2.8 Learning review

We have learned that the closed concept of culture can cause us to make assumptions about people that can be misleading. When we learn that one of our colleagues has lived in several countries before joining our team, and another one was born in Ghana, there are still few assumptions we can safely make. The woman in Ghana might be more defined by her gender, age, religion or profession than her birthplace. And even if we have a colleague who spent many years in different countries, we do not know whether she still feels 'Russian', and what she might understand by that. We should keep an open mind with these colleagues and also with the intern about whom we have no information. The initial information we have can, however, serve as a first idea from which to find out more about 'what makes your colleagues tick'.

One advantage of a closed approach to culture is that it takes away some complexity when dealing with a diverse team. It can also give us a certain sense of security when dealing with people of other nationalities. Another advantage is when we encounter behaviour that we do not like in a colleague, we could take a closed cultural concept to explain this behaviour, rather than take it personally ('he is not late out of disrespect towards me, but because of his cultural background'). One of the biggest shortcomings of a closed culture approach is the generalization of individuals. People generally do not appreciate their individuality being explained away through an external notion of cultural belonging. This is the feeling of estrangement we notice when reading cultural guides on the so-called typical behaviour in our own nation.

In addition, the closed notion of culture is more likely to lead us to 'judge'. We need to be especially aware here of judgments that are absolute and not simply expressing a preference. We might even judge people because they do not correspond to our stereotypical view of a certain nation ('she comes from a culture where people are punctual- but she is not. So, she must be unreliable or disrespectful').

Here is an example of an answer from a German person:

• structured
• too honest and direct
• unemotional
• reliable

The German person cited above noted the following:

While I could relate to some of the traits, I did not feel like I shared some others at all. For example, I see myself as honest and direct, but also I often show up late, and actually feel that I am a very emotional person. Even with the more “positive” stereotypes like punctuality, I felt like I might disappoint my team when I show up late. Realising that my new colleagues might see me as the 'German' puts me in a rather defensive position.

Participant 1:

I remember when I returned to the Sudan with a friend and we walked through the streets of Khartoum. It was already getting dark and we had just arrived, having not yet recovered from jet-lag, and feeling a bit insecure when someone called us using the term 'Asma' meaning 'listen to me'. Our initial assumption was that the person wanted to beg and ask for money because we were 'rich foreigners' and so we were tempted to walk faster. When we finally stopped, it turned out that it was someone I knew and simply wanted to greet and talk to us.

Participant 2:

When I was traveling in the Philippines I decided to take a long walk in the country side as I wanted to get away from the tourist centres and explore the area. When I passed people working on the field they waved at me pointing in the direction of the beach. They obviously assumed that I had got lost and that foreigners are only interested in the beach. Because I did not speak their language, there was no way to tell them otherwise.

Participant 3:

Last term I was in a team with a student from Mexico whose English was not very fluent and I was very sceptical as to the contribution he could possibly make towards the term paper we were expected to write together. Actually thinking back, my assumption were threefold. Being Mexican I assumed that he may not know what our standards for writing an academic term paper are. Because of the trouble we had communicating well in English as a foreign language and understanding each other, I also assumed that his contributions may be rather poor and I think I also assumed a more 'mañana' thinking he was from Mexico. And actually I must admit that I was proved wrong. He had less experience than me speaking English, but he had a lot of experience in academic writing and looking back, I am glad that I questioned my assumptions about the 'students from Mexico'.