Understanding Cultural Differences - Part I

As promised, here I am with blog on culture. Do you know what a culture is? Looks simple – isn’t it, but after reading this you will be amazed how convoluted this topic is? Culture is an understanding of acceptable actions and beliefs. We may not be aware this until we come across people who think differently, do things differently and sometime we may not feel comfortable and that is what we call culture shock. Culture varies obviously from country to country, coast to coast, continent to continent. Some of us are originally from one culture but live-in a different culture and hence, it is important to be aware of the cultural differences and peculiarities. This article tries to cover culture differences between East and West, focusing primarily on countries such as China, India, Japan, Canada, USA, Germany and France. This article helps people to be aware with culture differences, and respect the cultural differences.

Cultures can be categorized as High-context or Low-context. In high-context culture, more emphasis is on context and very little is explicitly spelled out in a document or in an agreement. The oral agreements are more binding than written. People are treated differently according to their social position, their seniority, and their age; relationship of one individual to another has more weight in communication than anything else. The communication is more indirect, polite but ambiguous. Chinese, Japanese, Korean, French and to some extent Indian cultures are of high-context. In contrast, low-context culture has little emphasis on context and more on explicit written statements in a document, or an agreement. The written agreements have more bindings than oral. The communication is more direct, confronting but clear. Canadian, American, German, and Australian cultures are of low-context. When dealing with different people from high- and low-context cultures you always have to be aware of your interlocutor's cultural origin. This helps to avoid misunderstandings and creates a better basis for further discussions. For example, the Indian-speakers often greet each other by saying, “Have you had dinner?”, “Where are you going?”, and so on. But in the low-context culture, people generally say, “Good morning (afternoon, evening)!” or “Hello!, Hi!”, “How is it going”, or “How are you”. If you say “Have you had dinner？” to a low-context culture person, he or she may think that you want to invite him or her for a dinner. Person of low-context may not like questions such as “Where are you going” and consider this as attack on privacy. But in the high-context cultures, these are appropriate greetings which do not invade the other person's privacy. Understanding the context helps in communication with people from other cultures. People of low-context typically talk about weather, traffic, sports, health, matches, and hobbies and so on when they meet unlike to people of high-context who typically talk about personal life, marriage, job, business etc.

Another dimension to culture is Specific v/s Diffuse. The specific culture has a very high degree of privacy than the diffuse culture. People from diffuse culture do not feel comfortable in sharing private information in public. These people need to have some personal relationship before they are open to share information. It is sometimes as important if not more important to built up a close relationship with such people than the business deal itself. Chinese culture falls into diffuse category. In contrast, American normally goes straight to the point and if opponent still shows interest then they start looking towards closing the business deal. In diffuse culture, if a person is not able to perform a certain task, then supervisor tries to motivate the employee or move him to some different task to show him ways out of his or her bad performance. In contrast, specific culture believes in “hire and fire” tenet. Indian culture is on the fence between specific and diffuse but more towards specific. German and French cultures fall into diffuse category.

Another angle to the culture difference is the Space that people maintain whether it is personal space while talking or the location of the office space. It has been observed that Americans, Germans, Chinese and Indians maintain certain personal space while talking whereas French are not very particular about space. The size and location of offices are also both considered as very important because they express some kind of status and power. Unlike a corner, closed door office in USA, India, Germany and China, the executives of a company in France prefer to be placed in the middle of the building – communicating that “everything” has to be centralized. The central position is a key position in France. Japanese homes have much smaller rooms than most US homes. The Japanese use less furniture and place them towards the middle of the room.

The discussion on culture cannot be considered complete if Time is not discussed. In Germany, USA and China, Time is considered as resource and any delay should be apologized. Whereas most of the time, Indians are known for Indian standard time . Sometime host considers themselves in an embarrassing situation when guests reach to the function while host is getting ready for the party. In France, punctuality depends on the importance of the person.

Cultures can be differentiated based on Universalism and Particularism. Universalistic culture focuses more or rules and regulations than on relationships. Strong universalist cultures use the court to mediate conflicts. Therefore Americans have many more lawyers per citizen than any other country. The more universal a country is the greater is the need to protect the truth. In universalist culture, employees compete hard for better job positions and to climb up in the hierarchy and earn more money. They do this without caring for colleagues and the relationship with them. American, German and Australian culture is more towards universalism. In contrast, particularistic culture focuses more on heart and relationships than legal contract which is just meant to be a starting point. Particularly, Chinese try to keep the contracts vague and not too tied down. It might happen that Chinese business people will still try to negotiate afterwards even the contract was already signed/closed and agreed from all sides. In negotiations Chinese will spend a lot of time in building up a relationship with their business partners so the actual negotiation will be at the end of the meeting time. For example, while Americans deal with Chinese; Americans often try to close deals as fast as possible. But as a result of the Chinese way to make deals, the Americans might commit more advantages than first thought just to rush forward and close a deal. This can be an advantage for particularistic cultures. Indian culture somewhere falls between universalistic and particularistic but more towards particularistic. French culture is more towards particularistic whereas Japanese culture is more towards universalistic.

People of different cultures have different emotions. Based on emotions, culture can be divided into two categories, i.e. Affective and Neutral. In affective cultures like in China people express their emotions more naturally, often smile a great deal, talk loudly when excited, and greet each other with enthusiasm, whereas in neutral cultures like in Japan people hold back their emotions. When individuals from affective cultures do business in neutral cultures, they should realize that lack of emotion does not mean disinterest or boredom, but rather that people from neutral cultures do not like to show their hand. Conversely, when those from neutral cultures do business in affective cultures, they should not be put off when the other side grows animated, and they should try to respond to the affections of the other group. China believes in Affective culture whereas Japan believes in Neutral culture. Countries such as USA, Germany, Australia, France and India are between Neutral and Affective culture.

Cultures can also be categorized based on individuals’ status in society/business. The status can be either because of Achievement or Ascription. Countries such as USA, Germany encourage Achievement based status where a person is recognized based on his or her individual achievements, skills, knowledge and talent. In contrast, countries like China, Korea, and Russia encourage Ascription based status where a person is recognized based on his or her seniority, family background and qualifications. India seems to maintain hybrid status.

Some cultures live in harmony with Nature and rest tries to take advantage of natural resources. Countries such as USA, China, Germany (to some extent) protect the natural resources whereas countries such as France exploit the natural resources. In my opinion, people in India are aware with the importance of nature but still it is a dream so far.

Some cultures treat Genders differently. For example, In USA and France, women are treated equally well to their male counterpart; however, in China and to some extent in India and Germany, women’s are mainly responsible for caring for family and house. However, the situation in eastern countries is rapidly changing.

Another important aspect of culture difference is Body Language. This includes eye contacts, gestures, touch etc. In western countries such as USA, Canada, eye contact is a sign of honesty, but in other cultures the lower-ranking person is expected to look down first. For example, in Japanese culture, people are taught to look at the neck, in India prolonged eye contact is considered rude. In Muslim countries, men and women are not supposed to have eye contacts. This difference can lead to miscommunication in the multicultural work-place. Superiors may feel that subordinates are being disrespectful when the subordinate is being fully respectful – according to the norms of his or her culture. Gesture can also vary culture to culture. For example, the “Thumbs up” sign that means “good work” or “go ahead” in the USA is vulgar insult in Greece. The circle formed with thumb and first finger that means OK in the USA is obscene in India, France and many other countries. Similarly, in some cultures people nod their head up and down to say “yes” and left and right to say “no”. Also, Muslim cultures consider showing the sole of foot is an insult. People in west interpret touch as power: More powerful people touch less powerful people. Cultures such as USA allow opposite-sex couples to hold hands or walk arm-in-arm in public but scowl on the same behavior in same-sex couples. Whereas, people in India, China and other eastern and middle east countries have the opposite expectation. In Iran, even handshake between men and women are seen as improper.

Oral communication also plays a significant role in communicating across multiple-cultures. I found that people in USA expect you to wait for a pause or for your turn before you speak. Interruption is considered rude. Also, some cultures prefer direct requests but rest prefer indirect requests. For example, can you finish this task by Monday (Indirect request) or I want this task to be finish by Monday (Direct request). Some cultures understate the situation whereas other cultures overstate the situation. Americans are known for overstatement; for example, American may say “I know it’s impossible, but can we do it?”, but on the other side, a German or an Indian may find it conflicting: By definition, something that is impossible cannot be done at all. In this example, the American has just used “impossible” to say “difficult” and assumed that with enough resources and commitment, the job could in fact be done. On the other side, some cultures like Indian, British have a reputation for understatement. For example, someone who has received the award may say, “No big deal.” Culture also varies in terms of how they respond to compliments. For example, in Japanese or an Indian culture, the compliment “good job” can be responded by “Thank you, I just tried.” However, an American would probably say “Thank you.” In some cultures such as Indian, women in business may usually feel uncomfortable if male colleagues or superiors compliment them on their appearance, but it is perfectly fine on other cultures such as American. Silence also has different meanings in different cultures. Japanese use silence for thinking whereas Americans may think that Japanese did not like the Americans’ idea. Americans’ are less tolerable to silence and feel restless if silence is not broken quickly. Different understandings of silence can prolong problems. For example, during a period of military tension, Greek air traffic controllers responded with silence when Egyptian planes requested permission to land. The Greeks intended silence as a refusal; the Egyptians interpreted silence as consent. Several people were killed when the Greeks fired on the planes as they approached the runway.

Signal Directions can also be different in different cultures. For example, in some culture people write right to left, bottom to top, people drive on left side of the road, electric switch becomes on when at bottom position etc. Toilet system in Europe is much different than in USA. The heating and cooling in Europe is much different than in USA.

The other cultural difference would be Eating Habits. I have seen in USA, everyone has their own plate of food, but in India and China the dishes are placed on the table and everybody shares. In offices in USA, people typically bring lunch, Tea-coffee at their desk and enjoy individually whereas in India, people enjoy such things in a group at a common place.

I will continue with some more differences in my next blog. Stay tuned and happy reading.

Reference: http://www.via-web.de/home.html, Business Communication by Locker