Think Inc.
A forum for Hawaii's
business community to discuss
current events and issues.
Think Inc.
A forum for Hawaii's
business community to discuss
current events and issues.
Closed minds | Struggling in paradise
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Synergy is important to adaptive leaders because we live in a complex and diverse world. Leaders everywhere are looking for ways to work in environments with multiple stakeholders. Closed minds
Doing business across cultures
requires a willingness to learnBy Jerry Glover and Gordon Jones
Religious, ethnic and professional disciplines shape our views of the world. Political, economic and national diversity is today's norm, not the exception. Communities, industries and governments struggle to maintain sustainable relationships with their natural and social environments. Multinational organizations attempt to find a balance between the policies and strategies from headquarters and operations in host countries. Creating adaptive synergy is a fundamental requirement for successful leadership in most situations we encounter.
Adaptive synergy, as we define it for leaders, is the process of reconciling differences among the values of seemingly opposing stakeholders. Stakeholders can include individuals, union, management, customers, corporations, special interests, communities, governments and even our environment. In any given situation each stakeholder group has their own particular views of the world, based on their specific cultural values.
World views influence how leaders do everything, such as motivating workers, making decisions and holding meetings. There are as many world views about how to perform these fundamental leadership tasks as there are different cultures in the world.
All world views operate as a perceptual lens for the individuals that hold them. Each lens is influenced by that persons' cultural orientation and experiences. Thus, our knowledge, or culture, provides the content and structure for our view of the world. This is the basis for human diversity.
World views are shared in some instances, when people are part of the same family, religious group, corporation, community or nation. However, world views are not shared by stakeholders when their cultural background is diverse. When world views are not shared the potential for problems from diversity is high.
We can find many examples of the need for creating adaptive synergy. One such case involves foreigners doing business in the Peoples' Republic of China. Outsiders often do not understand traditional Confucian principles on which a good deal of Chinese business behavior is based. We recall an American businessman who became so frustrated with what he perceived to be the "Chinese bureaucracy" that he abandoned a joint venture in that country. It seems that the American wanted to ignore the social principle of guan-xi, choosing to avoid any relationship with his Chinese counterpart other than for business.
His Western cultural orientation was obvious to the Chinese. Repeatedly he had been asked by his local counterpart to attend social functions while in China. Instead, the American wanted to "stick to business." The American was doing business according to world view he had been successful using back in the United States. His local Chinese counterparts were using a world view based on guan-xi, which expects long-term relationships and trust to be developed before getting to business. When the American attempted to pressure the Chinese partner to immediately sign legal agreements from the U.S. headquarters regarding the proposed joint venture, he was always politely put off.
Unable to resolve this diversity dilemma of seemingly opposing values, the American recommended to his headquarters in San Francisco that the company should withdraw from the joint venture. This case illustrates that interpersonal diversity dilemmas can escalate into group and even organizational dilemmas. Had the American executive been able to resolve the interpersonal dilemma he faced in dealings with his Chinese counterparts, the organizational crises may have been avoided. Adaptive synergy would have required that the American be able to "get down to business," yet be able to build relationships with his local counterparts in the process.
"The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function," wrote F. Scott Fitzgerald in "The Crack Up," 1936.
Next we will discuss holistic vision.
Jerry Glover is a professor of organizational change at Hawaii Pacific University. Gordon Jones is a professor of management information systems at HPU. They can be reached at JerryGlover@compuserve.com and gjones@hpu.edu. BACK TO TOP
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THE FUTURE OF THE ISLES
When did we concede
Stephany L. Sofos
life in Hawaii must be
a constant struggle?
I often go down to Mocha Java at Ward Centre to drink coffee, watch people and think about life. I do some of my best thinking away from telephones and the distractions of my office.Over the past several months I have had met and talked with many young local people who work around the area and are just starting out in life. Some have come from the neighbor islands to find jobs and their destiny, some are going to school, some are rebuilding their lives; but all are the most hard-working, capable and fresh individuals I have met in recent years.
Talking with them raises questions about our state's priorities. Chief among them is when did it become acceptable that life in paradise is a constant struggle? The state government makes it so through its tax burdens, deplorable educational system and heavy level of socialism to control jobs and power. And that combines with the large land oligarchies -- which determine the high values of properties causing high rents -- to place a terrible burden on these young adults just to make it here. They often have to work two jobs and double or triple up in housing just to pay for the necessities of life. If they choose to go to university, often they must live with family for many years after graduating just to pay for their education.
Many people say this is the normal hardship for our children to live in our islands. But in my generation we were never concerned about whether we would prevail in Hawaii. We believed we were entitled to live here because we were keiki o ka aina. Then, the ones who left wanted more; bigger houses, larger cars, a more opulent lifestyle. They were not coerced out. This young generation does not have the privilege we did. The ones who want to stay in Hawaii are forced to struggle daily.
Our state and local elected officials can list excuses for why setting priorities is difficult, like high immigrant populations, limited resources, large union representation; but they don't change the facts. We are one of the highest-taxed states in the union. We have heavy crystal meth use. We have high teen pregnancy. We have some of the lowest school test scores in the nation and many of our keiki live in poverty. None of these problems are being addressed with any kind of foresight.
We have failed our children. We have crippled them in their education and have handicapped them with our present system. You can say what you will, but what we have done to them is criminal and what of the little ones coming up into adulthood in the next few years?
Many young people tell me they want to be a part of the future of Hawaii, but they do not have the ability because they are forced to move away. They cannot continue to exist at this level of despair.
There is a saying that says, "one does not seek destiny, but in fact destiny seeks us" ... so I ask the often quoted question, "if not us, then who, if not now, then when?"
This year is the time for us as a state to determine our children's future and to see if fate indeed chooses us. This is because this period is probably the most important political time in the history of our state. A new governor, new mayor, new city council, all state representatives, and many state senators will be voted into office.
This is the time, for everyone who can, to vote.
Will you go out and vote and encourage your acquaintances, friends and family to vote? We need more then ever to change the present system and give these young people a chance to choose to live a decent life here.
I truly believe that one person can make a difference. Will that person be you?
Stephany L. Sofos, a licensed real estate broker and appraiser, is president of SL Sofos and Co. Ltd. She can be reached at stephany@slsofos.com.
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