Culture Clash
Culture Clash
Culture has an impact
on everyday behaviors
Editor's note: This is the last Culture Clash column for the Sunday Honolulu Star Bulletin. Beginning March 17, Richard Brislin will start a series for the Star Bulletin that will run each Monday. Enjoying Your Work will explore various aspects of job satisfaction. We spend a great deal of time at our workplaces. The more satisfaction we find there, the greater the chances of general life happiness. If people understand workplace psychology, communication, group influences, and cultural differences, their chances of job satisfaction will increase.For the last two years, I have discussed various aspects of people's culture and how it influences their everyday behaviors in the workplace. Often, I discussed how people from different cultural backgrounds can misunderstand each other. Culture gives guidance for everyday behaviors. It gives us guidance on acceptable ways of dealing with regularly recurring issues. These include meeting others for the first time, making sales calls, seeking out job interviews, asking others for favors, and competing for promotions within a company.
Often, cultures guide people toward quite different behaviors associated with these recurring issues.
For example, an American from Boston may meet a Korean national from Seoul in a multicultural city such as Honolulu. Given her culture's guidance, the American may tell where she went to college, what unique interests she was able to pursue, and what her opinions are concerning current political developments in America and North Korea. Her goal is to communicate that she is a unique individual, and this is a major aspect of her culture.
Given his cultural background, the Korean national may talk about points raised by the American and may seek areas of agreement. His goal is not to communicate that he is a unique individual. His goal is to show that he is a cooperative person who values interpersonal harmony.
Difficulties arise when people do not understand this cultural difference. If they continue their conversation along the same line for 15 minutes or more, the two people are likely to make contrasting conclusions. The Korean will conclude that the American is self-absorbed and opinionated. The American will conclude that the Korean is a bland and uninteresting individual who does not add anything to conversations. Given their negative attributions, they may not seek out each other's company in the future.
If they understand the cultural difference, however, they will be able to move beyond initial impressions and may be able to appreciate each other's approach to meeting people for the first time. If they decide to interact again, they will likely experience the richness of understanding a wide variety of cultural differences. Encouraging people to move beyond initial impressions, and to seek culturally based reasons for misunderstandings, have been two of my goals in this newspaper column.
Richard Brislin is a professor of management and industrial relations in the University of Hawaii at Manoa College of Business Administration. He can be reached through the College Relations Office: cro@cba.hawaii.edu.
The purpose of this column is to increase understanding of human behavior as it has an impact on the workplace. Special attention will be given to miscommunications caused by cultural differences. Each column will start with a short example of such confusion. Possible explanations will be offered to encourage thought about these issues.
Richard Brislin is a professor in the College of Business Administration,
University of Hawaii. He can be reached through the
College Relations Office: cro@cba.hawaii.edu