Understanding Culture

Excerpt from “The Success Factor: Navigating the Treacherous Waters of Corporate America” by Ted Bagley (Xlibris Publishing).

Let’s define culture. Culture is the characteristic of a particular group of people, defined by language, religion, cuisine, social habits, music, arts, etc. Organizational culture is the behavior of humans, who are part of an organization, and the meanings that the people attach to their actions. Culture includes the organization’s values, visions, norms, working language, systems, symbols, beliefs, and habits. It is also the pattern of such collective behaviors that are taught to new organizational members as a way of perceiving, even thinking and feeling. Organizational culture affects the way people interact with one another and with clients and stakeholders. Each new environment has its own unique characteristics and, if understood, could accelerate the new entrant’s time and effectiveness in integrating into the new culture.

Companies such as IBM, GE, Microsoft, Dell, and Amgen embody their own unique cultures and characteristics. Individuals who quickly adjust to the new culture have a better chance of success than those who choose to push against it. Though cultures define companies and enhance their ability to recruit top candidates, those same cultures will become obsolete if they don’t bend and flex with the changing tide of the workplace. As workplaces are becoming more global, culture becomes shifting sand and requires employees who are flexible and adapt quickly to ambiguity and significant change.

In order to understand what culture is within any organization, its definition has had to be interpreted in many ways. Some scholars define culture as the cumulative deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving. That’s a mouthful, but it is what it is. What a company respects in its employees becomes its culture. Most companies have a set of values and attributes that drive expected behavior.

So this word, “culture,” is all encompassing and sometimes can be difficult to unravel. Many companies create cultural norms such as specialized dress codes, flex work schedules, core hours, job pooling, formalized social networks, etc. These cultural norms will become icons and will establish norms for others to be measured against. Cultural norms also can be effective recruiting tools because the environment is a key consideration for individuals seeking the right culture for new or continued employment.

Cultural norms often are so strongly ingrained in a company’s culture that new employees may be unaware of certain expected behaviors. Until these behaviors are seen in the context of having some form of flexibility, they will prevent certain resources from becoming integrated. Often, the company may have difficulty recognizing the need for change and eventually creates tension and paralysis to a point of disengagement and job dissatisfaction. Leaders who don’t value learning the cultural norms of an organization can make it more difficult for individuals to assimilate themselves into the new environment. What motivates and energize someone from an Asian background may be totally different from someone of African or European descent. Learning and understanding these differences can be the catalyst for a more productive and innovative work environment. Cultural diversity will permeate the world’s workplaces, and those who harness its capabilities also will value the dynamics of an increasingly diverse human resources pool.

Many companies send expatriates into new cultures based on a specific technical competence they may have but fail to prepare entrants for the new culture and office/company rules of engagement. According to Wikipedia, an expatriate (sometimes shortened to expat) is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country other than that of the person’s upbringing. The word comes from the Latin terms ex (“out of”) and patria (“country, fatherland”).

In common usage, the term often is used in the context of professionals or skilled workers sent abroad by their companies. The differentiation found in common usage is usually socio-economic factors. Skilled professionals working in another country are described as expatriates, and non-skilled workers are called immigrants.

The term, “expatriate,” in some countries also has a legal context used for tax purposes. An expatriate living in a country can receive a favorable tax treatment. You can only be an expatriate if you move to another country to work with the intent of returning to your home country within a certain time period. Many companies will choose to send you to another assignment outside of your home country before returning you to the home country. They then would be labeled as globalists, which is slightly different from the expat. The number of years can vary per tax jurisdiction, but five years is the most commonly used maximum period. If you are not affected by taxes, three years is normally the maximum time spent in one country.

There are usually language, tradition, and social gaps that, if not understood, could cause embarrassment, dissatisfaction, and failure on the part of the worker. Companies will send some of their skilled and high-potential people on these assignments without understanding some of the personal and career ramifications. Issues around expat assignments are as follows:

  • Stress on families with no support group.
  • Employee not recognizing the need to assimilate in the new culture to be accepted.
  • Minimal or no attempt to learn the new language, if applicable.
  • A large community of expats is inclined to mingle with one another versus integrating with the locals.
  • No tieback to the mother country via a mentor is common. (A mentor is the person assigned to track the progress of the individual and counsel him or her until the return home).
  • The stagnant or declining health of the business; there may or may not be a good job to return to, causing unhappiness and attrition.

Approximately 35 to 40 percent of expatriates fail while working in a new country. This is due mainly to their inability to adapt to the new culture and not because of their competence. So the need for expatriate preparation is extremely high. To prepare for success as an expatriate, you must apply for the Visa you will need for your stay in that country.

In order to be adequately equipped, future expatriates must acquire knowledge about the culture they are entering, as well as its differences to their own culture. They also must become competent in cross-culture communication. Some of the most psychologically challenging areas for expatriates are verbal and nonverbal communication. Communication strengthens the psychological health of both the expat and family members.

Before entering the host country, an expatriate must understand, appreciate and accept the values and behavioral patterns of the host culture. This includes learning about the country through lecture-type orientation and fact-based orientation. One of the best ways to acquire knowledge about the culture is through experiences.

It is highly recommended that companies implement cultural training to introduce the entrant to the customs and traditions of the new environment. This tends to be much more of an easy transition when the new culture is English-speaking. These assignments can be costly to the bottom line of a company and should be managed appropriately. The average expatriate can cost between $800,000 and $1 million per year.

Émile Durkheim, a professor in Sociology said, “Cultural diversity includes language, but it also encompasses nonverbal cues, dialects, values, normative behaviors, beliefs, assumptions, etc. The more different people are from one another, the more difficult it will be for them to work together and communicate, which is the basis of any society.”

Excerpt from “The Success Factor: Navigating the Treacherous Waters of Corporate America” by Ted Bagley (Xlibris Publishing). For more information, visit Xlibris Publishing: http://bookstore.xlibris.com/Products/SKU-000779080/The-Success-Factor.aspx

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Ted Bagley received his Bachelor’s degree in business from Franklin University in Columbus, Ohio, and his Master’s degree in psychological and educational counseling from North Carolina Central University. He is the vice president of global human resources operations for Amgen Biotechnical Corporation. “The Success Factor: Navigating the Treacherous Waters of Corporate America” is his third book.