Behavior is comprehensible only within culture

The reasons for a nation’s cultural distinctions are not always decipherable from the actions of its people.

From a Western perspective, Eastern culture is formal and backward. Children in China defer to their parents, even as adults, at a level that most children in the United States would compare to slavery. Obedience to one’s government is a standard in China, but in the United States there are rallies and protests against political leaders. This often appears to Westerners as willful blindness to the ills of the government or a passive acceptance.

On the flip side I imagine that, were I a Chinese citizen, my understanding of these topics would be quite different. When I witnessed the blatant disrespect children give to their parents while young and the abandonment of them as they age, I would see chaos and disunity. When I saw the protests against the political leadership I’d see a breach of the peace.

Both sides operate under different cultural values, but they aren’t necessarily obvious from the news room. The Confucian value of order and the peace that grows from it (Livermore, loc. 1084) may be the heart of Chinese culture, but Americans don’t think, “Wow, their culture is so orderly and peaceful!” Likewise, although Americans value individual freedoms the average Chinese person isn’t thinking, “Those people possess great freedom.”

As a business owner it’s important to consider the cultural perspective of individual employees. But when launching a business in a culturally different nation one must be cognizant how actions made by the entire business will be understood. An entrepreneur in China may assume he could leverage benefits from the individualist perspective in a collectivist culture, but instead of being perceived as a forward-thinker, he may be labeled a disrupter of harmony. Likewise a Chinese businessman in the United States may find that his competitors don’t recognize his deliberations to avoid conflict with them and actively take advantage of his desire for harmony.

There’s more to cultural awareness than realizing the views of the person whose hand I’m shaking!

I’m not sure what more application I can take from this, except the obvious and oft-repeated “pay attention to culture”. It’s true when dealing with an individual-though there are always exceptions to any generalization-and it is true when considering the broad impact a business can have on a nation, and the impact the nation may have on the business.

References

Livermore, David A. (2013) Expand Your Borders: Discover Ten Cultural Clusters. Cultural Intelligence Center. Chapters 7: Confucian Asia