People are usually born and brought up in one specific culture. However, in business life, we are confronted with an international working world, often connected only digitally to our colleagues and counterparts in other countries. To master intercultural settings successfully, individuals need to develop an understanding of cultural differences.
By Stefanie Neumann, lecturer and consultant, IAP Institute of Applied Psychology
Calling strangers in a riding gear in the Western US “cowboys”, refusing food in China, letting out the warm water from the bathtub of my Japanese host family – After having lived and worked in diverse countries from the West (USA) to the East (Japan and Hong Kong) I have put my foot into it many times – and very often didn’t even realize it until another person, mainly a knowledgeable Westerner, told me that my behaviour was highly inappropriate. What I learned the hard way was that being interested, open-minded and curious towards other cultures does not necessarily mean that one can act and communicate in a culturally adequate way. On the contrary, such self-perception can even lead to the assumption that “just being yourself” was enough in a foreign environment and can hinder cultural development and learning.
Imagine this scenario:
A Swiss company wants to establish business in China. They initiate meetings and set up a project structure that monitors implementation. As there is no concrete opposition, the Swiss delegation assumes that the Chinese agree with the goals and milestones. Soon, however, deadlines are neglected and actions not implemented. The Swiss managers start to become pushier and pushier towards producing results, leading to even more contempt by the Chinese. Eventually the project has to be terminated due to “inadequate behaviour by the counterparty”, as both sides declare.
What went wrong?
Incorporating other cultures into our self-concept
To reflect one’s own behaviour in intercultural settings, the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity by Bennett & Bennett (2004) provides a sound and practical orientation.
The authors differentiate six stages of increasing cultural sensitivity and understanding of cultural differences in two main phases, the ethnocentric and the ethnorelative.
For Bennett, intercultural competence is “the ability to communicate effectively in cross-cultural situations and to relate appropriately in a variety of cultural contexts.” This includes a mindset and skillset that enables the intercultural practitioner to act accordingly. The underlying assumption for this model is that intercultural competence can be trained and learned – by self-awareness, practice and ongoing reflection.
Each of the six stages has characteristics that allow a positioning along the continuum.
In the ethnocentric phase, people experience their own culture as central to reality. Other cultures are either completely ignored or seen as neglectable; people consciously or unconsciously avoid cultural difference. In the denial stage, the own culture is experienced as the only valid one, any other culture is perceived as insignificant or inferior. Diversity is either avoided or reduced to stereotypes. In the defense stage, the own culture is still seen as superior, but there is an acknowledgment that other cultures exist. They are, however, not perceived as similarly complex or sophisticated as their own. In minimization, elements of one’s own culture are seen as universal with the perception that generally “all cultures are somehow the same”. Superficial cultural differences are acknowledged, such as etiquette and other customs, but with a high level of simplification.
In the ethnorelative phase, people experience their own culture in the context of others. They have developed the ability to differentiate between their own and other cultures and to act accordingly, they consciously seek cultural difference. In the stage of acceptance, people accept that other cultures are different but equally complex, with diverse views, values and reference points. There can still be a judgement that there are “better” and “worse” cultures nevertheless, but the wish to understand differences deepens. In adaption, people think or act outside their own cultural frame of reference. A change of perspective and frame shifting is being realized to be able to immerse into another cultural context, often unintentionally. Knowledge moves towards behaviour. The final stage, integration, is realized when a person has acquired a multicultural identity. They are flexible to move among diverse cultural settings with ease. Mindset and behaviour are in alignment with the framework of each culture in an authentic way.
Growing together – a lifelong task
Looking at the process of developing intercultural competence, learning is taking place on different levels and is not always linear. This can also mean that a person in a private context, e.g. when living with somebody from another culture, can be in the stage of adaption, while jobwise being in the stage of minimization or even defense at the same time.
If we look at our above scenario, there was some behaviour and mindset displayed that might have been critical for the failure of the project. Such could have been out of the stage of minimization with the viewpoint: “In a project everyone wants the same eventually, and that is to reach the set goal” or even the stage of defense: “To get along well is all fine, but efficient project management needs clear structures and adherence to the rules, not just this touch-me-feel-me stuff.”
To be able to grow in the process of understanding, valuing and integrating diverse views, it doesn’t go without taking many turns, loops and mastering drawbacks – but the price of experiencing cultural versatility, richness and understanding of others is worth it.
About the author
Stefanie Neumann is lecturer and consultant at the IAP Institute of Applied Psychology in Zurich. After five years in business development for Asia and ten years in leadership development for a global financial firm she applies her industry knowledge and leadership experience to work with leaders on their intercultural skills. She is also in the lead of a training program on Intercultural Competence for Leaders which is offered in English and German.
Literature
Bennett, Janet M, Bennett, Milton J (2004) Developing Intercultural Sensitivity. In: Landis, D., Bennett, J., & Bennett, M. (2004). Handbook of intercultural training. 3rd Edition. Thousand Oaks CA: Sage Publications, S. 147-165.
Lewis, R. (2010). When cultures collide: Leading across cultures. Nicholas Brealey Publishing.
Moran, Robert T., Abramson, Neil Remington, Moran, Sarah V. (9th edition 2014). Managing Cultural Differences. Oxon/ New York: Routledge.