| News 2009 Cross Cultural Module |  |  |  | |
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| | Confessions from a cross-cultural psychologist
By Dorte Kongerslev, cross-cultural psychologist, Via-Relation
I have worked with the field of international assignments, mobility and cross-cultural training for a decade and would like to share some of my experiences and thoughts regarding culture. I will use Denmark and the US as examples when possible. First of all, we have to acknowledge that a comparison between US and Denmark is like comparing Lake Tahoe with the Pacific Ocean. By size and complexity they cannot be compared. But in a very general perspective we can talk about them as water environments. In the same respect my comments will touch on very general perspectives of Culture and Danish American cultural differences.
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Culture cannot be taught
Cultural intelligence cannot be learned by doing a one day training session, in fact I will claim that culture and cultural intelligence cannot be taught at all.
To become cultural intelligent takes exposure, experience and lot’s of real life relations. What we can teach in a training session is food for thought regarding understanding culture as a phenomenon and to examine own and other cultural traits and dimensions – to better understand how and why culture is important.
Culture matters
Culture matters on almost every aspect of social life, because our culture, throughout our childhood is socialized into our feeling of identity. Some people fail to recognize cultures impact on business, but Culture defines our preference for communication, decision making, negotiation style and styles of management and leadership just to mention a few aspects.
Knowing versus feeling
Our culture is our comfort zone, where we know and understand what is going on. Even if people on an intellectual level know about culture they can still be taken by surprise when exposed to a new cultural setting. People tend to forget that even if you know and understand about something you still have to deal with the emotional impact.
When Danes go to the US and Americans go to Denmark
During my years working as a cross cultural consultant I have had many talks with Danes and Americans who have been exposed to each other’s culture.
Danes say things like:
- Americans are very focused on creating buy in; there is a need for speed and a tendency to be too positive.
(and the Americans think” how is it possible not to be fast and stay positive?”)
Americans say things like:
Danes are very focused on creating consensus; they have many meetings and seem to enjoy criticism.
(and the Danes think “how is it possible not to discuss in dept and be critical?”)
And of course both parties are right it is just a matter of different values and beliefs.
Using a simple model to perceive a complex world
To understand something more about Danish and American culture we could take a closer look at historical facts, climate, population etc. Instead I will introduce a very simple model, The Model of Freedom.
This is a very basic presentation of the model, just to give you an idea on how the model in a simple way can contain a very complex reality. The 4 cultural orientations mentioned below are: Action, Process, Task and Role – and they measure people’s appreciation of Authority (Power), Systems (rules, procedures, planning), individuality (the right to stand alone and to be unique) and Community (group orientation and conformity)
Action Orientation
Just do it. Get started. I don’t care how you do it. Keep it simple. Be decisive. Be a winner. Be positive. Get people to buy in. Make things tangible.
Process Orientation
Always be well prepared. Have intelligent arguments on hand. Hierarchy is important and should be respected. Decisions may take time. Life is complex; let’s keep it complex.
Task Orientation
People work together because they have a common task. Be direct and content driven. Conflicts are part of life. You are personally accountable. People need to feel involved.
Role Orientation
Everybody has a role and obligations. A task is accomplished through a team effort. You share responsibility. Communication is mostly vertical. Try to avoid conflicts.
So when Danes meet Americans, and vice versa, many frustrations and miscommunications is due to the confrontation between an Action Culture (US) and a Task culture (DK). It is not a matter of one culture being superior, or one culture being right and the other wrong but simply a matter of different values and beliefs.
Cultural intelligence means being curious and reflective
So far I have stated that culture cannot be taught and that cultural confrontations and miscommunication is a matter of meetings between different values and beliefs. To develop cultural intelligence one needs to be curious: ask questions, seek information, get experience and Reflective: what does it mean to me, how does it make me feel and what are the characteristics of my own culture.
The confession of a cross cultural psychologist is that the mark of my work isn’t heavy files and lots of Power Points but the ability to challenge my client’s perception of self and culture and to empower them to be curious.
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Dorte Kongerslev has supported companies and employees within mobility issues for more than 10 years. Read more at www.udstationeringspsykologen.dk and www.theexpatriatepsychologist.dk. | |
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