Culture in Com.

CROSS-CULTURE COMMUNICATION

Cross-cultural communication describes the ability to successfully form, foster, and improve relationships with members of a culture different from one's own

It is based on knowledge of many factors, such as the other culture's values, perceptions, manners, social structure, and decision-making practices, and an understanding of how members of the group communicate--verbally, non-verbally, in person, in writing, and in various business and social contexts

CULTURE

The fate of the Titanic, whose crew failed to appreciate the true size of the unseen part of the iceberg, adds another dimension in illustrating to people within intercultural training what can happen when this is ignored.

The Iceberg Model: The iceberg graphically demonstrates the idea

of having both a visible and invisible structure. The iceberg above has the visible tip. These

are the areas of culture that we can see manifest in the physical sense

.

“Visible" elements include things such as music, dress, dance, architecture, language, food, gestures, greetings, behaviours, devotional practices, art and more.

It can also relate to behaviours such as seeing people ignoring red traffic lights, spitting on the floor, smoking in public or queuing for a bus.

None of the visible elements make real sense

without understanding the drivers behind them.

These are hidden on the bottom side of the iceberg, the invisible side.

It is these invisible elements that are the underlying causes of what manifest on the visible side

For example, why do the English queue for everything?

This relates to their approach to fairness, justice, order and rights

The rationale behind the queue is that those that get there first should by rights be served first or get on the bus first.

Many other cultures simply do not queue in this manner as it is not part of their cultural programming.

LEVELS OF ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE

The culture of the organization can be tiered into 3 levels based on their visibility and how closely they are adhered to in the organization.

1. The first level is Artifacts and Behaviors. Artifacts and behavior are the most visible

components of organizational culture. 2. They include the physical layout of the workplace

and observable behavior of its employees

2. Values Values are less visible than behavior but they

can be seen as they influence observable behavior of the individuals working in the organization.

3.The top tier of organizational culture may be seen at the level of Assumptions and Beliefs.

They cannot be actually seen, but they are so well ingrained in the employees that they come out quite naturally because that is the way the organization thinks.

These are the strongest held components of culture as they are not influenced, but are evolved and affect behaviors and values of employees of an organization.

Characteristics

1. Culture Is An Adaptive Mechanism

The first humans evolved in tropical and subtropical regions of Africa about 2.5 million years ago.

Man has successfully occupied all of the major geographic regions of the world, but the bodies have remained essentially those of warm climate animals.

What made it possible for our ancestors to begin living in temperate and ultimately subarctic regions of the northern hemisphere after half a million years ago was the invention of efficient hunting skills, fire use, and, ultimately, clothing, warm housing, agriculture, and commerce.

2. People Shape the Culture. Personalities and experiences of employees

create the culture of an organization. For example, if most of the people in an

organization are very outgoing, the culture is likely to be open and sociable.

3. Culture is learned The new cultural skills and knowledge are

added onto what was learned in previous generations.

As a result, culture is cumulative.

Due to this cumulative effect, most high school students today are now familiar with mathematical insights and solutions that ancient Greeks such as Archimedes and Pythagoras struggled their lives to discover.

4. Cultures Change

All cultural knowledge does not perpetually accumulate.

At the same time that new cultural traits are added, some old ones are lost because they are no longer useful.

For example, most city dwellers today do not have or need the skills required for survival in a wilderness.

5. Culture is Negotiated. One person cannot create a culture alone.

Employees must try to change the direction, the work environment, the way work is performed, or the manner in which decisions are made within the general norms of the workplace.

Culture change is a process of give and take by

all members of an organization. Formalizing strategic direction, systems

development, and establishing measurements must be owned by the group responsible for them.

Otherwise, employees will not own them.

6. Culture is Difficult to Change. It is often difficult for people to unlearn their

old way of doing things, and to start performing the new behaviors consistently. Persistence, discipline, employee involvement, kindness and understanding, organization development work, and training can assist you to change a culture.

Change can occur as a result of both invention

within a society as well as the diffusion of cultural traits from one society to another.

The various aspects of a culture are closely interwoven into a complex pattern.

Changing one trait will have an impact on other traits because they are functionally interconnected.

For example, many men resisted the increase in economic and political opportunities for women over the last century because of the far ranging consequences.

7. We Do Not Know All of Our Own Culture No one knows everything about his or her

own culture. knowledge that is limited largely to particular

social classes, occupations, religious groups, or other special purpose associations.

8. Culture Gives Us a Range of Permissible Behavior Patterns

These rules of permissible behavior are usually flexible to a degree.

For instance, the easy friendliness and casual, somewhat revealing dress of young North American women in the summertime is sometimes interpreted by traditional Latin American and Middle Eastern men as a sexual invitation.

9. Culture No Longer Exist in Isolation It is highly unlikely that there are any societies

still existing in total isolation from the outside world.

Even small, out of the way tribal societies are now being integrated to some extent into the global economy.

They are developing a growing knowledge of other cultures through schools, radios, and even televisions and the Internet.

8. People Usually are not Aware of Their

Culture The way that we interact and do things in our

everyday lives seems "natural" to us. We are unaware of our culture because we

are so close to it and know it so well. For most people, it is as if their learned

behavior was biologically inherited.

9. Culture may be strong or weak. When your work culture is strong, most

people in the group agree on the culture. When your work culture is weak, people do

not agree on the culture.

10. Ideally, organizational culture supports a positive, productive, environment.

Happy employees are not necessarily productive employees.

Productive employees are not necessarily happy employees.

EPRG Model

The form and substance of a company’s response to global market opportunities depend greatly on management’s assumptions or beliefs – both conscious and unconscious – about the nature of the world.

The worldview of a company’s personnel can be described as ethnocentric, polycentric, regiocentric and geocentric collectively known as EPRG framework.

1. An ethnocentric company operates under

the assumption that “tried and true” headquarter’s knowledge and organizational capabilities can be applied in other parts of the world.

2. POLYCENTRIC ORIENTATION: The polycentric orientation is the opposite of

ethnocentrism. It is management’s often unconscious belief or

assumption that each country in which a company does business is unique.

This assumption lays the groundwork for each

subsidiary to develop its own unique business and marketing strategies in order to succeed; the term multinational company is often used to describe such a structure.

3. REGIOCENTRIC In a company with a regiocentric orientation,

management views regions as unique and seeks to develop an integrated regional strategy.

For example, A US company that focuses on the countries included in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) – the United States, Canada and Mexico- has regiocentric orientation.

A company with a geocentric orientation views the entire world as potential market and strives to develop integrated world market strategies.

4. The geocentric orientation: It represents a synthesis of ethnocentrism and

polycentrism It is a worldview that sees similarities and

differences in markets and countries and seeks to create a global strategy that is fully responsive to local needs and wants.

CULTURAL COMPETENCE Cultural competency is a term used to

describe the ability to work, communicate and live across cultures and cultural boundaries.

One achieves this through an instilled understanding of cultures on a general level as well as an informed one about specific cultures on a more detailed level.

In order for the native people and the

immigrant population to blend and create a thriving and successful atmosphere both sides need to develop some sort of intercultural tolerance and understanding of the differences that may exist between them.

Stereotypes are at their most basic level a set of assumed characteristics about a certain group of people whose actual beliefs, habits and realities more often than not disagree with the imposed assumptions.

Stereotypes are usually based on factors such as exaggeration, distortion, ignorance, racism, cultural factors or even historical experiences.

Stereotyping is therefore rightly seen as a negative way of seeing people. This is even true of what are called "positive stereotypes".

A positive stereotype is where we use a blanket expression for a whole people, i.e. all the Chinese are great at maths, all Germans are well organised or all English people are well mannered.

Although the intent behind the statement is positive, it still does not reflect the truth.

Basic steps to cultural competence1. Break Assumptions Assumptions are beliefs rather than objective

truth and are usually influenced by a number of subjective factors.

People need to assess their assumptions and ask themselves why they hold those ideas or beliefs.

2. Empathise Through putting yourself in someone else's

shoes you come to see or appreciate their point of view.

3. InvolveInvolving others in your world and involving yourself in other's empowers and educates. Don't build walls between people but learn from one another.

4. Avoid Herd Mentality Herd mentality refers to a closed and one

dimensional approach. Such a way of thinking curbs creativity, innovation

and advancement as people are restricted in how to think, approach and engage with people or challenges.

Cultural competency can only develop if people are encouraged to think as individuals, bring their cultural influences to the table and share ideas that may be outside the box.

5. Shun Insensitivity People can and do behave in culturally

insensitive ways. By attacking someone, you attack their culture

and therefore their dignity. This can only be divisive.

6. Be Wise : Cultural competency is essentially founded

upon wisdom, i.e. showing maturity of thought and action in dealing with people. Through thinking things out and have background knowledge to intercultural differences much of the communication problems witnessed within business could be avoided.

7. Innovation and Risk Taking: Risk and returns go hand in hand. Places where

you take a risk (calculated risk), the chances of returns are higher.

Same goes for innovation. You could either be a follower or a pioneer. Pioneering has its share of risks, but at times it can also have a breakthrough outcome for the organization.

8. Attention to Detail: Attention to detail defines how much

importance a company allots to precision and detail in the workplace.

This is also a universal value as the degree of attention the employees are expected to give is crucial to the success of any business.

9. Outcome Orientation: Some organizations pay more attention to

results rather than processes. It is really the business model of each

business that defines whether the focus should be on the outcome or the processes.

10.People Orientation: Some organizations are employee oriented as

they focus more on creating a better work environment for its 'associates' to work in.

Others still are feudal in nature, treating employees no better than work-machines.

11. Team Orientation:• It is a well established fact today that

synergistic teams help give better results as compared to individual efforts.

• Each organization makes its efforts to create teams that will have complimentary skills and will effectively work together.

12.Aggressiveness: Every organization also lays down the level of

aggressiveness with which their employees work.

Some businesses like Microsoft are known for their aggression and market dominating strategies.

13. Stability: While some organizations believe that

constant change and innovation is the key to their growth, others are more focused on making themselves and their operations stable.

Culture Shock International moving adds even more

pressure than a national or regional move. Anyone who has lived or studied or even traveled extensively in another country, has tasted and lived through culture shock.

At the time it may feel more like homesickness, but what most people who haven't undergone any kind of pre-adaptation program don't know is that there are several stages one goes through when adjusting to a new language and culture.

It is disorientation experienced when suddenly

subjected to an unfamiliar culture or way of life.

When you move to a new country, everything is unfamiliar; weather, landscape, language, food, dress, social roles, values, customs and communication - basically, everything you're used to is no longer.

Symptoms of Culture Shock• Signs and symptoms of culture shock are: • a feeling of sadness and loneliness, • an overconcern about your health, • headaches, pains, and allergies • insomnia or sleeping too much • feelings of anger, depression, vulnerability • idealizing your own culture • trying too hard to adapt by becoming obsessed with the new culture • the smallest problems seem overwhelming • feeling shy or insecure • become obsessed with cleanliness • overwhelming sense of homesickness • feeling lost or confused • questioning your decision to move to this place• Transition from the Re-integration Stage to the Autonomy Stage.

The Culture Shock Model Step 1: The Honeymoon Stage Like any new experience, there's a feeling of

euphoria when you first arrive to a new country and you're in awe of the differences you see and experience.

You feel excited, stimulated, enriched.

Step 2: The Distress Stage Everything you're experiencing no longer feels

new; in fact, it's starting to feel like a thick wall that's preventing you from experiencing things. You feel confused, alone and realize that the familiar support systems are not easily accessible.

Step 3: Re-integration Stage During this stage, you start refusing to accept

the differences you encounter. You're angry, frustrated and even feel hostile to those around you. You start to idealize life "back home" and compare your current culture to what is familiar

Step 4: Autonomy Stage It is the emergence stage when you start to

rise above the clouds and finally begin to feel like yourself again. You start to accept the differences and feel like you can begin to live with them.

Step 5: Independence Stage You embrace the new culture and see

everything in a new, yet realistic light. You feel comfortable, confident, able to make decisions based on your own preferences.

A few examples of cross cultural blunders that could have been avoided with appropriate cross cultural awareness training:

An American oil rig supervisor in Indonesia shouted at an employee to take a boat to shore.

Since it is no-one berates an Indonesian in public, a mob of outraged workers chased the supervisor with axes.

Pepsodent tried to sell its toothpaste in Southeast Asia by emphasizing that it "whitens your teeth.“

They found out that the local natives chew betel nuts to blacken their teeth which they find attractive.

A company advertised eyeglasses in Thailand by featuring a variety of cute animals wearing glasses.

The ad was a poor choice since animals are considered to be a form of low life and no self respecting Thai would wear anything worn by animals.

The soft drink Fresca was being promoted by a saleswoman in Mexico. She was surprised that her sales pitch was greeted with laughter, and later embarrassed when she learned that fresca is slang for "lesbian."

When President George Bush went to Japan with Lee Iacocca and other American business magnates, and directly made explicit and direct demands on Japanese leaders, they violated Japanese etiquette.

To the Japanese (who use high context language) it is considered rude and a sign of ignorance or desperation to lower oneself to make direct demands.

Some analysts believe it severely damaged the negotiations and confirmed to the Japanese that Americans are barbarians.

A soft drink was introduced into Arab countries with an attractive label that had stars on it--six-pointed stars.

The Arabs interpreted this as pro-Israeli and refused to buy it.

Another label was printed in ten languages, one of which was Hebrew--again the Arabs did not buy it.

U.S. and British negotiators found themselves at a standstill when the American company proposed that they "table" particular key points.

In the U.S. "Tabling a motion" means to not discuss it, while the same phrase in Great Britain means to "bring it to the table for discussion."

Poor cross cultural awareness has many consequences, some serious others comical. It is imperative that in the global economy cross cultural awareness is seen a necessary investment to avoid such blunders