1. What are Norms?
Lifestyles or patterns of social and cultural behavior that is typical or expected.
Norms are the rules of a society for behaviours that are considered acceptable and expected, the standards of a culture.
Norms also describe the lifestyle of people in a community, how they interact and their habits.
There are three types of norms:
Customs Morals and Values Laws
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2. Customs
Customs are a society's unwritten rules, cultural rituals, traditions and routines.
Based on repetition over time they become ingrained as the expected way things are done. They include greetings, common Australian expressions, polite behaviour, exchanging gifts at certain times and expectations about punctuality.
Some customs associated with business life in Australia
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3. Morals and Values
Moral judgements define wrong and right behaviour, the allowed and the disallowed, what is wanted and not wanted within a culture.
Values are enduring moral beliefs shared by members of a society and contributing to its culture. Examples include community attitudes towards drug use, sex, violence and styles of dress.
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4. Laws Laws are legal norms.
Laws enforce moral norms and clearly define what is expected and what is right and wrong.
Laws also punish people if they do not follow community norms and legal institutions, such as police and the courts, have been set up to enforce them.
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5. Customs associated with business life in Australia
Equality
Australia is a democracy. Australians believe in equality. Generally, people who work in non-professional jobs, such as cleaners, bus drivers, taxi drivers, receive the same respect as those who work in professional positions. Because of the attitude towards equality, it is illegal to discriminate against others in the workplace on the grounds of race, gender, social status, politics or religion.
Appointments
It is a usual practice to make an appointment to see someone at a business or even before dropping in socially at someone's home.
Punctuality
Punctuality is important. Australians are very time conscious. In Australia it is considered rude if you do not keep an appointment and fail to inform the person you had arranged to meet.
Queues
People form queues to buy food, wait for entry into a venue, buy tickets, wait for bank tellers, to get on a bus or train. It is impolite to push ahead of someone in a queue.
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