time.
Table 2.4 Monochronic and Polychronic Time
5. How Do We Typically Communicate?
One important topic to consider with respect to communication is what anthropologists have termed low-context and high-context. Here's an analogy to illustrate the difference between the two:
As a lawyer, Sharon frequently read witness testimony transcripts. These documents capture the witnesses' spoken word, not body language such as hand gestures, eye movements, shrugs, finger-pointing, eye-rolling or other nonverbal communication. Only observing the witness provides awareness of the enormous effects of such subtleties on the jury, the judge, and the observers. The same is true of interoffice-communication.
The U.S., for example, is considered a relatively low-context culture in which direct communication is rewarded and the emphasis is placed on words. In contrast, Asian cultures are high-context, meaning communication is indirect and words can only be understood in context. Body language and facial expressions all have a major part to play. Few cultures, or the people living in them, fall at one end of the spectrum or the other. Most people have a combination of high- and low-context characteristics in communication. Table 2.5 on page 20 shows the key differences.
Table 2.5 Communication Characteristics of High-Context and Low-Context Cultures
6. How Formal or Informal Are We?
Professor Michele Gelfand and her colleagues at the University of Maryland's Department of Psychology have made a distinction between tight and loose cultures. Tight cultures are those with strong social norms and a low tolerance for any behavior that does not conform to those norms. An example would be the Japanese, with their higher degree of structure, and formality. Loose cultures are the polar opposite, with weak social norms and high tolerance. These cultures are more likely to be comfortable with informalities.
Table 2.6 gives a sense of the informality or “looseness” between countries in the West and the eight Asian countries included in Gelfand's study.43 The higher the number, the tighter the culture. Richard Lewis has categorized country cultures into three broad categories: linear-active, multi-active, and reactive.44
Table 2.6 Continuum of Tight and Loose Scores
7. How Aligned Are Our Social and Business Lives?
In the same way that people in the East and West have different concepts of time (see our discussion of question 4 on page 17), the ways we choose to spend that time in the workplace are diverse.
Researchers from the University of Delaware45 asked workers how many of their working hours were spent on work-related tasks as opposed to social activities, such as informal chatting, celebrating coworkers' birthdays and anniversaries, and enjoying tea or coffee together. U.S. respondents working for companies in major cities typically said they spent 80 percent of their time on business tasks and the remaining 20 percent on socializing. In Asian countries, including India, Indonesia, and Malaysia, the answer was 50/50.
This study also found that many international business travelers believed that socializing on the job was an inefficient way to spend time in today's competitive world. As Richard Brislin and Eugene Kim of the University of Hawaii at Manoa, Hawaii, point out, “The problem with such reactions is that they are ethnocentric: People are making conclusions based on the norms and values of their own cultures.”46
The importance of the 50:50 balance that some consider “aimless socializing and chatting” becomes clear when you realize how much more important relationship-building is in collectivist cultures than in individualist ones. In China, for example, the culture depends largely on guanxi networks through which favors and influence are passed from one person to another.
Westerners often don't appreciate how important it is in Asian cultures to spend more time developing and maintaining relationships. This difference was highlighted in a cross-cultural communication course attended by an Indian interviewee who was surprised and interested to learn one of the “key elements of U.S. business culture”47 was the separation of our work and private lives. In contrast, one U.S. executive who is currently establishing connections in Myanmar pointed out that he will likely spend the next two years in meetings, having talks, hosting delegations, and attending dinners and luncheons before any business is secured.
As Andy Molinsky so eloquently states in his book Global Dexterity,48 “adapting to new cultures without losing yourself in the process” requires establishing personal boundaries and knowing just how far you are prepared to modify them as situations arise. Some activities may not be for you. Knowing this beforehand will save grief and face for you and your Asian business partners. It is possible to refrain from participating without judging other cultures. Often the wise and more successful approach is to keep an open mind to new experiences, as the pioneering work of Stanford psychology professor Dr. Carol Dweck highlights.
Mindset and Success
According to Dweck's research, people who hold rigid beliefs as to what they can or can't (should/shouldn't) achieve have fixed mindsets. They tend to be less successful in the areas of business, education, and sports than people with growth mindsets. Growth people consider challenging experiences to be essential to developing new abilities. “Virtually all great people have had these qualities,” writes Dweck on her website.49
Table 2.7 contains example statements to help you identify how open or fixed your mindset may be to growth. Responses to these statements range from Strongly Agree, Agree, and Mostly Agree to Mostly Disagree, Disagree, and Strongly Disagree. To complete the entire quiz, visit url http://mindsetonline.com and click the Test Your Mindset link.50
Table 2.7 Statements for Determining a Fixed or Growth Mindset
8. How Is the Concept of Women in Business Handled?
Life is not as black-and-white as we would like it to be. The extent to which a female professional may experience challenges in Asia because of her gender depends on many things.
The challenges that impact women in their home country often shed light on the business environment for international businesswomen. There is no hard-and-fast rule on the topic of how women are treated in the world of work, as you will discover when we ask this question again in each of the 10 country-specific chapters. In the meantime, look at Table 2.8 on page 24, the Booz & Company Third Billion Index, to see rankings for the Canada, U.K., and U.S., and eight of the Asian countries covered in this book. The Third Billion Index is compiled from a myriad of indicators that affect women'seconomic standing, including entrepreneurial support and equal pay. It features 128 countries whose scores
Richard D. Lewis,
Richard W. Brislin and Eugene S. Kim, “Cultural Diversity in People's Understanding and Uses of Time,”
Karine Schomer, “Working with Americans, Change Management Consulting and Training, LLC,” www.cmct.net (accessed November 20, 2014).
Andy Molinsky,
“Mindset for Achievement,” Mindset, http://mindsetonline.com/howmindsetaffects/mindsetforachievement/index.html (accessed November 20, 2014).
