Cross- cultural Communication This page intentionally left blank

Oberg’s iceberg analogy
The Danish writer Kalvero Oberg (1960) uses the analogy of an iceberg to 
describe visible and invisible culture. Visible culture is what appears above 
the waves, for example, the explicit culture referred to above. This can be 
relatively easily observed, even by those who have only a limited exposure 
to a new culture, for example, tourists and infrequent business travellers, 
although its significance may not be fully recognized. The invisible culture 
is what lies below the waves: the implicit culture. This includes assumptions, 
values, attitudes towards authority, risk taking, punctuality, communica-
tion patterns, how status is defined and how power is distributed in society. 
The assumptions, at the deepest level, are the most important levels of 

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6 Cross-Cultural Communication
culture and the most difficult to understand. We can at least be aware of the 
differences that exist and can develop sensitivity so that we are prepared for 
any ‘surprises’ when they occur.
Corporate culture
Corporate culture is often described as ‘the way we do things around 
here’ or ‘the glue that holds an organization together’. It is the collective 
behaviour of people in organizations where they share the same corporate 
vision, goals, values, customs and work procedures, a common working 
language and symbols. It is to be found in, for example, large multi national 
companies (such as Shell and Toyota), the Armed Forces and the 
Diplomatic Service. These common values are, in effect, a form of implicit 
control mechanism that permeates the ethos of the organization. Therefore, 
corporate culture is, to a large extent, how an organization exercises 
control over its members and how behaviour is regulated. A further example 
of corporate culture is found in professional life, codes of professional 
conduct and ethical standards, for example, those relating to lawyers, 
teachers and doctors.
Corporate culture within an organization includes the logo, advertising 
slogans and the common jargon used; for example, McDonald’s employees 
are known as ‘crew members’. Other corporate symbols can include the 
myths and stories about the founders, its particular successes, the annual 
office party and the company uniform. Corporate culture embodies a cor-
porate ethos, with its own code of ethical conduct and social responsibility 
which is communicated to all employees and suppliers, and can cover 
such areas as human rights, employment practices and concern for the 
environment. Large multinationals further develop their corporate culture 
through the setting up of corporate universities, an early example being 
the McDonald’s Hamburger University in Illinois, set up in the 1950s. Other 
large companies have followed this example and have set up branches of 
their corporate universities abroad to train their staff of various cultures in 
the corporate culture and strategy of the organization.