How do food and customs surrounding the acts of eating and drinking inform culture (and vice versa)? How is one’s awareness of culture developed through cooking, eating, buying and talking about food? Below is something my colleague, Grayson Leverenz, told me about how she likes to tie gastronomy into her travels:

Whenever I visit a new city, I search for an authentic eating experience. On a recent trip to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania I discovered a Philly Cheese Steak as the culinary choice of locals. Jim’s Steaks has been serving the classic cheese steak sandwiches since 1939, and with its prime location on South Street, I figured I couldn’t go wrong.

Cooks prepare sliced beef and onions on a grill, slather a hoagie roll with Cheese Whiz, and top it with the meat and onions. Hot and delicious, it goes well with Yuengling, a local PA beer. John Denver, an American folk singer popular in the 1970′s folk singer, said it best in his autograph on Jim’s wall (pictured below): ‘I’d be a vegetarian if it wasn’t for your cheese steak.’

An authentic Philly Cheese Steak

A cheese steak is a truly cultural representation of Philadelphia and of an American innovation: “cheese whiz”.

Personally, I like to visit grocery stores and food markets when I travel to new places, which reveal a lot about an area’s history, society and, of course, typical cuisine. When I’m find myself in new cities and countries, I ask questions like: do you bargain for food? Do you bring with you to the market your own bags to take food home? Do people eat a lot of street food? Do people prefer to eat in their homes? With whom can you share food? Questions lead to more questions, all of which paint an appetizing cultural portrait.

How do you think about food when experiencing new peoples and cultures? How much can you learn about a culture from it’s food and drink? Please share your stories and tell us about your favorite gastronomical experiences!

Sean

RW3 CultureWizard

Outsourced is a new show on NBC, which will air on September 23 in the US. The show is a comedy based on the cross-cultural interaction between an American manager and his Indian staff in a Mumbai call center. If you haven’t heard of the show, watch the trailer below to get a sense for the humor, which amounts to serious yet hysterical intercultural disaster (you’ll have to wait for the obligatory ad to play first).

The cultural faux pas and critical misunderstandings laden throughout the show are unfortunately so common to most everyone who has experienced outsourcing in India, they’ve called the attention of the US mass media.

How do you see this show impacting viewers’ cultural awareness? Is comedy an effective way to disseminate cultural perspectives and values? Do you predict the show will be popular or offensive?

Sean

RW3 CultureWizard

The Economist intelligence Unit (EIU) released the Women’s Economic Opportunity Index in June, which measures women’s access or lack thereof to a number of economic and other opportunities in 113 countries. Here are a few excerpts from the report, which is available by clicking on the link above.

At the start of the 21st century women are not just enfranchised and fully engaged in the workplace, but leading global corporations and countries of every size. Germany’s Angela Merkel, Liberia’s Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, and Pepsico’s Indra Nooyi are three among many.
…
Women, on average, earn 75% of their male co-workers’ wages, and the difference cannot be explained solely by schooling or experience. In many countries, women have fewer educational and employment opportunities than men, are more often denied credit, and endure social restrictions that limit their chances for advancement. In some developing countries women still cannot vote, own property or venture outside the home without a male family member.

While culture is mentioned only a few times throughout the report, it pervades the roles applied to women in any country. An understanding of the cultural context within which women act seems important to an understanding of the immense challenge associated with developing gender equality in countries with severely restricted economic opportunity for women. See below for the way the report defines this and a summary of the countries on both ends of the spectrum.

Women’s economic opportunity is defined as a set of laws, regulations, practices, customs and attitudes that allow women to participate in the workforce under conditions roughly equal to those of men, whether as wage-earning employees or as owners of a business. The result is a new ranking of economic opportunity for women in 113 economies. Sweden, Belgium and Norway occupy the top spots in the Index. These countries have particularly open labour markets for women, high levels of educational achievement, and liberal legal and social regimes. However, the index tells other stories as well. Hong Kong (China) performs best in the Asia region, ranking in the top 25% in most categories. Mauritius is Africa’s best finisher; its labour policies are among the most favourable to women in the region. Excluding Canada and the US, Brazil edges Chile and Mexico for the best score in the Americas. Eastern European countries, especially Bulgaria, have particularly balanced labour-law protections, although retirement ages for men and women are often different. Tunisia comes first in Northern Africa, and Sri Lanka in Southern Asia.

What part does culture play in this complex picture?

RW3 CultureWizard

According to the New York Times, outsourcing legal services to India has grown in the past few years, and is poised to expand at an even faster rate in coming years.

Cash-conscious Wall Street banks, mining giants, insurance firms and industrial conglomerates are hiring lawyers in India for document review, due diligence, contract management and more.

Legal outsourcing firms are also hiring experienced lawyers from Western countries to handle more complicated projects, something many lawyers would not consider in prior years based on a general aversion to outsourcing legal work and relocation to India. The article highlights the challenges of moving to India and working with Indians:

Moving to a legal outsourcing firm, especially in India, is not for everyone. About 5 percent of Western transplants cannot handle it and move back home, managers estimate.

Some find it hard to adapt to India. Other times, the job itself does not suit them — after spending years working nearly independently as a litigator, for example, it can be hard to transition to managing and inspiring a team of young foreign lawyers.

Cultural preparation is supremely important to living and working in a new culture. While many people are inherently suited to assignments in countries around the world, the vast majority of people won’t be equipped with the skills to succeed without sufficient intercultural training. How will this new trend impact internal needs for cultural training? The article predicts legal outsourcing will climb to over $1 billion in revenue by 2014. What are organizations doing to support global initiatives like this? What are the challenges of virtual, global teams that span time zone differences of 10 hours or more and cultural, linguistic and religious barriers?

Sean

RW3 CultureWizard

The Harvard Business Review interviewed Mansour Javidan, dean of research at the Thunderbird School of Global Management, who also wrote an article for the same publication called “Managing Yourself: Making it Overseas.”

According to this article, employers frequently assume “that a good track record at home is a predictor of success in the global arena, and that exposing high performers to new cultures will set them on the path to becoming effective multinational leaders.” While international assignments are certainly an important developmental tool for potential leaders, an individual desire to learn and know about different cultural perspectives and people with a certain intellectual curiosity, among other qualities, are vital to success abroad.

This mind-set has three main components: intellectual capital, or knowledge of international business and the capacity to learn; psychological capital, or openness to different cultures and the capacity to change; and social capital, the ability to form connections, to bring people together, and to influence stakeholders—including colleagues, clients, suppliers, and regulatory agencies—who are unlike you in cultural heritage, professional background, or political outlook.

RW3 CultureWizard’s Global Leadership Development Tool, developed in collaboration with Dr. Paula Caligiuri, is an assessment which identifies a leader’s strengths and abilities in working with and managing people from other cultures. It enables leaders to examine their readiness for global leadership and the areas in which they may need to develop. Specifically, the tool can:

+ Assess the scope of your global leadership activities
+ Create an awareness of your intercultural behavioral style and experience
+ Suggest approaches for enhancing your global leadership skills
+ Direct you to learning resources to maximize your global leadership effectiveness

What do you think are the key skills global leaders need? What is your experience with leaders moving between domestic and international contexts?

Grayson

RW3 CultureWizard

A commercial about shampoo sans hair. Unilever

A New York Times article details the culturally aware techniques Western companies are using to sell their brands to non-Western audiences, in this case women who wear tudungs, a traditional head scarf used by Muslim women in Malaysia (the shampoo product in the ad specifically addresses the effects of the tudung on hair and scalp). In the past, many companies would enter new countries and offend consumers through advertisement and marketing that lacked sensitivity to societal and religious norms. Now, marketing experts know “rule No.1 is to avoid causing offense.” Furthermore, the global Muslim population is over 1.5 billion, and John Goodman of Ogilvy & Mather says there is no excuse for not considering culture when building brands and marketing campaigns:

It’s like being in 1990 and telling people that China doesn’t matter. Twenty years ago you might have said that, but now you’re being foolish.

A lack of cultural knowledge is clearly unacceptable to consumers in any market, but how can we learn to sell to and interact effectively with people from around the world? How do we develop and sustain cultural competency in a world that is constantly changing?

Sean

RW3 CultureWizard

Chief Learning Officer published a story highlighting the increasing importance of “pull” technology for organizational learning, which is “a mechanism that allows people to find and access relevant resources at the point of need.” On the other hand, “push” technology has been the standard training method in the US and in many other countries, where learning is pushed to individuals from the institution through scheduled, formalized training. The drawbacks of the latter are heavily based on the fact that forecasting needs and demand for information is challenging.

‘In a world of pull, it’s about helping people to develop the capabilities to become leaders in their own context so when they’re confronting an unexpected challenge they have the initiative and the questing disposition that will make them want to embrace that challenge and find creative ways of overcoming it and addressing it, and in the process learning from that experience,’ [John Hagel] said.

Online learning platforms like CultureWizard are examples of technology that allow individuals to pull or search for information they need. The material is accessible whenever and wherever through an internet connection. Even a simple Google search, which most professionals use several times a day, is reflective of the approach many are accustomed to taking to learn.

However, according to the article, organizations looking to integrate a “pull” learning strategy should beware:

Cultivating a proprietary knowledge stock is bound for failure. Instead, organizations should focus on creating effective knowledge flows that allow people to learn faster and replenish knowledge stocks at an accelerating rate.

How do you feel about formal, classroom training in comparison to “pull” learning? Do you see the “pull” approach becoming the new standard?

Charlene

RW3 CultureWizard

In China, according to the CNN video above, companies hire Caucasians to pose as employees or even business partners, which effectively bolster the “face” or reputation of the company. In the video, one man posed as an Italian jeweler for a Chinese jewelry company producing pieces inspired by Italian design, which in the eyes of the Chinese customers made their products more authentic. However, the man was in actuality an American actor. In another case, a young Caucasian male was hired to sit in an office that faced the street to visibly show passersby the company had people from the West working there.

The employment of Westerners in this way is less surprising considering the importance of face in Chinese culture. How does this strike you as an approach to the marketplace in China?

Is this way of marketing and doing business unlike advertising of the 21st century where illusion and exaggeration play a key role?

Sean

RW3 CultureWizard

Here is a brief summary of a tactic Japanese organizations are utilizing to save money, according to the New York Times, which poses an interesting employment model for other countries:

Under fierce pressure to cut costs, large Japanese companies are increasingly outsourcing and sending white-collar operations to China and Southeast Asia, where doing business costs less than in Japan. But while many American companies have been content to transfer work to, say, an Indian outsourcing company staffed with English-speaking Indians, Japanese companies are taking a different tack. Japanese outsourcers are hiring Japanese workers to do the jobs overseas — and paying them considerably less than if they were working in Japan.

This strikes me as an issue of culture and language: Japanese companies are motivated to hire native Japanese speakers, of which there are few outside of Japan, to service Japanese-speaking customers in low-cost cities and countries. Culturally, customer service is unique to Japan, and the satisfaction of Japanese customers is hinged on mutual expectations. Cities around Asia like Bangkok, Beijing, Hong Kong and Taipei have been chosen for these outsourced individuals. According to the article,

“Even foreign citizens with a good command of the Japanese language…may not be equipped with a sufficiently nuanced understanding of the manners and politesse that Japanese customers often demand.

While Japanese companies could save even more if they hired only locals overseas — some experts say locals could be hired at half the cost — the preference for Japanese nationals is likely to endure, said [Kazuyuki Ichikawa of Pasona Global].

‘You say one thing and Japanese employees will understand three things,’ he said. ‘In Western cultures, you might be straightforward with what you want your staff to know, but a Japanese manager would want you to understand it without having to say it.’”

Thus, a Japanese team working in a call-center in Bangkok already has the necessary cultural awareness a team of Indians would have to learn in order to successfully interact with the American customers of its US-based client. However, the cultural experience of relocating to a new country is another topic.

According to the article, many young Japanese are choosing to move overseas to work for companies based at home, while those same companies opt to send their younger employees abroad. Would you elect to move or “outsource” yourself to a city outside your home country for work? Would your outlook on this change if you were unemployed? What would you expect in terms of training or preparation to do so?

Click here to read the story on the New York Times.

Sean

RW3 CultureWizard

A brilliant article by Lera Boroditsky in the Wall Street Journal makes an important link between cognition and language, a link many of us have experienced. One reader’s comment on the article sums up the feeling:

That language embodies different ways of knowing the world seems intuitive, given the number of times we reach for a word or phrase in another language that communicates that certain je ne sais quoi we can’t find on our own.

An old language tree

Noam Chomsky’s contribution to the idea that languages around the world contained a “universal grammar” is debunked by new research on the ways we experience space, time and causality. Below are some examples from the article of how language affects our perception of the world.

Russian speakers, who have more words for light and dark blues, are better able to visually discriminate shades of blue.

Some indigenous tribes say north, south, east and west, rather than left and right, and as a consequence have great spatial orientation.

The Piraha, whose language eschews number words in favor of terms like few and many, are not able to keep track of exact quantities.

In one study, Spanish and Japanese speakers couldn’t remember the agents of accidental events as adeptly as English speakers could. Why? In Spanish and Japanese, the agent of causality is dropped: ‘The vase broke itself,’ rather than ‘John broke the vase.’

Words in Chinese and Japanese for specific positions within a family’s hierarchy, e.g. oneesan (“older sister”) and otoutosan (“younger brother”), convey the importance of knowing one’s role, which impacts the cognitive process. The use of kinship terms like “mother” and “brother” between strangers in Arabic-speaking countries is connected to the predominant sense of family and community. It seems that examples abound for the argument that language informs and reinforces culture and logic, which means our thought processes vary according to the language we speak.

What kinds of challenges does this idea pose to global business and cross-cultural interaction, even if people can speak in the same language? How does this affect the minds of multilingual people? Are they able to switch modes of thought, just as they switch from one code or language to another?

Grayson

RW3 CultureWizard

Kapil Sibal (above), India’s human resource development minister, told the media the first group to receive the touchscreen computers, which resemble Apple’s $499 iPad, are over 100 million schoolchildren. The goal is reduce the cost of production to $20, and ultimately to $10. India’s development of this computer is symbolic of the country’s power to influence and change the world. How will this affect the country’s enormous illiterate population? According to UNICEF, 34% of the adult population and 18% of youth were illiterate in 2007, compared to a rate of 7% and 1%, respectively, in China. With a total population of over one billion, these numbers exceed the total population of the United States.

How do you think this will change India’s burgeoning population and workforce? How will an increase in literacy and access to internet affect India’s role in the global marketplace?

Read more on Indian Express.

RW3 CultureWizard

Use Expatistan, an interesting web tool, to compare the cost of living across a number of areas between two cities. It’s easy, and it is also based on the input of users around the world. The tool describes itself as a

Collaborative database of prices around the world. You enter the prices, we make the comparisons.

RW3 CultureWizard

In Paris, a veritable celebration of mistakes was hosted last week by a group of academicians from a number of France’s educational institutions. The Guardian writes on the concerns of many professionals in the education field:

…The French school system is leaving children bereft of creativity, flexibility of thought and – crucially – confidence in their own mental abilities…’A large part of the French school system is based on the idée reçue that errors are negative, when in fact it is by this very process of learning … that you make progress,’ said Maëlle Lenoir, of the Association Paris Montagne.

French history is full of great inventions and inventors, artists and architects, too many to mention here. How long has this style of teaching been in practice?

The article gives a few “great mistakes” to demonstrate the power of making errors, like Columbus’ search for India, which led him to the Americas. According to the article, many young French students fear answering questions incorrectly, and are afraid of taking risks. Many of our beliefs on these issues stem from culture, which is instilled in all of us from a young age, and especially at school. Now, educators in France are looking to change these ideas with the hopes of increasing students’ propensity to be innovative and creative. The event’s leaders “hope to demonstrate to young participants the potential wonder of making mistakes through a series of science-based workshops.” This festival strives to give young students the courage to think creatively, without worrying about making mistakes.

In the US, for example, asking questions, intense curiosity and failure are all seen as important learning experiences. Curiosity can lead to failure, but failure is one way of learning, and can also lead to breakthroughs in all subjects (e.g. via the trial and error method). In the professional realm, many managers expect failure before mastery, and employees can easily recover from a loss of face due to mistakes, so long as they learn from them. Conversely, in countries like China, where the learning process is heavily based on rote and process, mistakes can cause significant loss of face, and failure is often very difficult to recover from.

What is your experience as a schoolchild? Do you remember having exploratory activites in class, like “show and tell,” were you expected to learn through repetitive action, or was there a different method?

We’re interested in hearing from you.

Charlene

RW3 CultureWizard

Let’s take a look at a New York Times article on inheritance planning in Asia, and more specifically in China. According to the article, many of the “modern first generation of wealthy Asians” are interested in estate planning for their children.

William Lexmond, a managing director with UBS in Singapore, said that because family values were stronger in Asia, high-net-worth individuals between 30 and 40 years old — those with at least $1 million in investable assets — were more likely to do estate planning than their Western counterparts ‘because they feel they have the obligation to do so.’

Why is this obligation felt so strongly? Below is the Chinese character for family, which can also mean home. The character itself, etymologically, represents a pig under a roof, symbolizing the importance of avoiding scarcity as the most important function of family. The very center of Chinese life is family, and each person within a family has a specific role, of which the objective is to maintain their well-being. In most cases, there is a great sense of mutual dependence across members of a family. So, the idea of inheritance and estate planning is amenable to the Chinese ethos.

The Chinese Character for family or jiā.

‘Rather than to rely on someone else, i.e., the state, to take care of your family, there is more of a desire to make sure something is set aside,’ [Lexmond] said. ‘It’s more of a self-help type situation to provide some support.’

Lexmond underscores the centrality of maintaining stability for the family, even after one passes away. The article also mentions the relative sophistication of inheritance planning in Asia because of the stronger demand for the service. What is your take on the role of the family in China and the measures taken after a member passes away? It would be interesting to know if the Asian finance industry in general would benefit from an awareness of these aspects of culture, from which more attractive products could be created and marketed.

Sean

RW3 CultureWizard

Home to a large refugee population, and the largest Burmese community in the US, Fort Wayne, Indiana has experience teaching new arrivals about local culture, as NPR tells us.

Nearly all refugees in Fort Wayne frequent the Refugee Resource Center. It offers services and classes in everything from how to clean a home, to proper indoor plumbing etiquette. These are sometimes new concepts for people who have only lived in rural villages or refugee camps.

While the Refugee Resource Center has focused on the basic building blocks of etiquette and protocol, where are the lessons that provide a deeper level of understanding? How can immigrants and refugees begin to understand the reasons behind typical behaviors in the US without some orientation to its history and values? And, how can those helping refugees from places like Burma, Darfur and Bosnia better understand the culture in which they’ve been socialized? We often receive questions from businesspeople working across cultures like “what should I do and not do?”, and the answer is generally a list of actions or expressions that exist outside of a cultural context. As a result, individuals have to memorize the do’s and don’ts, versus gathering a certain sense of the key values and beliefs of a culture, which informs etiquette, protocol, behavior and more.

The image below was taken inside a laundromat in Fort Wayne, where ethnic Burmese frequent. Betel nut, or the areca nut, is the seed of a palm tree native to many parts of Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands. It is chewed, much like tobacco, for it’s effects as a stimulant, much like the effects of drinking coffee. However, the nut is chewed and disposed of, not swallowed. If a coffee-drinking individual were to walk into a laundromat with a sign displaying “No Drinking! No Coffee!”, I believe the person would be compelled to question why the sign existed.

Erika Celeste/NPR

Fort Wayne has won the All-America City title thrice, and the work of the Center is an important resource to refugees. Do you have experience with a similar center? Have you worked with refugees? If so, what are some of their dilemmas in relation to cultural adjustment? Please let us know!

Click here to listen to the NPR story online. Click here to learn more about the tradition of chewing betel nut.

RW3 CultureWizard