‘Culture’ in the last chapter was seen as ‘that complex whole which involves knowledge, beliefs, art, morals, law, customs and other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society’ (Tylor, 1871); or, the ‘human-made part of the environment’ (Herskovits, 1948). This was distinguished, after Goody (1994), from the narrower concept of culture as being purely symbolic, or rather, excluding other ‘human-made’ parts of the environment and, after Sorge (2004), distinguishing between a culturalist and institutionalist position. In other words, institutions as part of ‘culture’ are created by sentient human beings in interaction interpersonally, interorganizationally and internationally. They are both part of the meaning systems through which people conduct their lives, as well as being created and supported by those meaning systems. Chapter 2 also discussed the relationship between ‘rules’ and ‘values’. Again the two concepts interrelate. Rules are created out of, and supported by value systems. Yet rules also shape the values that people have. This is an essential part of comprehending the concept of ‘interfaces’ in cross-cultural understanding and analysis.

‘Rules’ (or the way we are supposed to do things around here) may be imposed on a local population, whether this be a society or an organization. This could be a management system, for example. A foreign company acquiring a local firm as its subsidiary may impose a management system comprising rules about decision making that are different to those the local staff and managers are used to.