This book has given you valuable knowledge about Americans and the citizens of the ten featured cultures. While these are eleven of the world’s biggest economies, there are many other cultures out there. You may be wondering how this book is supposed to help you with them.
If you’ve read this far, you’ve already done most of the work. You’ve had the central realization that when you work with people from other cultures, there are certain ways you’re not like them and they’re not like you. You are different, in short, and as you’ve seen many times in these pages, differences have consequences.
If you’d like to avoid these consequences going forward, not just vis-à-vis the featured cultures but in any cross-cultural encounter, then we have one last piece of business together: Describing a simple, five-step process to identify what you need to know to succeed in doing business with any other culture. This process is the foundation upon which this books rests, so you’ve already seen this process at work in the preceding ten chapters; all we are doing here is making it more explicit.
Here are the five steps to cultural competence:
Step 1: Understand what culture is and how it affects business and workplace interactions.
We’ve never explicitly defined “culture” in these pages, as it’s much easier to grasp what culture is by seeing it in action. Those actions, the things people say and do, together with the values and beliefs that prompt such actions, are what is generally meant by the term “culture.” In these pages you have been introduced to the visible dimension of culture, behavior or the things people say in the dialogues, and then you have been taken behind the behavior to discover the invisible dimension, the values or beliefs that explain why the two speakers behave the way they do. In fifty different examples, you’ve seen this link between values and behavior, which is the essence of Step 1 in this process.
Step 2: Identify the key assumptions and values of your own culture.
Once you understand how values and beliefs influence behavior, the other steps in this process more or less suggest themselves.
If values and beliefs play such a key role, then people with different values and beliefs—people from other cultures—are bound to behave differently. If you want to work with others and succeed, you must understand those differences—which brings us to Step 2. The starting point for discovering differences is to become aware of the primary values and beliefs of your own culture, which will then enable you to compare your culture with any target cultures and identify the all-important differences.
But identifying your own values and beliefs is not easy because they are largely subconscious and internalized. While you may live by these values and beliefs, behaving in certain ways in certain situations and never in other ways—doing what is normal, in other words, and avoiding what is abnormal—you are usually not consciously aware of them. Indeed, if someone asked you to name the five most important values of your culture, you’d have to stop and think—and even then you would probably flounder.
So how do you identify your cultural preferences? Those who study culture have identified certain aspects of human experience that all people in all societies must come to terms with but with respect to which different societies have evolved different attitudes and behaviors. These include such things as sense of identity, attitude toward uncertainty, and concepts of time and fairness. Many of these topics have been described in these pages because they explain the differences illustrated by the dialogues.
To have a good grasp on your own culture, then, you must identify what it has taught you vis-à-vis these topics. Here is a list of the more common ones:
Numerous books in the field of intercultural communications discuss these factors in more detail, although authors may use different terms. The Reading List at the end of this chapter presents one or two highly recommended titles for each of the featured countries (and the United States). It also gives titles for a selection of other countries not featured in this book, as well as a list of general titles and websites. The Bibliography lists additional titles. You could also seek out classes or workshops in intercultural communication to further your efforts in completing Step 2. Or you can visit an online cultural resource such as the websites for GlobeSmart (www.globesmart.com) or Country Navigator (www.countrynavigator.com).
Step 3: Identify the key assumptions and values of your target culture.
Once you have a fix on your own culture, your next job is to compare it with your “target” culture, the country you wish to do business with. Using the same list presented above, identify how people in your target culture think and act vis-à-vis these key factors. Once again, we suggest consulting the Reading List for books and websites that will teach you more.
Step 4: Identify the major differences between your culture and the target culture.
After completing Steps 2 and 3, you will have all the information you need to complete Step 4. Contrast what you now know about your own culture with what you have learned about the target culture, and identify key differences. You can also identify similarities, of course. Although these should not present any serious business challenges, by noting similarities you will come to know the extent of difference between your own culture and your target culture.
Seriously? I go to all this work and all I get at the end is “React as appropriate”? It does sound like a bit of a dodge, but think about it for a moment: What you should do when you encounter cultural differences in the course of doing business around the world depends entirely on the circumstances. In some cases, you should take a deep breath and try to act the way the locals do; in other cases, you should with good reason expect the locals to conform to your way of doing things; in still other cases, people from both cultures will have to shed some ethnocentrism and move toward a middle way that takes everyone outside their comfort zone. It depends on so many factors: Are you doing business in their country, or are they doing business in yours? Are you the buyer, or are you the seller? Do you work under someone from another country, or are you the boss? Are you managing folks in their own country, or managing a team of foreigners in your own country?
We have given a few suggestions for making accommodations in “The Fix” sections at the end of each explanation, but it is impossible to account for every situation. That said, we can offer a few general rules about how to decide who adjusts to whom:
Being an American, I naturally want to end this book on a positive note. Let me say, then, that while this book has emphasized the challenges (Americans always say challenges, rather than problems) created by cultural differences, that’s not the whole story. Cultural differences do cause misunderstandings, and misunderstandings can easily lead to all manner of unfortunate consequences. But there are also many benefits and advantages of encountering cultural differences: they make you think differently; they put your own culture into perspective; they offer alternative solutions to problems; they force you to be more flexible and tolerant; they make you curious; they prompt introspection.
We’ve emphasized the problems inherent in cultural differences because that’s where you may need help. But you won’t need any help reaping the benefits and enjoying the advantages.