How - Dov Seidman [17]
For centuries, local proximity determined the majority of our social functions, containing us in relatively homogenous environments. We dealt on a day-to-day basis with people with whom we generally shared a common culture and therefore understood easily the behaviors and signals that occurred in the spaces between us. Global connectivity sets that whole idea on its ear. We now find ourselves in a world where we are thrust together in all aspects of our lives without borders and without the homogenizing pressures of locality. The fiber-optic strands that enmesh us pierce the protective membranes of local culture like needles popping soap bubbles. They create a whole new set of interrelationship challenges. From purchasing items from a seller on eBay to online dating to video chats with team members halfway around the world, at any time you might find yourself interacting with people with whom you have never before broken bread, who don’t necessarily speak the same language you do, who don’t necessarily recognize your patterns of behavior, and vice versa. That guy in Senegal? Your company just bought the Internet start-up for which he works and folded him into your business unit. You will now manage him and his team in Dakar remotely.
Before all information became zeros and ones, our lives moved at a slower pace. We had more time to get to know each other and the luxury to value personal contact in nearly all our dealings. Now, multinational companies commonly form teams of employees chosen from various divisions, various countries, and various cultures. Global supply chains and international customer bases multiply and mutate faster than a flu virus. Mergers and acquisitions fuel growth and value creation with little regard to how the individuals involved will interrelate each day. We often build our business relationships in a collage-like construct of flyby hotel meetings, video chats, cell calls, e-mails, and faxes. While I was editing this chapter, one of my researchers working across town instant messaged me about a file she was looking for, and I was able to drag-and-drop it to her faster than if she had been working across the hall. We take such things for granted.
Opportunity conjoins us faster than we have developed frameworks for understanding each other and getting along. Distance no longer separates us; new communications capabilities render distance irrelevant by connecting us instantly. In this proximal world, the opportunities for misunderstandings abound. How do you write an e-mail to someone if you can’t tell from their e-mail address if they are a man or a woman, what country they are from, what upbringing they had, or if they believe cows to be sacred or just lunch? In the United States, if two managers of different seniority find themselves in conflict they are most likely to approach each other directly and communicate frankly to try to resolve the issue. In Indonesia, the direct approach will only make it worse. In Jakarta, the concept of asal bapak senang, keeping the boss happy, comes into play.2 Indonesian subordinates typically feel personally responsible for solving problems without notifying their superiors, even if it means lying about a situation rather than addressing it directly.
Dr. Fons Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner, authors of Building Cross-Cultural Competence, conducted a worldwide study of cultural attitudes that revealed startling differences among the countries now commonly linked in global enterprise.