Gene-Culture Coevolution
Organizational practices can create selection pressures that favor certain employee traits, skills, or mindsets.
Lactose tolerance evolved because dairy farming created a niche where it mattered.
Gene-culture coevolution describes genetic changes driven by cultural practices. Dairy farming created a niche where lactose-tolerant adults (who retain lactase enzyme into adulthood) had fitness advantages. This occurred independently in multiple populations (European, East African pastoralists), demonstrating how behavioral niche construction alters genetic selection. Cooking may have enabled human brain expansion by providing more calories with less digestive investment.
Business Application of Gene-Culture Coevolution
Organizational practices can create selection pressures that favor certain employee traits, skills, or mindsets. Companies that construct particular cultural niches (e.g., Amazon's 'disagree and commit') select for and develop different capabilities than those with different cultures.