My most obvious encounter with cultural baggage, my own and other peoples', is in a work context. It is quite obviously a source of consternation when people from different service departments collide - usually in meetings. For example, the cultural differences between librarians, and the library service as a whole, compared to IT folk and IT services. Each has a fundamentally different way of looking at tand acting on the world. Their attitudes, beliefs, rituals and processes can be quite different. This can find expression in many different ways, most notably in how meetings are conducted (librarians often start their meetings with cake, coffee and social chit-chat, which is completely alien to IT staff - although they quickly warm to the custom). However, it can prove quite destructive when people don’t communicate and involve others as expected. In my experience it is most often those in a controlling management role that shape the culture of the organisation, usually the head or leader who deteremines who says what and how things are done. This is for me the far more tangible encounter with cultural differences.