Written by One of the most difficult parts of managing across cultures is a sense of ambiguity and uncertainty when it comes to rules.
Those from rule-based cultures, thrust into relationship-based environments, likely find the rules ambiguous, and vice versa.
Unsurprisingly, the rule-based US culture professes a fundamentally rule-based management theory, decidedly offering straightforward advice regarding successful management.
Take “ad res” versus “ad personam,” for example.
Ad Res vs. Ad Personam
American universities teach an “ad res” organizational theory, in which organizations are structured in a chart adapted to the business. The names can be altered in the chart, as the organizations are indifferent to the people who fill the roles.
However, this differs from how relationship-based cultures view organizational structures. In these cultures, organizations consider “ad personam” to be correct, which is quite the opposite of “ad res.”
With “ad personam” organization, the individual people come first.
Vagueness Leads to Misunderstanding
This is just one example of the way a culture’s values shape their management theory and structures. Just one more reason to clarify any cultural ambiguity or uncertainty in order to better manage within another culture.
Uncertainty stems from vague values, norms, and behaviors, which lend themselves to wrong assumptions.
When things are uncertain or ambiguous, the first step is always to seek understanding.
As we talked about early in this blog, finding the rationale behind the values, norms, and behaviors of your cross-cultural counterparts is essential to clarifying uncertainty and ambiguity.
And the first steps in seeking understanding are to:
- Identify the conflicting issue – pinpoint whatever it is that’s rubbing your own values and beliefs the wrong way.
- Look at the issue from the other culture’s baobab tree – keeping in mind what you’ve learned about the culture, try to see the issue from their perspective, their standpoint, their worldview.
- Seek out the advantages in their perspective – when you approach the issue from your own baobab, you’ll probably see the other’s perspective in a negative light; but from their baobab, a spotlight is shone on their train of thought, allowing you to see more clearly.
- Find the line of logic – while seeking understanding may not bring you in line with the other’s ideas of personal and social responsibility, finding their line of logic will lead you to a place of clarity. And with clarity comes understanding.
What Are Their Advantages?
When faced with conflicting cultural behaviors, values, norms, and management methods, ask yourself these questions:
What are their baobab’s benefits?
Why and how are their methods successful in their culture?
When you seek understanding instead of discriminating; when you start looking at another culture through their own lens, you may just discover significant advantages to their methods and values.
In doing so, you may also see the disadvantages and limitations of your own culture and ways you can improve your own culture. In fact, you may adopt certain behaviors, values, or norms that you appreciate.
Next week, we’ll take a look at one of the limitations that the individualistic West has started to improve on: corporate social responsibility.
Success Across Cultures 