Culture
To understand the culture of the class, I want first to define culture. According to Samovar and Porter (1994), Culture refers to the cumulative deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving. This definition is a great representation of the culture of our class. We are a group of people from different backgrounds each with our set on unique VABEs (values, assumptions, beliefs and expectations) working towards a common goal (Clawson, 2001, p. 11). By fostering an environment centered on teamwork, collaboration, openness and friendship our bond will be such that in the end, our need to obtain an MBA will be fulfilled (Nohria, Groysberg, and Lee, 2008, p.4) Each person in the cohort has a need to achieve. The need to accomplish, independent of the consequences of accomplishment (Butler, 2010, p. 14). Despite our personal hurdles, our need to achieve will outweigh any obstacles in our path. Given the diversity of the individuals in this cohort, the culture of the class has and will likely continue to change as more information about the individuals is continually being learned. This increasing amount of information leads to a greater understanding of both the individuals social identity and our ability to form an impression.
Impression formation and social identity have played a significant role in the culture of our class. I believe at the beginning of the semester we each developed a set of judgments about the individuals in our cohort (Polzer, 2003, p. 5). This impression formation was easy to achieve as we were each asked to use pictures, a pen, and paper to identify who we are as a person. While this was not a complete story of who we are, it allowed others in our cohort to get to know us and have a small glimpse into our life. This exercise also played a significant role in categorical information. Categorical information is based on the social categories to which others belong (Polzer, 2003, p. 6). Several social groups became evident. Many in our cohort have children. I find myself connected with others in the class that has children often discussing what role our children play on the road to achieve our MBA. Others are working towards an MBA for the accolades. When we do not have sufficient