Comments for Culture Matters

Comment on Informal Inspection by the Boss by Jack Whittaker

Jack Whittaker — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 22:08:23 +0000

It seems to me that you don’t have a right to privacy at work – you are using the boss’s computer and his email infrastructure to do the work for which the boss pays you. Your contract or IT policy probably says something to this effect. If you spend your day goofing off or sending personal emails, the boss has a right to complain. If you want privacy, use your personal phone for personal stuff

Comment on Do’s & Dont’s in Cultural Awareness Training by Vic Williams

Vic Williams — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 18:06:40 +0000

For Chinese the common advice “when in Rome do as the Romans do” is fine, and flunks when the outsider is physically different and needs rules/laws that reflect outside thinking. Even married in a Chinese family the westerner likely gets different treatment, often silent differences. A westerner might believe in a thing called a contract as a lock-in to an arrangement, where a chinese knows the contract is only the start of an ongoing relationship. Those differences need to be bridged then fused when associated goods and services and people go into or out of china. Eg when a expat leaves china the relationship goes, but a western outfit may believe that its contract goes on.

Comment on Informal Inspection by the Boss by Vic Williams

Vic Williams — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 17:34:09 +0000

Very Chinese too. They might put a Chinese staffer in the same building as foreign staff, to be helpful and watch communications. I was talking to the HR head in an office. Her computer screen faced me from behind her. At one point it changed and started showing me all the rooms, not just offices, on rotation, via hidden cameras. None of those cameras were visible when I looked later on. The one in the training room could easily record training for repeat training later – good quality.

Chinese often consider it normal for a person to use private email instead of a company email address. Sometimes company information stays in the personal inbox for personal reasons. It can drive one nuts to know the information is there, via another channel, but held for unknown reasons. I recently had a director of an org in Guilin China reply to me with a four month delay, after he entered and took over a former staffers email.

Comment on Do’s & Dont’s in Cultural Awareness Training by Chris Smit

Chris Smit — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 12:45:57 +0000

@Cynthia,
Interesting question!
First a question to you: do any of the parties feel uncomfortable “greeting” the Spanish way?

Here’s my advice/take on your question:
First, If both parties are fine greeting each other the “Spanish” way, there is no problem.

Second: what would you like to achieve? If you’re ok doing the “kiss” greeting when you’re not Spanish, and would offend the Spaniards if you would’t do the traditional greeting, you/one could reconsider adapting yourself/oneself. This in order not to offend the “other”.

Third: I’ve been in many situations where people from different cultures do not quite know how to greet each other. The solution? Simply ask. Something like “how should we greet?” or “How do you greet in your country? We greet like this…”.

If you’re not sure, asking what is appropriate has never offended anyone, or got anyone stuck.

Makes sense?

Comment on Do’s & Dont’s in Cultural Awareness Training by Cynthia Butterworth

Cynthia Butterworth — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 11:21:45 +0000

I am curious to know what suggestions you might have for a business woman in Spain. The typical greeting in Spain is a handshake for a man and the two-cheek kiss for a woman. Obviously, in a business context, a woman who quickly offers her hand will get off with a handshake but if you meet again, in a more informal context, it is custom to exchange the kiss. Then you’re stuck, because should you meet a third time with additional new people, you must kiss the the previously kissed ones and you should kiss the new ones as well so as not to offend them (unless it’s a very formal meeting). And, of course, that becomes quite uncomfortable for a non-european. Not to mention that handshakes are extremely rare between 2 women. A conundrum. How would you deal with that?

Comment on Do’s & Dont’s in Cultural Awareness Training by Jan Mertens

Jan Mertens — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 20:26:42 +0000

I do agree that we should be prudent with those Do’s & Don’ts as a intercultural trainer! Next Thursday, I’ll give a workshop “Working with Germans”. On that occasion, I will mention that punctuality is a value (or a so-called “cultural standard”) in Germany: Being on time for your meeting will be appreciated by your German client/colleague/boss. But that doesn’t mean that some Germans can’t arrive late on the same meeting. And even German trains aren’t always on time.
I totally agree with the last sentence: “it never hurts to ask the other party if he/she can explain what is happening or what needs to be done.” After all, intercultural communication is in the first place communication between individuals.

Comment on Why Democracy is not World Universal by Chris Smit

Chris Smit — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 09:07:14 +0000

My personal take on this is that what ever Political “system” a country has works.
Why?
Otherwise it would be different. That is not an easy way out, but really how I think it is.
Our European Democracy has worked out for us.
However the “uniting” of different Democracies in one Union (the European Union) has not worked out that well.
We see the friction coming up more so when there is an economic crisis. When things run smooth there are few pressing issue’s.

The reason why the friction is there (again, from a cultural point of view) is that Western Democracy hinges on Individualism. A few countries are collectivisitc (Greece, Portugal, South Italy, Spain (to some extend)). The rest is Individualistic.

The other main disagreements in the EU come form the fact that there are countries that score high on Powerdistance (e.g. France) while others score low (e.g. Netherlands & Germany).
But that difference might be worth a post by itself…

Comment on Why Democracy is not World Universal by Georges Bolle

Georges Bolle — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 21:59:40 +0000

Very interesting subject. Looking at today’s situation in Europe, can we say that our democracy really has worked out well ?