Taking into account the cultural side of management presupposes an understanding of the way people's minds can be programmed differently by their different life experiences. Patterns and models of behaviour between subordinates and superiors, among colleagues, and towards clients in the work situation have beenset outside the work situation: between children and parents in the family (starting right at birth), among siblings and friends, between students and teachers, among citizens and authorities. The assumption of a collective programming of people's minds does not mean that everybody in a society is programmed in exactly the same way (there are wide differences among individuals and among subgroups of individuals) but the collective programming which I call culture should be seen as a collective component shared in the minds of otherwise different individuals and absent in the minds of individuals belonging to a differentsociety.Planning is a part of management which may or may not be attached to a specialist function. What was stated above for management in general, also applies to planning in particular. Planning is also a symbolic activity, which may or may not have an impact on what happens afterwards. Even if it has not, it will in some culture still be functional because it allows management to feel secure.