This NDTV video (New Delhi Television) reports that a Norwegian government agency, Child Protective Services, took an Indian couple’s children into custody due to their inappropriate behavior: the parents hand fed their children and slept in the same bed as their children.

What do you make of this story? Is this truly a cultural difference and an excessive abuse of power, or is it clear that we are missing some key information?

Sean
RW3 CultureWizard

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www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGaVFRzTTP4

South Koreans have one of the longest work weeks anywhere (see our previous post on prosperity and culture here). Tesco chose an innovative strategy that seems to resonate with the local populace.

However, the consumer’s inability to examine the quality of produce, for example, might dissuade one from adopting this way of grocery shopping. What does it say about culture in South Korea? Is there a value system, a driving force of culture, that is saying, “it is better to save time shopping by doing so on this subway platform than taking away from my free time to relax, be with family, etc.”?

Would this work in, say, a European city? Grocery chains in the US are no stranger to home delivery, but this convenience may not be valuable in European locales. What about a Chinese city? How does work-life balance change a culture’s focus on convenience? Thinking further about emerging markets, how does the process of industrialization change culture in general?

Sean

RW3 CultureWizard

I was so struck today by a remark a delegate voiced in one of our training sessions. We were talking about time zones and how complicated it is to arrange conference calls between the US and India because of the time difference. Some people said it was hard to work until 7pm and then get home (after braving the traffic) and have a call with colleagues in the US at 8pm. One fellow raised his hand and said, “It’s very difficult when you stay awake til midnight and then most of the team on the other end doesn’t even dial in.”

I know that time zone differences are among the most challenging aspects of virtual teams, and the idea has always been to “be fair” and rotate the pain. But it became so strongly personal as I listened to this manager, thinking of him staying awake until midnight only to have many of his colleagues on the other end not show up. Can you imagine how enormously frustrating and demoralizing that would be? What would that do to his morale?

Charlene

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.

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