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OPERATIONAL CULTURE The Myths of Cultural Awareness: Culture Does Not Eat Strategy for Breakfast the points mentioned above are among the most common topics for discussion, both within and across cultures. To reduce or restrict communication cannot be a viable solution. What we must try to do is to give soldiers a simplified, defusing approach — free of intimidation or restriction — that views the individuals we encounter as human beings. And this must be an approach that recognises that the cultural behaviours of those individuals are seldom, if ever, an obstacle for communication or military cooperation. In a different culture, everything changes The argument is often made that ‘when working in a different culture, everything changes’. The implication is that, unless born and raised in the culture in question, one can never fully understand or function in that society. This paints the culture as an obstacle that can never be overcome. But looking critically at this primacy of culture perspective, do we really believe that some of the people we encounter are like aliens that do not share the same cognitive processes and basic human values as the rest of the world’s population? 7 Probably not. In fairness, some of the sources on cultural awareness mentioned earlier recognise that culture doesn’t change everything, despite adopting a primacy of culture perspective. For example, Christopher Lamb, in his discussion of persuasion tactics in US psychological operations notes that ‘persuasive communication transcends culture by the most basic appeals’, arguing that the most fundamental principles, for example the appeal to self-interest, are universal across cultures. 8 But there is strong evidence that more than just the basic principles of psychology are common across cultures. In reality, most human behaviours are universal. Few are culturally distinctive, and I have yet to find support for the claim that culture can fundamentally alter human cognition. In fact, it was recently discovered that the classical psychological conformity study conducted by Solomon Asch in 1951 9 has been positively replicated 133 times across the globe. 10 This, along with other studies, indicates that the fundamentals of human psychology are common to individuals everywhere. Matsumoto asserts that ‘general functions are more likely to yield cultural universals, while specific functions are more likely to prove culturally distinctive.’ 11 By this he means that our general human functions are the same, and that it is the small, specific functions that are culturally distinctive. Humans are humans wherever you go in the world, and there is more that connects us than separates us. Australian Army Journal Culture edition 2013, Volume X, Number 3 Page 132
OPERATIONAL CULTURE The Myths of Cultural Awareness: Culture Does Not Eat Strategy for Breakfast They are the strange ones So far we have limited our considerations to the culture of the individuals we encounter during overseas deployments. But another equally important variable in the cultural equation is your own culture, how it manifests itself and how it will be perceived by the local population. If we are talking about cultural differences, then we are talking about a measurable distance between ourselves and another social group. When considering the distance between point A and point B, it is always the case that the distance from each point to the other is the same. To another culture, we are as different to them as they are to us. If we perceive cultural differences, so will they. In this cultural equation we often view our own culture as normal — we are the normal ones and they are the strange ones. But there is no logical argument to support such a claim. In fact, when visiting another country, wouldn’t it make more sense to accept that we are the strange ones and that that country’s citizens are normal? Our culture does not set the standard for what is ‘normal culture’ even though we might unconsciously assume this. This error in thinking is not uncommon and has a natural explanation. We view the world through our own eyes and interpret it according to our own expectations, values and beliefs. Information that is new to us and does not match our expectations or previous experiences is, by definition, strange to us. To view culture in black and white terms is a characteristic of ethnocentrism. 12 This view often results from a lack of education and experience and can cause an individual to see his own culture as ‘right’ and any other as ‘wrong’. Ethnocentrism influences our perception of the world in varying degrees. But it is clear that, in order to fully understand and appreciate another culture, we must first be aware of and embrace our own culture and be open to the fact that other persons may view us as culturally strange. Organisational culture and operational culture In addition to the cultural differences of individuals in another country, we must also consider the culture of our own organisations. We often react strongly to the differences of a foreign culture, but can be blind to the fact that these may be dwarfed by the differences between the services (army, navy, air force) within our own military. Australian Army Journal Culture edition 2013, Volume X, Number 3 Page 133
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Australian Army Culture edition 201
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CONTENTS CHIEF OF ARMY FOREWORD....
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CHIEF OF ARMY FOREWORD When I assum
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CHIEF OF ARMY FOREWORD her gender,
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EDITORIAL the way in which it deals
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HISTORY Serving Their Country: A Sh
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HISTORY ‘A Homosexual Institution
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GENDER AND SEXUALITY Steyrs and She
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GENDER AND SEXUALITY Sexuality, Coh
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RELIGION Religious Diversity in the
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Page 97 and 98: IDENTITY Military Retirement: Refle
Page 113 and 114: DISCIPLINE Hazing in the ADF: A Cul
Page 129 and 130: OPERATIONAL CULTURE The Myths of Cu
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Page 143 and 144: ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE Securing Arm
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ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE Family Frien
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ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE Family Frien
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ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE From Institu
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OPINION Army’s Spirit Warrant Off
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OPINION Army’s Spirit Pride As RS
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OPINION Army’s Spirit Mateship ca
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OPINION Army’s Spirit Our people
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OPINION Army’s Spirit I think it
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OPINION Brothers and Sisters in Arm
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OPINION On the Culture of the Austr
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OPINION Fifty Shades of Grey: Offic
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CREATIVE WRITING Lost in Translatio
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CREATIVE WRITING Lost in Translatio
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NOTES FOR CONTRIBUTORS NOTES FOR CO
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