A compendium of current news and headlines with commentary providing unique cultural insight into global affairs, business and daily life around the world.

Check out CultureWizard Digest #21 here!

* Climate Summit News Wrap-up
* Entrepreneurial Spirit, New Jobs
* Interpreters in Afghanistan
* How to Create Global Leaders

CultureLinks
+ Expat Explorer Survey
+ “Western men are doomed”
+ Managing Multicultural Teams

CultureTips
+ Afghanistan
+ Mauritius

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AFP

As 2009 comes to a close, perhaps the most important global event of the year is taking place now in Copenhagen at the climate summit. As we want to bring you a variety of viewpoints through the CultureWizard Digest, the following is a gathering of several different perspectives on the summit from around the world.

Guardian & Mail, South Africa: ‘Climate code red’ at UN talks, warns Nigeria

The Australian: Australia offers climate olive branch

Telegraph, UK: Copenhagen climate summit: Ed Miliband admits failings

Al Jazeera, Qatar: On board the climate express

The Globe and Mail, Canada: African countries stage three-hour boycott in Copenhagen

People’s Daily, China: Copenhagen, developing nations are unhappy

Chinaview: China says rich countries responsible for slow Copenhagen talks progress

What are your thoughts on the various perspectives these newspapers bring to the discussion surrounding this summit? Leave us a comment, we’re interested in hearing your thoughts.

Charlene

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In the Wall Street Journal, Professor K. Kumar of the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) writes on the increasing importance of entrepreneurial businesses for new economic growth. Specifically, “opportunity based entrepreneurship…seeks to revolutionize the world by leveraging new technology and creating new markets. [It] is usually based on significant innovation in the realm of technology, business process or the like and is set up to grow, right from inception.” These businesses are called “gazelles,” given the fast pace at which they grow and create new jobs.

In India, says Kumar, the majority of entrepreneurs have been average, small business owners, which don’t foster expansive job creation. How can Indian entrepreneurs begin to apply their ideas and energy towards lucrative, opportunity based businesses? How much does the Indian culture inhibit an environment where the “gazelle” model could take hold?

In a culture that values innovation and creativity, e.g. in the US, risk and failure are standard milestones along any successful business path (in other words, they are welcomed norms). In a culture that values stability and coherence with one’s family and community, e.g. in India, risk-taking is usually avoided at all cost, given a measure of historical pessimism towards change. The concept of destiny as an external, uncontrollable outcome is a part of the Indian cultural heritage, which can stifle innovation. For those business owners who are innovative, many Indian governmental policies and actions have not allowed them to make real their cutting edge business ideas.

However, Kumar notes that “there has been a significant increase in the number of government innovation funding programs to support new ideas falling into various domains.” Still, “the near total absence of expertise on the part of the government machinery to assess and respond to risks associated with innovation, renders such resources inaccessible to those who need and deserve them.”

What aspects of Indian culture, like the prevalence of a team mentality, could be used to promote the “gazelle” model? What aspects of other multicultural societies have lent themselves to a propensity for innovation and job creation?

Click here to jump to the article in the Wall Street Journal.

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A recent Fortune article recognizes that companies that are best at developing leaders are those that have taken a long term perspective with their employees. To ensure the quality of their leadership, companies invest in their most promising candidates by requiring them to go on global developmental assignments. Most return with global, cross-cultural skills to effectively build the company’s presence in the global marketplace, which is where most now look to for revenue.

IBM came in at number one in the world for developing leaders in Fortune’s “Top Companies for Leaders” in 2009. One of IBM’s Corporate Service Corps teams was assigned to market locally crafted Ghanaian products around the world. The job “stretched me in a way we all absolutely need,” and “it gave us a shake in perspective,” said one of the team members.

“Developmental assignments like his are among the most important tools that great companies use to build leaders — and that average companies rarely use at all,” according to the article.

“The importance of such assignments and how they’re being adapted to pay off in today’s global economy are two of the strongest messages emerging from the research behind our new ranking of the world’s Top Companies for Leaders.”

International assignments have had a history marked with a mixture of success and failure, but perhaps this doesn’t need to repeat itself because you can learn the skills to adapt to other cultures, and to be successful in a global function. Individuals must spend significant time learning how to adjust their behavior to successfully interact with people from around the world (and before this, to recognize that there’s a cultural gap between themselves and their counterparts in other countries). Intercultural learning is another investment that many global companies make to prepare their leaders-in-the-making, especially in tandem with global assignments. Another key point is that as the global marketplace has grown, companies are recognizing how crucial it is that their leaders understand the range of global markets in which the company operates.

Click here to jump to the article.

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+ Mauritius is the largest island in the Indian Ocean, and shares some similarities with Caribbean Island cultures, especially in the mix of cultural heritage from indigenous, European, and African peoples.

+ Older generations in Mauritius can be superstitious. Many people believe in white magic. This involves using prayers and incantations for healing purposes.

+ Faith healers use onions, candles, and needles to cure minor health ailments or injuries. Many educated Mauritians who scoff at such behavior will seek the services of guérisseurs (faith healers) if traditional medicine fails them.

+ With the various ethnic groups living on the island (Indo-Mauritian 68%, Creole 27%, Sino-Mauritian 3%, Franco-Mauritian 2%), there are a vast number of festivals each year. The most common other festivals are:

• January – Thai Poosam Kavadee
• February – Chinese New Year
• March – Holi
• April – Ougadi
• August – Rakhi
• September – Ganesh Chaturthi
• October – Divali
• November – Ganga Asnan

+ The tourist industry is a large part of the local economy, so Mauritians tend to be comfortable dealing with foreigners. Dressing well is important. Although skimpy clothing may be acceptable at resorts, it is frowned upon in towns.

+ Several languages are spoken in Mauritius. Almost everyone speaks Creole, a simplified form of French, which does not utilize gender differences. Verb tense is indicated by using “pou” to indicate the future and “ti” to indicate the past.

+ Using French denotes refinement, although the French used on the islands is somewhat more archaic than that used in France. English is also used by many, although it tends to be learned from written forms, making the speech pattern excessively polite.

- from RW3’s CultureWizard® Country Profiles

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+ In addition to the devastation of the numerous wars that have taken place in Afghanistan, ethnic diversity continues to be a source of conflict, as the nation addresses how to share power equitably while meeting the needs of all groups. Thus, culture in Afghanistan varies according to tribal and ethnic group.

+ Honor is a central cultural concept. The family’s honor can be enhanced if a child does well in school or attends university. The family’s honor can be lost if a female member is treated with disrespect. This can include something as simple as an unrelated male speaking to a woman.

+ As with many tribal cultures, hospitality is considered a virtue. Visitors to Afghan homes are offered the best the family has. This honors the family as well as the guest.

+ Inshallah, “if God wills,” is an expression often heard in Afghanistan. It underlies the fatalism and sense of predestination that prevails in the culture. This trait, common in Islamic cultures, has been underscored by years of violence and upheaval, in which literally no one knew if they would survive the next day or see someone again.

+ In business, you can set a fixed time for an appointment and can generally expect your counterpart to be on time, if conditions permit. Keep in mind, though, that transportation is not reliable and can pose a major challenge to punctuality.

+ When meeting someone, the proper greeting for both men and women is to put your hand over your heart and say, “Nice to meet you.” When greeting someone you know, ask the following questions: “How are you? How is your house? How is your health? How is your family?”

+ Afghan women do not touch men, so it is advisable not to initiate a handshake.

+ If you are invited to someone’s home for a meal or tea, you will be given snacks and your tea glass will be constantly filled until you put your hand over your cup and say “bas,” meaning enough, or until you turn your glass over.

- from RW3’s CultureWizard® Country Profiles

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An Indonesian blogger who works in the IT industry posted some very lucid thoughts on what it means to work on a multicultural team, how this impacts companies who use offshore vendors and how cultural awareness will lead to productivity gains.

“When companies outsource human resources, one of the criteria it looks for is a cultural fit. Often candidates who are capable of topmost positions are often eliminated on the ground of cultural mismatch as they are unable to justify themselves to be adaptable to a different set of cultural attributes.” In other words, technically qualified individuals have not been successful when they lack cultural awareness.

The blogger recommends the following:

“Acclimatize to the different…culture” and “accept the opinion of others gladly. This does not mean that you should hamper your work. You should be able to influence the other person too towards one’s own opinion. You need to understand the language, working style, religion and many more things need to be understood and taken up in order to get the work done.”

Learning culture is not a simple process, but one that takes effort and much observation. “Gain insight into the other culture: This requires an ample of hard work and this will also take time…to gain knowledge of the living and working style.”

How do you feel about the importance of culture in the workplace?

Click here to read the blog post.

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As a New York Times article points out, US troops oftentimes only connect with Afghan people through their interpreters. They play a crucial role in the war.

John Moore/Getty Images

More than simply translators, interpreters teach culture.

“Interpreters do more than talk and listen. Eight years into the war in Afghanistan, United States troops receive only minimal cultural training before they deploy. Thus interpreters often serve as cultural advisors — helping Americans learn the nuances of typical Afghan behavior.”

The skills it takes to understand Afghan culture, which manifests itself in behavior, can even save lives. An interpreter once “helped his unit identify a suicide bomber in a large crowd before the man could activate the explosives in his vest. The would-be bomber was acting nervously in a way that Afghans could recognize but that Americans were oblivious to, and the translator picked up on it.” This amazing story proves how vital cultural awareness is to the war in Afghanistan, and the lack of cultural training in the military forces. The subtle, verbal and non-verbal nuances in a person’s behavior that indicate nervousness does vary from culture to culture, as do many behaviors. A rambling stream of speech may be the sign in one culture, and a total silence or physical twitch may be the sign in another. Cultural awareness is something everyone can learn to recognize and understand, but it does require training to achieve cultural competence.

Click here to jump to the article.

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The HSBC Expat Explorer Survey for 2009 was released last week. The survey is now in its second year and gathered information from over 3,100 expats in over 50 countries. What were the general results?

* Canada is #1 overall place to live as an expatriate
* Australia comes in at #2 and Thailand at #3
* China, UK, Russia and India scored poorly for quality of life
* In terms of making local friends, UAE was at the top and Brazil at the bottom
* Expats joined the most local community groups in Singapore, and the least in Bahrain

* In general, expats experience a higher quality of life
* Large salaries and a high standard of living aren’t mutually exclusive

Most interestingly, “…the luckiest expats for finding love were found in Thailand – some 47% admit finding love since moving to the country. This is in stark contrast to the worldwide average of just 20%.” Since the experience is different for everyone, it would be interesting to see a detailed breakdown of responses according to respondents’ country of origin. This could help readers understand how the results would match their own national and cultural background.

Where have you had the best and/or worst expatriate experience? How has culture played a role in your experience?

Paul

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An article in The Daily Beast highlights the numerous culturally astute personalities that comprise the current US presidential administration. The confluence of like-minded individuals is “…more than a trivial coincidence. So-called ‘Third Culture Kids’—and the adults they become—share certain emotional and psychological traits that may exert great influence in the new administration. According to a body of sociological literature devoted to children who spend a portion of their developmental years outside their ‘passport country,’ the classic profile of a ‘TCK’ is someone with a global perspective who is socially adaptable and intellectually flexible. He or she is quick to think outside the box and can appreciate and reconcile different points of view.”

Now that the current administration is nearing the one year mark, how has it fared in comparison to past administrations that hadn’t the same cadre of multicultural members? What is the value of international, intercultural experience in political leadership?

Click here to jump to the article.

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