Re: Chun-an Zhang <chunan@bu.edu>
" The advantages of cultural difference LO17008"
My purpose is to know the advantages of cultural differences, and then
seek ways to make the most use of these advantages.
I think cultural differences can be very advantageous to an organization,
IF the organization works to avail itself to these advantages. It can,
likewise, be advantageous to the person bring the cultural difference to
the organization.
Different points of view - solicited, heard, respected - can only help to
grow the capacity of an organization - to help it learn. This helps the
organization to learn in ways probably not possible via the "home team".
It's probably similar to working with consultants: they don't bring the
"baggage" of the home team and thereby can be heard more easily.
The person bringing the cultural differences can also benefit by means of
the unique position their difference gives them: a potentially wider
audience for their work product, a chance to tell their story (their
contribution) to a more attentive audience, and a different set of
experiences that can expand the capacity of the organization. They also
gain from the new, sometimes startlingly new, ways of working and relating
as observed and participated in their new "home".
I've found a key to realizing these benefits is to clarify the goals and
expectations of both the organization and the person of difference. If
mutual respect can be achieved, you've got a winning situation.
Otherwise, loss of advantage or worse can occur.
One such situation that I was involved in was with a person of significant
cultural difference who was assigned to my "team" and for whom I was
responsible for integrating into the team. We had not formally examined
the goals and expectations, but stumbled into doing some of the right
things by showing respect for the individual (and his family) and mutually
designing a plan of work for his tenure. We didn't expect the person to
become a clone of others in the group, but, in retrospect, failed to
pursue his unique individuality as much as we should have.
After a six-month assignment with my team - of satisfactory but not
outstanding merit to either party - the person went to another spot in our
organization where he was treated as a complete outsider - with some
negative nationalistic overtones and no perceived effort to achieve mutual
goals or expectations.
The person returned to his home country, his original assignment, and soon
thereafter resigned from the firm. Lost opportunity and truly bad
feelings. (His appreciation of our initial attempt to do the right thing
was reflected in his continued correspondence with me for some years)
Bottom line, though: we had been collectively unskilled in developing a
win-win approach for approaching the cross-culture differences.
In thinking about the possible advantages, I'd suggest also reflecting on
the ability of outside and inside consultants to contribute to the "home
team". There are probably many similarities.
Hope these comments are helpful? Regards,
Terry Priebe
Decision Support Associates (www.de-sa.com)
tpriebe@de-sa.com
--Terry Priebe <insight@dca.net>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>