DISTINGUISHING CULTURE AND RECOGNIZING DIFFERENCES

DISTINGUISHING CULTURE AND RECOGNIZING DIFFERENCES

Since culture has profound impact on all aspects of communication skills, everyone must develop a good understanding of the cultural background and recognize the differences between own culture and the one they are interacting with.

(1) Distinguishing traits of culture
Members of a group would have a lot of similarities in the way they think, speak and do work. A major culture may have several subcultures too. Culture can be identified with geographical areas, professions, hobbies etc. Culture of a management group may be different than that of accountants or lawyers. There may be some common features between football fans and cricket fans. Several distinguishing traits are:

(i) Stability of culture
Whether culture is stable or it is changing rapidly.

(ii) Complexity of culture
Whether it is easy to discern or has several layers that take time to grasp.

(iii) Composition of culture
Whether it has several subcultures as in India or it is homogenous as in USA.

(iv) Acceptance of outsiders
Whether it is closed to outsiders or it accepts outsiders readily.
Everybody needs special training before they become comfortable with a different culture.

(2) Recognizing cultural differences
It is useful to be able to recognize cultural differences. A person in south India nods his head in affirmation differently from a north Indian. If one is not aware of it, it is very easy to take no for yes. In USA, one cannot call a spade a spade because in the American slang, spade is used for black American. Similarly an Australian may compliment someone by saying that „he is a good bastard‟ whereas it may offend an Indian. A few major aspects of culture that distinguish them are:

(i) Religion
North Americans in USA and Canada follow puritan religion and are influenced by their ethics although both the countries have a large number of immigrants settling from many countries of the world. They view material comfort as a sign of superiority and believe money can solve many problems. There are also many societies who condemn materialism.

(ii) Values
People in countries like USA and Canada are more goal-oriented and want work to be done efficiently. It may not be so in India and South Asian countries where unemployment is very high. Managers tend to employ two persons where one would suffice.

(iii) Role play
Culture determines the role people play – what they communicate to whom and in what way. For example in some cultures women play a significant role in business whereas it is not so in Middle East and North African countries.

(iv) Decision making
In many countries in the west, business is dominated by one person, often the CEO who says yes or no to many decisions / deals as is the case in USA and even in Pakistan. In China and Japan, decision-making is a laborious process of reaching consensus otherwise they do not feel comfortable with the decision.

(v) Social behaviour and etiquettes
Culture has deep influence on the social behaviour and etiquettes of the people. Polite manners in one country may be considered to be rude in another. These rules of etiquettes may be formal or informal. Formal rules can be learnt and taught, for example, table manners etc. Informal rules are more difficult to identify and are learnt by observation and then emulating them. Informal rules relate to:

 How males and females should behave
 When and how people can touch one another
 When it is appropriate to call a person by first name

Violation of these informal rules can cause a great deal of discomfort although people loathe talking about them.

(vi) Concept of time
People from USA and Europe tend to be more particular about time – they also want to clinch deals quickly. It is not so in most of Asia, Mexico and Latin America. Japanese are aware of American impatience and say, „You Americans have one terrible weakness. If we make to wait long enough, you will agree to anything‟. Also called „chronomics‟, it is emerging as a new area of interest for distinguishing the attitude of people from different cultures towards time and timing.