1.5 - About University

8.9 C ROSS-CULTURAL C OMMUNICATIONInspired by John MacIonis, Nijole Benokraitis, Terri Morrison, Wayne Conaway, George Borden, and Hans Koehler.With organizations becoming increasingly global and workforces becoming more culturallydiverse, leaders often find themselves dealing with unfamiliar values, attitudes, and behaviors.These can prove hard to read, leaving a leader uncertain as to how to handle unfamiliar behaviorand how to support and integrate much-needed cross-cultural contributions within a workgroup.This tool will help you recognize some subtle cultural cues. It will also encourage youto think about the cultural values that you assume to be natural and normal. Finally, suggestionsare provided for dealing with cross-cultural differences within organizations.Strange as it may seem, in order to understand your reactions to unfamiliar cultural behaviors,the first thing you need to do is examine your own givens, values, norms, and comfortzone—as well as what is not comfortable for you. In any part of the world, the workplace isrooted in a cultural context, whether it be the Confucian orderliness of Singapore or the extrovertedexpressiveness of Brazil. There are no exceptions to this: Every country, organization,and department has a culture that is expressed as “the way we do things around here.” Thus,much of the way leaders conduct business is couched in a commonly accepted and assumedcultural context, in which they are comfortable, recognize the cultural signals, know how tobehave, and can be confident that their colleagues share this context.“All good people agreeAnd all good people sayAll nice people like us, are WEAnd everyone else is THEY.”—Rudyard KiplingHere are just a few examples of what leaders in the United States and Canada typically findacceptable and unacceptable.Generally acceptable inGenerally not acceptable inthe USA and Canada the USA and Canada Other cultural norms• Shake hands at first meeting.• Make eye contact with people.• Present ideas logically. Askquestions in a logical way, withoutemotion, and concentrating onfacts.• Logical and organized dialogue ishighly valued.• Any touching, other than shakinghands, might be consideredimproper (even by human rightslegislation).• Public affection is generally taboo.• Presenting ideas or askingemotionally.• Crying or expressing emotionsdemonstrably.• Demonstrating anger.• In many cultures, bowing orkissing and touching are expected.• In others, direct eye contact maybe considered disrespectful, evenaggressive.• In many Latin and Africancultures, extroversion and emotionare highly valued and seen aspowerful. People from the U.S. andCanada are often seen as beingoverly reserved and up-tight.SECTION 8 TOOLS FOR COMMUNICATION 257