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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In the New York Times, a conversation between columnists highlights the future of Western men through a very general comparison of Western and Asian thinking styles.

Before looking at that article, I’ll start by noting the various cultural dimensions CultureWizard teaches, e.g. relationship and communication. These dimensions encompass styles of thought, and the approach one takes to human interaction. In China, for example, we generalize that most people are relationship-oriented, which means that relationships are the underlying lens through which Chinese see all aspects of life, both business and personal. The general idea is that this is the opposite of a country like Switzerland, where people often look at a clock to organize their days. To understand others, simple lessons on very basic and commonly encountered cultural attributes is a necessity for global business succss. However, in reality, everyone is unique and should be treated according to their personal culture. Nevertheless, everyone is influenced by a national culture through religion, mythology, history, mass media, etc.

David Brooks’ conversation with Gail Collins is very general, but there is some truth to what Brooks observes on culture, even though it’s still far from being common knowledge.

“Different cultures and groups have different styles of thinking, or to be more precise, the average behavior is different from one group to another. So is it possible that Westerners, on average, have thinking styles that make them ill-suited for the problems of the future while Asians have styles that make them better suited?”

“Asians place emphasis on context while Westerners place more emphasis on individuals. This seems like a gross generalization but it is robustly supported by hundreds and hundreds of studies.”

“Basically, I’m saying that two groups I’m a member of — Westernized men — may have been well adapted to the agricultural and industrial societies, but our thinking styles are not well adapted to the networked age of social information flows. I’m not just saying the West is doomed. I think Western men, like me, are doomed unless we change and adapt quickly!”

The individualistic approach that is deeply ingrained in Western individuals’ minds is not the norm in Asia, although culture is gradually changing, so learning and recognizing situations where different approaches are popular interesting. Western men may not be doomed, but cultural awareness is a solution to the adaptability that global business demands today.

Click here to read the conversation. How would you react to these ideas?

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In the Report on Business section of The Globe and Mail, a Canadian periodical, Harvey Schachter reviews Charlene Solomon and Michael Schell’s recently published book, Managing Across Cultures, The Seven Keys to Doing Business with a Global Mindset (McGraw-Hill, 2009). He compared it to other books in the field and concluded the following:

“…If you could only read one, I’d nominate Managing Across Cultures, which is more comprehensive, particularly in taking readers through the seven key differences they will encounter in other countries, and having you fill out a questionnaire so you know your personal instincts, should they be different from other Canadians.”

Click here to read the full review.

Josh

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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 the latest CultureWizard Digest here!

* The “Micromanagement” Debate
* Indian Outsourcing Vendors Expand
* More Lessons for Wal-Mart
* President Obama teaches English to Japanese

CultureLinks
+ Comical Commercial on Cross-Cultural Blunder
+ “What Starbucks says about America”
+ Predisposed for an International Career

CultureTips
+ Malaysia
+ Canada

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Reuters journalist Scott Malone writes an article today called “Managing cultures in a flat world.” The piece focuses on Schell and Solomon’s new book, Managing Across Cultures, and emphasizes one of its important cultural points: “Executives can more easily accept cultural differences in colleagues and employees if they take the time to assess their own cultural biases.”

Click here to read the article!

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