Our perception of reality may be assisted if we can wear
someone else’s shoes for a moment. But firstly we should take off our shoes – our
prejudices- to be able to wear other’s shoes. Then we can see how he or she
views issues in a way very different from how we see it. These issues can be in
social as well as business life, I would like to share here some examples of
different views in different cultures:
Enjoy
exploring more on diversity !
Silence : Silence can be interpreted in
different ways. A silent reaction to a
business deal would seem negative to German, American, French or Arab executives.
However, East Asians and Finns find nothing wrong with silence as response. An old Chinese proverb says “Those who do not
speak; those who speak do not know”.
Trust : There are several surveys show that usually
Danes, Finns and fellow Nordics have high trust level, with Germans and
Japanese close behind. Britons are in the medium category. Low trust cultural
groups are countries like China, Mexico, France and the Latin and Arab
countries. People in these countries trust completely only who they know best.
I am sure many of us are working with/in virtual teams in business environment.
Do you feel creating trustworthy
relationships is a challenge in virtual teams? Sometimes I do feel it. Integrity and
competence are less visible, proficiency can be hard to verify at distance. Generally
for Hispanics, Italians, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, the lack of face to face
interaction is far more serious matter. But no worries.. there are many good tips how to
improve your teamwork or management skills in virtual teams regardless of your
culture! Let’s discover them in one of the next posts J
Decision making : Americans love making
decisions because they usually lead to action and they are action oriented. The
Japanese hate making individual decisions and prefer consensus by group or
team. In one of the meeting with a Japanese executive in a Japanese company
which I worked in, we were expecting him to
give final decision on a project. He said his decision is ‘not to decide on
this yet’. It was quite strange for me when I heard first time. But then we
understood that he wanted us to complete full “Nemawashi” first, then he will
decide based on feedback from other people. (Nemawashi (根回し) in Japanese means an
informal process of quietly laying the foundation for some proposed change or
project, by talking to the people concerned, gathering support and feedback,
and so forth. – Wikipedia)
Although I do not like stereotyping, I believe we can not exist without stereotyping.
Because it gives us points of reference in determining our behavior when we
meet with people from different cultures. To increase our intercultural
abilities, we should learn to manage those stereotypes, that is to maximize and
appreciate the positive values.