinions or way of thinking
reflected in an individual behaviour towards some object. Values are more stable than attitudes as

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an attitude is an emotion or situation oriented. Values highlights the internalized rules and beliefs
which can be used by people to evaluate and justify actions of themselves and other people to
decide what is right and wrong, good and bad, desirable and undesirable, preferable and non
preferable.
Different nations may have different value systems. For example in the value system of US
everyone is treated as equal. Therefore the attitude is to give equal respect to women as to men
but in some nations they are not treated as equal. Thus values put strong influence on the cultural
environment of business organization because of the difficult objective analysis of values and
attitudes as they are based on emotions. For example Japanese drink soup mainly in breakfast,
whereas orange juice is preferred in the US for breakfast. Indians take milk generally in breakfast
but Australians can drink milk at any time

Thus the business manager of a multinational corporation has to identify and check the attitudes
of people of different countries toward time, work and achievement, the role of sex and sexual
discrimination, family responsibility, age, education, entrepreneurship, change and foreign goods.

5. Factors affecting Social Values and Attitudes

Figure 2: Factors affecting social values and attitudes

Education

Religion
Culture

Caste
Urbanization
System

Family size Business

and System Ethics

Customs and Social

Traditions organization

1. Education- Education is the process of learning which develops skills, ideas, values,
attitudes, desires and motivation among the members of society to strengthen the existing
culture and also to encourage the society for accepting the necessary change. Education

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affects the social values and attitudes of people in the society in a positive manner by
enabling them to distinguish between good or bad, right or wrong. Education develops
better attitude towards work for women also and has also promoted women
entrepreneurship. Education makes a society as knowledge oriented society with the
diminishing role of social customs and traditions. It increases mobility among work force.
Education also effects individual attitude towards starting their career as an entrepreneur
or as a paid employee of government establishment or any established private
organization as they can rationally compare the risk –return associated with venture with
the paid and assured returns in employment.
2. Culture- Culture is a set of knowledge, belief, morals, customs, preferences, lifestyle etc.
of members of a society. Culture shapes human values which in turn influence the
individual’s thoughts, actions, perceptions and behaviour and attitudes towards work in
society. It provides rational judgment for what is right and wrong, what type of behaviour
is acceptable or non acceptable in the society. Culture is learned or shared behaviour as it
is acquired through education or experience, and transferred from one generation to
another. In today’s globalised world, a single organization has the involvement of people
from different cultures across the world in real and virtual workplaces. Thus to be
successful in international business, managers must, therefore understand the impact of
cultural differences on the value orientation system and attitude of members of different
societies as it are the main factor of influencing individual and group behaviour.
3. Urbanization- It is a shifting of rural population towards urban areas as it has more
opportunities for earnings. But in urban areas life is more challenging as cost of living is
high. Thus people have to develop positive attitude towards work to work hard so that
they can afford high cost of living. In urban areas people have more available choices of
products as a result of which they develop greater attitude towards consumption as well.
4. Business ethics – Ethics are business code of conduct and moral principles to shape
social values in business. Ethics enable business manager to distinguish between what is
right and wrong for the society and their other stakeholders and develop their positive
attitude towards social responsibility.
5. Social Organization – The presence of active organizations which works for social
welfare exerts pressure on business houses to adopt high values and morality in society
and thus improves social values in the society as well. Like number of NGOs work to
prevent child labour and to create awareness and develop positive attitude towards
education for all, save daughter etc to abolish traditional negative myths.
6. Customs and traditions - The social environment also gets influenced by the existing
customs and traditions in the society. With the development and spread of education, the
rigid past customs and traditions like child marriage, bonded labour, female infanticide
etc. have become diluted now. It has promoted positive social values and equality for all.
7. Family size and system – Family is a strong element of social environment as the family
background has a strong influence on the values and character of an individual. Family
system can be joint or nuclear family system. Earlier joint family system was more

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prevalent in the society as it provides economic and

social security to the family members. Children were taught to serve the group. Unity,
loyalty and harmony were highly valued. But now due to increasing industrialization and
urbanization, the nuclear family system i.e. family of small sizes is gaining importance
where privacy, self-made independence is highly valued.
8. Caste system- In ancient Indian society, the caste system was very strict and popular as
the social status, occupation and role in society were determined on the basis of caste of
the person. People of lower caste people were exploited by upper caste people. It
develops negative social attitudes among people for different caste people which may
lead to communal riots. Now this caste system is diluting to some extent and people of
different castes have developed positive and sharing attitude towards each other and
started social interaction with each other. Special provisions have been made for
upliftments of lower caste people through reservation of seats for SCs, STs, BCs and
OBCs in jobs, educational institutions, and elections to boost their morale and develop
positive attitude towards work.
9. Religion- Religion is considered to be a strong foundation for inculcating values and
positive attitudes towards work and health as it affects beliefs, sentiments and customs in
social system. It directly influences the human attitude towards hard work, thrift and
ascetic life. The religions generally promote simple living and high thinking. But in
modern period social values are diluting as impact of religion is declining day by day.
People want to have more and more of wealth, fancy living style even through unfair
means like corruption, crimes and violence. Religion puts a strong influence on work
culture and social customs of national and international business also. Banks in Islamic
countries do not earn income by charging bank interest as earning interest is prohibited
under Islamic law but to maintain profitability they charge borrower’s fees and
commissions. Islamic countries also have Friday and Saturday as weekly holidays in
contrast to other countries which generally have Saturday and Sunday as weekly
holidays.

6. Impact of Social Values and Attitudes on Business Environment

Different countries have different cultural environments due to which social values, beliefs and
attitudes differ all over the world as well as from one society to another society. These different
attitudes exert a strong influence on human behaviour, their perceptions and dispositions and
therefore on business environment. Thus a business firms must analyze and understand prevailing
social values, attitudes of people and cross cultural differences while formulating business
strategies and policies to attain competitive advantages and sustainable business in complex
business environment. Their products and services should be flexible enough which can be
moulded as per the acceptance of the society members, their distribution practices and their
communication channels with customers should be in accordance with the prevailing attitudes in
different societies to integrate different cultures and bring harmony in their operations.
It is therefore useful for business managers to understand the impact of certain key attitudes on
business environment and business activities.

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1. Social value determines demand for goods and

services – Social values prevailing in the society determine the type of goods and
services a business unit should produce as they are the basis on which consumers
preferences for colour, dress styles, food habits are designed. For example Mc Donald’s
cannot sell their beef burger in India as it is against Indian values to eat it. Similarly
certain types of western dress styles and branded garments are popular in western
countries but in India branded garments are generally demanded by men and women who
still prefer ethnic dresses more as compared to western dresses. Japanese youth believe
that the West is an important source of fashion trends so they share a favorable attitude
toward American brands.
2. Attitudes towards work – People in some societies are more hardworking. They have
positive attitude and strong commitment to work e.g. Japanese are more hardworking as
compared to Arabians. That is why they have got huge success in industrial sector as this
positive attitude towards work creates opportunities for the business sector to grow and
attain competitive advantage at international level.
3. Attitude towards time value- Some countries like Europe and North America have an
attitude of “time is money”. They respect punctuality and late comers are treated as rude
and disrespectful. While other countries like Latin America, the Middle East or India,
have more casual attitude towards time like some consider never be punctual for you will
be considered early. So this different attitude towards time creates its impact on business
environment by making it essential for business manager to understand the importance of
time in different societies and act accordingly to grab the opportunity.
4. Impact of consumers’ buying attitude on global business- It is a challenging task for
an MNC company to interact with different cultures and value systems of different
countries. It has to understand the complexity of socio-cultural environment due to
differences in social values and attitudes in different countries. MNCs have to adopt its
production, marketing, selling activities as per the prevailing value system, acceptance
level of people according to their buying attitude. It may be required to change the
product features like colour, design, packaging, components etc or to design different
advertising programmes, slogans, appeals for different countries. For e.g. in India the
durability of a product can be advertised with a slogan like “as long as one’s life partner”
but this slogan may not be effective in western countries where marriages do not last
long. Hard drinks can be advertised as energizer/fruit juice/soda in some countries like in
India whereas in other countries like USA it can be advertised as a hard drink only.
5. Attitudes based on Religion– Religion affects the attitude of followers towards the
selection of different products for business and consumption. Some religions creates
negative attitudes of their followers towards the nature of some business like Jain religion
prohibits Jain businessman from doing leather business or business of non vegetarian
food. Muslims are restricted from doing money lending business as they consider earning
interest income as bad. Religions may frame different perceptions for different colours

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like white is the colour of bride’s wedding dress in

Europe but in India/China white colour indicates sadness, death and mourning. For
different food items like in India, Hindus regard the cow as sacred and they do not allow
international fast food chain to sell beef products in India. Thus religion affects values
and attitudes of its followers which in turn create opportunities and threats in business
environment for business organization.
6. Positive attitude for Business Ethics – The increasing impact of social values can be
observed in the growing awareness regarding the importance of social responsibility and
the adoption of business ethics in business sector. Business ethics refer to ethical
principles, moral standards for business. People have positive attitude towards the
adoption of social responsibility by business organization to maintain high quality level
in the society at large. If business follows ethical standards, then it gets support from
society and goodwill in the market. Business ethics encourages businessmen to respect
social values by making good quality products, protecting environment, not indulging in
misleading trade practices. The society has negative attitude towards businesses which
are not following business ethics. If a business units is polluting the environment then
society may boycott its products, which may result in ending of that unit. So it has
become a challenge in business environment for the business to earn sufficient profits
along with the fulfillment of business ethics and social responsibility.
7. Changing attitude towards Casteism - In modern world rigidity and restrictions in caste
system has declined. It has affected the business environment in positive manner by
increasing mobility among workforce, as member of any caste can choose any occupation
and workplace as per their qualification and specialization.
8. Changing attitude towards Family system - Joint family system is at declining stage
and is being replaced by nuclear family system because of industrialization and
urbanization. Now demand for household durables, day-care centre is increasing day by
day. When both husband and wife are working in nuclear family, they do not have time to
prepare meals, fast food becomes more popular. This change has positive effect on
business environment as it has created an opportunity for businesses providing such
products and services.
9. Consumer’s preferences, habits and beliefs – Different societies create differences in
beliefs, habits and attitudes of people towards certain products according to the
developmental level of the society or prevailing income level in the society. The
companies catering to such societies are required to modify their products according to
customer’s likings and benefits. Different promotional strategies are framed for different
groups to influence their preferences, attitudes and lifestyle. For example a cycle
manufacturing company promotes bicycle as a mean of transportation in underdeveloped
economies, and as an exerciser or sports equipments in developed countries. Similarly
advertising strategies for selling motorcycle in underdeveloped countries is to focus on
low fuel consumption, while in developed countries it is advertised as a mean for leisure
and sporting. In India Subway had to educate Indians about the benefits of sandwiches
by advertising it as a healthy food because they do not normally eat bread.

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Thus social values and attitudes as two strong corner of cultural

environment have significant impact on business environment. A business unit cannot afford to
ignore prevailing social institutions, social systems, social values and social attitudes in the social
cultural environment. The business must study the culture of society and should adjust its plans
and policies accordingly.

7. Summary
1. Social values and attitudes are one of the main components of socio cultural environment
2. Values are the moral beliefs and convictions of members of society which are learned and
developed from cultural, religious, educational and social settings
3. An attitude of an individual is a mixture of three elements i.e. affect , cognition and a
behaviour
4. Values define or reflect into attitude by defining opinions or way of thinking reflected in
an individual behaviour towards some object
5. Factors affecting in developing positive or negative social values and attitudes are
education, culture, urbanization, business ethics, social organizations, customs and
traditions, family size and systems, caste system and religion
6. People of different cultures and societies have different values and attitude towards
business and work
7. Different values and attitudes exert a strong influence on human behaviour, their
perceptions and dispositions and therefore on business environment
8. Values and attitudes can bring opportunities or threats in business environment by
influencing demand for goods and services, value for time, commitment towards work,
complexity in global business and role of casteism, religion and family system

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MODULE No.24 : Social Values and Attitudes