CHAPTER 1Cross-Culture Interaction PRISMs1.Are some cultures“better”than others?2.Do you have to dislike other cultures in order to like your own culture?3.To what extent do most people accurately understand their own culture?4.How does culture differ from nationality?WHAT DO CULTURES CONTRIBUTE TO HUMANITY?1.Every culture in the world contributes something unique to humanitya certain“section”in the circle of humanity and life.2.Put all cultures together and you have all 360 degrees in the human circle.Without every culture,humanity would be worse off.3.The more you understand and appreciate cultures,the more you know and appreciate about human beingsand being alive.INTERESTED IN HUMAN DIVERSITY?For a look at the amazing depth&breadth of human diversity,check out the following web sites:http:/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnicityhttp:/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groupsThe only way to really understand your culture is to get outside it.Why do parents always think their children are good looking?Because we favor what we are most familiar with.Ethnocentrism:Wearing the wrong pair of cultural glasses“Americans are artificially isolated from the rest of the world.Our media simply do not let accurate images of anyone elses culture in.The challenge for humanity is figuring out how to live together now that the world is one completely intermeshed culture.”I see where local firefighters and police are learning to speak Spanish because of calls they get from families that cant speak English.Whatever nationality you are,if you want to live in the United States you should learn English.If we go anywhere else in the world,they will expect us to speak their language.Why shouldnt they have to speak ours?(Letter to the Waco newspaper)“If we were at war with Mexico,could we stop its citizens from crossing our border?Of course we could.So why dont we do it now?These illegals are crippling our economy.Often they pay no taxes.Yet they get services for free.”(Letter to the Waco newspaper)What if I enter Mexico illegally?Would I receive free medical care?Would they provide me with bilingual paperwork,nurses,and doctors?Being an illegal,could I obtain a valid Mexican drivers license?What would happen if I demanded that all Mexican officials speak in English to me?Could I expect to attend courses in American culture in their school system?Being illegal,would I be afforded rights as a Mexican citizen,thus legitimizing my unauthorized,illegal presence?(Letter to the Editor)America is becoming besieged by the hyphenated American syndrome.Whereas we used to be the melting pot of nations,there exists a conspiracy to“unmelt”the pot and separate Americans from one another by some distinctive and decisive hyphen.A hyphenated American seems to be a self-serving individual who wants to distinguish himself as one who has special needs or wants special consideration.No matter how politically correct some of these terms seem to be,I will never accept them nor use them.It would shame me to use some other country to distinguish myself from my fellow Americans.Should someone decide to be a hyphenated American it would seem that“American”should at least go first.As Theodore Roosevelt said in 1915,“For an American citizen to vote as a German-American,an Irish-American or an English-American is to be a traitor to American institutions;and those hyphenated Americans who terrorize American politicians by threats of the foreign vote are engaged in treason to the American Republic.(Letter to the editor)Americans are tired of being a poverty-reduction program for Latin Americans.Our government is giving Americans a tax rebate to help revitalize the economy of this country,yet the illegals send American dollars back home to support the economy of a country that wont take care of them.If they worked as hard at making things better in their homeland as they do in getting over here,wed all be better off.In Texas alone,the total amount of remittances is projected to drop from$5.2 billion to$4.2 billion,money taken out of Americas economy.If they feel unwelcomed,they should,because they are.(Letter to the Editor)TEMPORARY CULTURAL INSANITY1.Assuming everyone sees the world the way you do2.Assuming everyone works the way you do3.Assuming your way is best4.Assuming everyone wants what you want5.Assuming everyone wants to be like youTHE SUBTLETIES OF CULTURAL BEHAVIOR1.Reading emotions accurately2.Catering to social status differences3.Insiders vs.outsiders4.Power vested in your job title vs.who you know1.Try to speak their language&eat their food.2.Dont judge/evaluate people in the host culture by the standards of your own culture.3.Dont refer to others as“aliens”or“foreigners.”4.Resist the urge to“go native”in dress&manners,losing your genuineness in the process.CULTURAL BRIDGE-BUILDINGCross-cultural deals often start slowlybecause most cultures do business in a personalized manner,which requires relationship-building.GUESS WHO?1.The vast majority of the nations public school students never study a foreign language at any grade level2.Less than 8%of undergrad college students are taking a foreign language in a given year&only 2%are studying aboard.3.Business,engineering&science majors never have to take a foreign language4.“Without speaking a second language,its not possible to have any sophisticated understanding of another culture.”5.“Many students in other nations begin learning another language before the age of 10.They will have an edge over monolingual Americans in developing business relationships&connections outside their home turf.”6.A special commission of the U.S.Department of Education has called for a sweeping overhaul of the core curriculum of all public schools&in higher education to prepare American students for the global world of the 21st century.One of the most humbling experiences in life is learning another nations language while living in that nation.The inability to communicate clearly and competently can play havoc with ones confidence and sense of sophistication.Enduring this experience is often the ideal“cure”for ethnocentric people.THE IMPACT OF NATIONALISM ON HUMAN BEHAVIORThe sense of commitment to family&familiar surroundings drives the way people behave more than individual economic interests.“Dying for a regime dedicated to the pursuit of happiness makes no sense.Dying for the love of ones own tribe makes a great deal of sense.Thus nationalism(geography)remains the driving source of humanity.Nations act out of fear far more than they act out of greed or love.The fear of catastrophe drives foreign the policies of nomadic tribes and modern nation states.That fear is driven by place(geography).”(George Friedman)Geography is home to both nations&cultures,but its influence on how people&nations behave is often overlooked.To a great extent,culture shapes itself around both a nations geographical assets(for example,plentiful natural resources encourage materialistic values),&the nations geographical liabilities(Scandinavian cultures seek to compensate for a hostile climate with a security-conscious culture).Place drives culture;culture strives to derive the most from place.Neither transcends the other.MACRO FACTORS THAT SHAPE CULTURES 1.The nations culture2.Its governmental system3.Its institutions4.Whether business practices are personal or impersonal YOU KNOW YOU ARE IN AN INSTITUTIONALIZED CULTURE WHEN:1.There are numerous laws,regulations,&lawyers.2.People depend on institutions(public schools,hospitals,banks,etc.)more than family.3.Most things are organized&efficient.4.The main building blocks of society are singles&small nuclear families.5.People are independent&self-sufficient.6.Power is widely shared.7.Many people are high achievers,are at work more than with family,&have career-centered identifies.8.Life is fast-paced,competitive,&often stressful.9.Governments are relatively stable.10.Status is earned&based in large part on money/material wealth.11.People are individualistic.12.People exchange favors&network to get ahead.13.Big business dominates.YOU KNOW YOU ARE IN A PERSONALIZED CULTURE WHEN:1.Large extended families are the main source of power&personal identity.2.Most people have jobs rather than careers.3.Relationships are more important than personal productivity.4.Organizations arent efficient&reliable.5.“Bribes”are a way of life,since people control assets more than institutions.6.People exchange favors&network to get ahead.7.People enjoy the free things of life(relationships,leisure,religion,celebrations,etc.)more than the bought things.8.Most businesses are small&family-operated.9.Women have a different social role than men.10.Govenments&politics are unstable.11.Who you know is more important than what you know.Why do business operations on the grass roots level make or break foreign joint ventures?Because most cultures arent equipped with a strong institutional infrastructure.GRASS ROOTS BUSINESS THRIVES ON:1.Personal relationships vs.contracting2.Hospitality(bonding)3.Exchanging favors to build a resource baseTHE PERSONALIZED APPROACH TO DOING BUSINESS 1.Doing business more on the basis of who you know rather than what you know2.Continuing networking&relationship-building3.Associational powerbased on your boss,family members,&others you are closely networked with4.Hospitality(bonding)5.Patience(people valued over performance)THE FOOTPRINTS OF IMPERSONAL BUSINESS 1.Legalization of business deals via contracts rather than friendships2.Professionalism:no favoritism,anti-nepotism policies,bidding for contracts,etc.3.Accountability via codes of professional ethics,performance reviews,financial audits,&boards of directors.In most cultures,its smart for women to pursue career success via cutting-edge technical jobs because they are so much in demand thats its hard for companies to bypass women.1.In most male-dominated cultures,foreign professional women are treated as a“third gender”(neither male nor female).They are not treated as a culturally-traditional woman is treated in that culture,nor as a man is treated.2.Instead,women professionals are treated with a special code of etiquette that takes males“off the hook”for complying with traditional cultural expectations for treating women.3.Thus,traditional(paternalistic)cultures need 3 genders for conducting business,while unisex cultures need only one.Cross-cultural business relationships should be more cooperative than competitive:Win-win Give&take Personalized rather than bureaucraticWhy are there multiple bottom lines in global business?Because most cultures expect more out of business than profit:jobs,community service,health care,etc.UNDERSTANDING vs.EXPERIENCING REALITY 1.Ultimately you cant understand a culture by studying it,but only through experiencing it,first as an outsider,then as an insider.2.Ironically,it is only as you experience other cultures inside out that you begin to understand your own home culture.3.You can tell youve been assimilated into another culture when you dream in their language&start seeing a“stranger”everytime you look in the mirror!CHANGE THE EYES THAT SEE REALITY1.Profit is the bottom line of business.(What about market share?Stable employment?Loyalty to business partners?)2.Time is money.(Time might be viewed as competitive advantage or as as a matter of fate.)3.The way to get ahead is through hard work.(Maybe success comes through contacts,or personal characteristics,or family background).4.Plan your work and work your plan.(What if God wills otherwise?What if your low social position denies you economic opportunity?)5.Were an equal opportunity employer.(Not in hierachical societies).6.Lets be practical and come up with a compromise.(What-and sell out your values and ideals?!)7.We hire on the basis of competence.(We hire on the basis of who you know,who youre related to,or based on your ethnic background).8.Professionals are punctual.(Not if they are at the top of the hierarchy or in a relational culture).TORPEDOING REALITY 1.Hiring on the basis of your relationships with family&friends rather than by technical competence2.Attributing success to luck,fate,or deities rather than to hard work,good management,or efficient technology.3.Seeing compromise as a sell-out of personal values rather than as a sign of open-minded professionalism.CONCLUSIONS1.Ethnocentrism is the toughest problem to deal with in cross-cultural interaction2.The best way to overcome ethnocentrism is to avoid evaluating others by the standards of your own culture3.The capacity to read others is the key to mastering cross-cultural interaction4.In most of the world,business in conducted on a personal basis1.As explained in chapter 2,there are 3 basic families of cultures in the world:individualistic cultures based on capitalist institutions;extended family cultures based on multi-generation relationships;&community cultures based on placing the interests of the larger community(family,company,neighborhood,etc.)ahead of personal interests.2.With the phenomenal rise&spread of capitalism around the world since the second half of the 20th century,extended family&community cultures have been transitioning toward institutionalism with its ideal infrastructure for efficient,profit-maximizing business activity.3.Corporate careers demand individualism so business professionals can work when&where they are needed by corporations.Careerists are wedded to their corporate institution,spending more time at work than with the family unit or within the larger social community.4.Thus,loyalty to the corporation,rather than to the family or community,is generating increased cultural institutionalism&producing a new universal culture(the“UGEN”culture,discussed in chapter 14)of bi-cultural professionals at home in both their traditional home culture as well as corporate culture.Over time,the institutional pull of capitalism spawns a greater degree of individualism in all industrialized cultures.5.Muslim cultures are an exception to the trend towards capitalistic institutionalism/individualism because of Islams historical emphasis on theocratic law over secular law.6.Capitalist cultures tend to marginalize the cultural role of religion,making it a compartmentalized private matter that doesnt interfere with corporate professionalism.Muslims practice a public religion&historically have favored a non-secularized social system that is in tension with the capitalist culture of corporationshence the recent“culture wars”between Westernized secular cultures&many Muslim cultures.6.The U.S.had to go through a cataclysmic civil war to establish that institutions would rule America.Until mid-19th century,American culture was divided over:(1)The pull of agrarian,extended family,states-rights ideal of Thomas Jefferson,and:(2)The institutional federalism(big government+big business)espoused by Alexander Hamilton.7.By mid-20th century,Americas institution-driven culture dominated the world commercially to such an extent that extended family&communal cultures were forced to Westernize(institutionalize)to keep pace in economic growth.As highlighted in chapter 14(the universal generation),cultural differences are rapidly eroding in the 21st century as the emerging“universal”generation develops a culture of its own.Cultural differences have been in decline for a long time due to the unavoidable&pervasive influence of the digital revolution(Internet,pop culture icons,etc.)In the 21st century,cultural differences are most pronounced among middle-age people,but their 20th century“programming”is fast disappearing.。