Diversity or Cutlure Awareness?

I must admit, I dislike the word “diversity” when linked with “management” or “training.” Diversity training has an ugly sound to it, a bit like racism or prejudice. For an employee required to take diversity training is like being taken to the woodshed or to the concentration camp for re-education. Who wants to sit in a classroom for eight hours being scolded for being ethnically insensitive? How about making training positive instead of negative?

Perhaps a better phrase would be “cultural management/training.” To understand culture is to be aware that every person is framed by a worldview in which they were born. Whether they are brown or black, Protestant or Buddhist, male or female, rich or poor, we all begin the same way, only in a different context.

My dad, now over 86 years old, grew up poor on a farm in Arkansas. His generation went through the Great Depression and World War II. His values, outlook on life, liberty and sense of justice is different, in many ways, from his three sons and seven grandkids. Is his worldview wrong? Some of it is, some of it isn’t. But more than anything else, it’s just different, just like your and my worldview. To understand my father’s generation, or the worldview of Mexican’s, Vietnamese, Germans or the white middle class, we need less diversity training and more cultural awareness training.

Culture is not God’s ugly creation. In fact, culture is like a mountainside where fall leaves of deep orange, red, brown and yellow dot the hillside. Culture is God’s mosaic of people throughout the world. Culture is what brings stunning contrast and magnificence to our world. Rather than look at cultures as something to overcome or adopt, people need to understand the core of culture. When one understands why people see the world the way they do the process of communication, identifying values, and behavior will take place.

It’s true, we live in a world of diversity, but culture awareness focuses on the sameness within different context. It’s not me against them, nor is it me learning to be more like them. Culture awareness is about me learning the positive side of difference so we can work and live together more effectively.

Ethnocentrism in Business

“These people are so dirty.”

“No wonder this country is third-world, they’re so lazy.”

“If stupid is as stupid does, then this nation is full of stupid people.”

You can call such talk as racial slurs, national prejudice or just plain bigotry. In anthropological circles it’s called ETHNOCENTRISM.

To be ethnocentric is to hold a belief that your culture, your ethnicity is superior to others. Early explorers, anthropologists and missionaries, seeing new people in newly discovered lands often talked about the natives being primitive. By what standards were others labeled primal? By the lifestyle and behavior of 17th century Europe. People who wore little or no clothing, lived in the forest, couldn’t read or write were considered savages as they just didn’t measure up to the behavior standard of England, France, Spain and Portugal.

No doubt ethnocentrism was in place long before days of Columbus, Simon Bolivar, the East Indian Trading Company or African slave traders, but ethnocentrism is as prevalent today as it was three hundred years ago.

Ethnocentrism is not confined to any one nation or people. I have seen the feeling of superiority displayed among Koreans, Germans, Americans, Russians, Kenyans and Guatemalans. We no longer use the term “primitive” or “third-world” but now use the term emerging nations or cultures. But no matter how we label people for political correctness, the attitude of ethnocentrism remains.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with being proud of your heritage, ethnicity or country. I am very comfortable with being a white, middle-class, American male, in spite of all those who tell me I should be ashamed. Everyone should be proud of who they are, but not at the expense or degradation of others. There is a fine line between ethnic pride and ethnocentrism.

What does this have to do with culture and business? Plenty. I once observed a European businessman yell at a group of Asians calling them stupid and referring to one as “pie-face.” I’ve heard businessmen having a drink after work, refer to their clients as idiots, and much worse that I don’t care to post on this blog.

Here’s the deal. Ethnocentrism will eventually hurt your business. You can’t degrade people and expect to build a relationship with them. It doesn’t work in marriage; it won’t work in business either.

Most importantly, ethnocentrism will hurt you. I have never seen anyone who had a superior attitude toward another human being that was truly happy. Ethnocentrism is just a façade of someone who is unsure of him/herself. If you don’t understand people of other cultures, think they do weird things and have strange habits, remember, they aren’t less than you, they are just different. That’s the way God made us. Since He is too wise to do wrong and too good to make a mistake, then learn to appreciate others as you do yourself.

How Does Business Cultures Work?

I tell my students that all human beings operate on a set of assumptions. Our assumptions are usually framed by our worldview, which is framed by culture. This is true in business as well. How a business is ordered will determine how it functions, its values and its expectations. Here is a set of questions to test your business assumptions:

1. What is more important (a) the TASK or (b) the RELATIONSHIP in your work environment?

2. Do you or your employees find satisfaction with (a) the TIME put into the job or (b) just BEING a part of the job?

3. Would you think your employees work more on (a) the PIECE of the product (and take pride in it) or find satisfaction in (b) the COMPLETED product?

4. Would you say your organization is geared more toward (a) INDIVIUAL risk or (b) COLLECTIVE risk?

Generally, if your answers lean toward the first answer your company assumptions are based on an individualism, which I call “franchisers.” Those who see their company through the lens of the second answer is more group oriented, which I describe as “kingdoms.”

Western businesses are typically “franchisers. “ They operate, even in a highly structured work environment, with self-interest, i.e. their job, their pay, their sense of well-being. To them the work they do is a specific task (hopefully well), which means they put in their time, concentrate on their piece of the project or product and will take risk if it meets their individual goals.

Non-Western companies typically function with a group “kingdom” mentality. Think of the Saudi royal family, the Indian extended family or the Japanese corporate family and you will have a sense of companies that function with a high group structure. All the “b” categories -- relationships, being a part of the team, taking pride in the final product (holism), never taking risk that would jeopardize the company for personal gain and you have a high group business environment.

So what are the implications? First, understanding different assumptions, Western companies and non-Western companies alike, will reveal the tensions of working cross-culturally. Non-Western companies want the same as Western companies, to make a profit, to contribute to the bottom line. However, non-Western companies will take risks collectively. Western businessmen get frustrated with the speed (or the lack thereof) with non-Western decision-making process because it takes longer to build consensus. Why do they move so slowly? Because they operate with a group mentality, not as a "franchiser."

Second, though Western businesses like to talk up the concept, real “teams” are in high group social environments. Companies in China or Thailand truly to ascribe to the motto if the business fails we fail together, whereas those in the U.S. the mentality is that if my business fails then I will look for another job. If we succeed, I will get a bonus.

Culture and business is intertwined. Those who study business cultures will be more effective in this world of globalization, whether they are “franchisers,” or “kingdoms.”