Understanding cross-cultural business communication is very important for a business manager. It has a lot to do with having strongly developed Emotional Intelligence (EQ).
In The Iceberg Exercise, you saw how certain aspects or features of culture are visible – they show up in people’s behavior – while many other aspects of culture are invisible, existing only in the realms of thought, feeling, and belief.
Importance of linking values to behavior in cross-cultural business communication
From understanding where behavior comes from to understanding why people behave the way they do means learning about values and beliefs.
While the behavior of people from another culture may seem strange to you, it probably makes sense to them. The reason any behavior makes sense is simply because it is consistent with what a given person believes in or holds dear.
Conversely, when we say that what someone has done ‘makes no sense’, what we mean is that that action contradicts what we know that person feels or wants
1. Concept of power: High Power Distance and Low Power Distance
In this exercise, you consider the notion of power distance. This concept is larger than the workplace, having as its focus the attitude of a society toward inequality – how cultures deal with difference in access people have to power and their level of status – but it is manifest especially in workplace relations, particularly in the role and relationship of the manager and the subordinate.
The following brief descriptions of the two poles of this concept – high and low power distance – suggest the issues involved:
A. HIGH POWER DISTANCE: Cultures where high power distance typifies the workplace accept that inequalities in power and status are natural or existential. In the same way they accept that some people are smarter than others, people accept that some will have more power and influence than others.
Those with power tend to emphasize it, to hold it close and not delegate or share it, and to distinguish themselves as much as possible from those who do not have power. They are, however, expected to accept the responsibilities that go with power, to look after those beneath them. Subordinates are not expected to take initiative and are closely supervised.
B. LOW POWER DISTANCE: People in these cultures see inequalities in power and status as largely artificial; it is not natural, though it may be convenient, that some people have power over others.
Those with power, therefore, tend to deemphasize it, to minimize the differences between themselves and subordinates, and to delegate and share power to the extent possible. Subordinates are rewarded for taking initiative and do not like close supervision.
2. Attitude toward the unknown: High Uncertainty Avoidance & Low Uncertainty Avoidance
The second of the three dimensions of culture that particularly affects the workplace is how people respond to the inherent uncertainty of life. This uncertainty creates anxiety in all cultures, with characteristic responses – technology to control uncertainty in the natural world; laws, regulations, and procedures to control the uncertainty in human behavior; and religion to address the question of transcendental uncertainty.
While all societies feel threatened by uncertainty, some feel more threatened by it than others do. Depending on their attitudes, different cultures have devised different norms and systems for dealing with it. The two extremes, called high uncertainty avoidance and low uncertainty avoidance, are described below
A. HIGH UNCERTAINTY AVOIDANCE: Cultures characterized by high uncertainty avoidance feel especially anxious about the uncertainty in life and try to limit and control it as much as possible. They have more laws, regulations, policies, and procedures and a greater emphasis on obeying them.
They also have a strong tendency toward conformity, hence predictability. People take comfort in structure, systems, and expertise – anything that can blunt or even neutralize the impact of the unexpected. The unknown is frightening.
B. LOW UNCERTAINTY AVOIDANCE: People in these cultures do not feel quite so threatened nor anxious about uncertainty, and therefore do not have such a strong need to limit or control it. They seek to legislate fewer areas of human interaction and tolerate differences better.
They feel boxed in by too much structure or too many systems. And, they are curious rather than frightened by the unknown and are not uncomfortable leaving things to chance. Life is interesting but not especially daunting.
3. The source of status: Achieved Status or Ascribed Status
This is the last of the three workplace-related cultural dimensions presented in this chapter: how people come by their status, in their organizations, and in society in general. This concept is related to power distance in some respects and to the individualism or collectivism dichotomy in others. Certain features, however, are outside of those two dimensions and deserve attention in their own right.
The two poles here are sometimes referred to as achieved and ascribed, and in other cases, as ‘doing’ cultures and ‘being’ cultures. They are briefly described below.
A. ACHIEVED STATUS: In these doing cultures, people are looked up to and respected because of their personal and especially their professional accomplishments. You get ahead into positions of power and influence by virtue of your achievements and performance.
Your status is earned and not merely a function of birth, age, or seniority. You are hired based on your record of success, not on the basis of family background, connections, or the school you attended.
People are not particularly impressed with titles. Education is important, but not the mere fact of it; you have to have done something with your knowledge. Status is not automatic and can be forfeited if you stop achieving.
B. ASCRIBED STATUS: In these being cultures, a certain amount of status is built into the person; it is automatic and therefore difficult to lose. You are looked up to because of the family and social class you are born into, because of your affiliations and membership in certain important groups, and, later, because of your age and seniority.
The school you went to and the amount of education you received also confer status, whether or not you did well in school or have done anything with your education. Titles are important and should always be used.
You are pressured to justify the power, respect and deference that you automatically enjoy. While you cannot lose your status completely, you can lose respect by not realizing your potential.
The examples in this exercise show how these two realms of culture, the visible and the hidden, are related to each other, how the values and beliefs you cannot see affect behavior in cross-cultural business communication.
