Elements of Culture in Spain: Family Patterns, Communication Style, Religion Belief, Death Patterns

Role concept in health care

Elements of Culture 1
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................1
Elements of Culture....................................................................................................................1
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................2

Elements of Culture 2
Introduction
Culture is defined as a combination of symbols, language, beliefs and artefacts. The
diversity in a culture can be due to the ideas and symbols used by people. The other factors
that can lead to discrimination are the values, beliefs and language defined by the people in
the society. The other components that can cause diversity are tools and technology used and
some informal factors. In this report a detail discussion is done on the elements that play an
important role in the culture of Spain.
Elements of Culture
There are various elements of culture that need to be addressed to deal with diversity at
workplace. In this report the four main elements that are discussed by Spain culture are
family patterns, communication style, death patterns and religion belief. Some of the
elements are cognitive elements that are norms and beliefs that change from one culture to
another, symbol is one of the elements that are the gestures that differ from one society to
other, and language is another component that helps in understanding the aspects and
perception of a person regarding their culture.
 Family Patterns in Spain- The family model in Spain differs from other culture due
to demographic changes and socioeconomic structure of the society. The number of
marriages that are allowed also differs from culture to culture. As in Spain, the sharp
decline has been observed in marriage ratio and is fluctuating day by day. The age of
marriage is also differing from culture to culture. Thus clear understanding is
required otherwise it can lead to conflicts (Szécsényi-Nagy, et. al, 2015). The fact
families in Spain follow t nuclear customs that improves social and financial support.
It has become important in the past decade as the extended families are not the part of
Spain customs. They mostly live in nuclear families, individually and independently.
The culture of Spain states that there should be less families with less children.
 Religion and belief- It is not possible to fix some values and norms as it differs from
one person to another. Spain is a Roman country with 95% of the population as
Roman Catholic. They are widely diverse in nature and are directly or indirectly
linked with the social relations with different religious of a person and moral values
are also linked with it. Norms can either be formal or informal. The formal norms are
those that are strictly designed and need to be followed anyhow, it includes criminal
laws, traffic rules and behavioural codes (Spigel, 2017). The informal norms differ
from person to person, and can be changed according to the individual’s behaviour.
The values and norms of an organisation differ due to presence of employees from
entirely different culture. For example, during holy week in Spain people walk
barefoot which is seen as a symbol of penitent (Study, 2017). Other such case could
be, like in US people generally talk to each other while standing at the distance of
three to four feet, while in other countries like Italy, France and Spain they feel
uncomfortable while talking to a person who is standing three to four feet apart.