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How to Deal with Culture Shock
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Tips for Business Assignments
How to Deal
with Culture Shock
Culture
is simply the hospitality of the intellect. Your mind is open
to new ideas and larger views; when they enter, you know how
to receive them, and to entertain, to be entertained, and
take what they have to offer without allowing them to dominate
you.
—Thomas Kettle
Fish out of Water Living at home, we never think about culture. Culture to humans
is like water to fish—the fish never stops to reflect on
what it means to live in the water. It just swims and goes
about its normal routine. But if you take the fish and throw
it on a patch of sand, water takes on a whole new meaning.
The fish flops around desperately looking for the water it
never knew it had!
I was literally "stuck" on a train, all alone,
on my way from Bangalore to Hyberabad—about a 17-hour train
ride. All of a sudden I felt lost. I was in a foreign country
where I did not speak the language and looked nothing like
the dark hair, eyes, and complexion of all the bodies that
surrounded me and continued to stare at me after four hours
of being on the train with them. Feelings of fear, anxiety,
complete unawareness of who I was, uncertainty of getting
back to the ship, and a desire to see some familiar faces
filled me. However, I knew I was on a train bound for another
part of this country called India. How could I get back to
Madras in a hurry before I had an anxiety attack?
(From Paul Pederson, The Five Stages of Culture Shock)
The experience of culture shock is similar.
When you encounter a new environment, all the habits and behaviors
that allowed you to get around and survive at home suddenly
no longer work. Things as simple and automatic as getting
lunch, saying hello to colleagues, or setting up a meeting
become difficult and strange. The rules have changed and no
one has told you what the new rules are. When doing business overseas, suddenly all the habits you've
developed for doing business in the United States seem out
of place or positively wrong. You sell yourself and talk up
your product and the other side think you're bragging. You
try to establish a friendly rapport and they ignore you. You
try to get to the bottom line and they seem irritated and
uninterested. Whenever we are faced with unfamiliar behavior, we go through
varying degrees of culture shock. Symptoms can vary from confusion,
loneliness, and anxiety to feelings of inferiority, fear,
depression, and psychological withdrawal. Some people express
intense hostility to another culture. Others simply shut down.
Geert Hofstede comments that culture shock "returns us
to the mental state of an infant." The effects of culture shock accumulate slowly. A few seemingly
harmless negative experiences can end up poisoning your attitude
about another culture. It is like Chinese water torture—the
first few drops you don't even notice, but as time goes on
the drip, drip, drip can drive you crazy. Hostility, anxiety, or depression can affect a person's judgment
and ability to communicate during delicate negotiations. Managerial
duties can become a daily encounter with the enemy. Culture
shock is a leading cause of early repatriations that can be
quite costly for the company. The experience can be especially
difficult for spouses or children who come along on overseas
assignments. Without a job to give them direction and a stable
point of contact with the other culture, they can feel lost
and helpless.
The Stages of Cultural Adjustment In Cultures and Organizations, Hofstede describes the stages
one goes through while adjusting to another country. The first
stage involves a romance with the surface features of a culture.
Everything is new, different, and exciting, and feelings for
the new culture are very positive. Most tourists and many
short-term business travelers experience other cultures in
stage one. The second stage of adjusting to another culture
is culture shock, when the lack of familiar reference points
and behavioral norms leads to overload and withdrawal. Feelings
for the new culture become very negative. This stage often
arrives for expatriates or business travelers after the initial
greetings and ceremonies are over and they find they have
to survive in a new culture on their own without being treated
as the honored guest any longer. Culture shock can vary dramatically
from person to person or situation to situation. One person
can experience severe culture shock in a situation that would
barely affect another. Some people barely experience culture
shock on one trip and are affected severely on the next. The third stage is a gradual period of acculturation during
which the visitor learns to operate according to the norms
and values of the other culture. This period requires work;
learning about another culture means getting out and interacting
in a meaningful way with other people in social and work settings. The fourth and final stage is the arrival at a stable state
of mind that marks the level of adjustment to the other culture.
This stable state can remain negative (the person feels more
or less permanently alienated), neutral (a good healthy bicultural
ability), or positive (the person "goes native").
What Can Be Done to Deal with Culture Shock? The best defense against culture shock is knowledge of how
other cultures operate. In Culture Shock: Psychological Reactions
to Unfamiliar Environments, Adrian Furnham and Stephen Bochner
point out that culture shock is not a psychological disorder
but a lack of social skills and knowledge needed to deal with
a new environment. Even if things seem alien and disorienting,
knowing some of the rules gives us reference points and a
degree of confidence. One of the best ways to deal with culture
shock is to look at the experience as an opportunity to learn—not
only about the other side's culture, but also about specific
factors that will influence doing business with them. Dealing
with other cultures is a skill we can acquire. The amount of time required for acculturation and how well
you have adjusted at the end of the process depend largely
on attitude and effort. Younger people generally have an easier
time adjusting to new cultures and situations because they
haven't formed a rigid framework for looking at the world
and how things should be done. Adults who are set in their
ways are more likely to see things that are different as deficient
or threatening. Approaching new ways of doing things with openness and curiosity
can change the whole experience of being in another culture.
It helps to remind yourself periodically to maintain a positive
attitude and try things with an open mind. We often respond
automatically to things that are different. It is possible
to build up negative feelings about other cultures without
being aware of it.
I had never heard of Libya before being stationed in Tripoli.
About two weeks after I arrived in the country, Muhammar al-Khadafy
overthrew the king in a military coup. I was assigned to work
with a group of advisers to help the Libyans with their young
air force. One of the first things I noticed was a strange
physical feature: Many of the men had one bad eye. After some
questioning, I discovered that the men had had their eyes
damaged by their mothers as a way to keep them out of military
service during the period when the Italians ruled the country. Another thing that look getting used to was the way women
onlyshowed themselves in public completely covered except
for one eye. When we went to visit the house of one of the
Libyans we worked with, his mother brought the food to the
door of the room and handed it to him without entering. We
never did see her. Later I saw the same man looking very depressed and asked
what was wrong. He told me that he was getting married. This
didn't seem like a reason to be depressed, until he told me
that it was an arranged marriage and that he had a girlfriend
he loved very much.
—Louis Krindelbaugh
The degree of culture shock you experience
does not necessarily depend on how long you've been in another
country. You don't absorb other cultures through osmosis.
Going out to eat in local restaurants and buying souvenirs
isn't enough. You have to get out and spend time with local
people and learn about their perspective. There are immigrants who have lived in the United States for
40 years and still experience culture shock. They've brought
their own culture with them; they shop in their own grocery
stores and hang out with their own people. The same thing
can happen to Americans overseas. You can be in a foreign
country for years, but if you spend all your time with other
Americans and don't interact with the native culture, you
might never get over culture shock. I interviewed a woman who had accompanied her husband on an
overseas assignment to Poland. She was struck by the way American
lived in expatriate ghettos where they stuck with each other
and had nothing to do with the local culture.
Associating only with your own compatriots
is a sure sign of culture shock. It indicates that you are
seeking the comfort of the known and the familiar rather than
confronting and learning about differences. Really to adjust
to a new culture you need to create a new framework for understanding
the world. It might not be your framework, but unless you
can learn to use it, you'll always be on the outside.
(1615 words)
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Tips
for Business Assignments
The
Flip Side of Culture Shock Many people dread going on foreign assignments—-sometimes
even before they've gone on one. They hear stories about how
exhausting and disorienting business travel can be. They worry
about getting sick, getting lonely, or getting killed. They're
afraid they won't be liked or that they won't succeed. But
the fact is that for many people a foreign assignment can
be the opportunity and thrill of a lifetime. The Wall Street Journal reports the story of John Aliberti,
who had spent his career working to become a midlevel manager
for Union Switch in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Aliberti seemed
like an odd choice for an overseas assignment: He had no experience
in international travel and business. But when he was chosen
to represent the company as technical expert and representative
in China, Aliberti responded with enthusiasm: "Back home,
the work we do, it's been done for decades. In China you're
breaking new ground. It's a milestone in the history of the
world." By viewing his China assignment as an exciting adventure,
Aliberti largely bypassed the negative effects of culture
shock. According to the Wall Street Journal, "The crowds
and chaotic lines don't faze him. He becomes animated telling
stories of long train trips to out-of-the-way cities like
Nanchang, where Union Switch is helping to build a railroad
yard..." Aliberti's enthusiastic attitude and his active interest in
learning about the culture and business practices in China
have helped him become a central figure in his company's China
operations. His job in Pittsburgh is two rungs below vice
president. In China, according to his boss, "He acts
like a president or CEO. That's got to turn him on."
What Can Companies Do to Deal with Culture
Shock? Suppose your company is opening a subsidiary in another country
and is planning to send a group of Americans there to help
run the operation. Those Americans need to be trained because
they'll be working constantly with people who have a different
cultural framework. If they hang out just with other Americans
and don't learn the rules of the other culture, they'll be
fighting a more or less ongoing case of culture shock. This
is likely to lead to both unhappy Americans (who feel alienated)
and unhappy locals (who feel misunderstood or insulted). Some people are simply much better suited than others for
work in foreign cultures. Many American companies send people
abroad because of technical skills or company organization.
But it would be well worth screening people going abroad—especially
on long assignments. A good point of comparison is the advice
Takashi Kiuchi gives to Japanese companies about the kinds
of people inappropriate for assignment in the United States.
The same advice is applicable to American companies sending
people abroad.
Unless the person is interested in the history
and culture of the country it is quite meaningless to live
here. Another condition of living in a foreign country would
be to have a feeling of appreciation for the host country.
l, myself, am very appreciative of the opportunity to live
in the United States.
Seek out people with a sense of adventure
and the ability to adapt to new situations. These qualities
can often be just as important as language skills or detailed
cultural knowledge. As Aliberti's boss commented: "I
wasn't looking for people who had studied Chinese at Harvard.
I wanted someone who knew the product." According to
the Wall Street Journal, Aliberti "found a common language
with Chinese railway officials in the nuts and bolts of railroad
signaling systems." The success of an international project
will depend ultimately on how well the people involved are
able to communicate and work together to solve problems. Careful preparation and training can also prevent costly problems
down the road. Learning the proper skills for dealing with
other cultures can reduce or eliminate the negative impact
of culture shock. Intercultural education should be a regular
part of corporate training programs—both for executives going
overseas and for the domestic workforce. Such training helps
the company work as a team on international projects.
It is also useful to seek out other people who have lived
abroad. In many places you can find support groups to help
expatriates get oriented to living in the country. After her
experience with the bullfight, my friend in Spain was able
to find a women's club of expatriate American women. Being
together with them helped her to get her bearings and learn
some of the tricks for getting around in her new environment.
She also commented that her husband's company hadn't offered
any training before they left, and that expatriates whose
companies had offered training had a much easier time getting
accustomed to the new culture.
Culture Shock in the United States Culture shock can also be an issue when doing business with
people from other cultures here in the United States. Despite
the popularity of American culture around the world, many
foreigners experience symptoms of culture shock when they
get here. It is just as hard for foreigners to learn the rules of our
culture as it is for us to learn how to get by in theirs.
Can you imagine how hard it would be for Americans in Japan
not to speak English during meetings? Americans can be impatient,
or even uncomprehending, when confronted with behavior they
don't understand. If foreign visitors seem irritated or nude—or if they simply
seem to be behaving strangely—they are probably experiencing
culture shock. During a symposium on Japan, a member of the
audience asked a panel of businesspeople consisting of Japanese
and American executives who work with the Japanese this question:
Why are the Japanese so hospitable and polite when one is
either visiting Japan or doing business with them in their
country, while sometimes they tend to be rude and have a herd
mentality in this country? The answer from one of the Japanese
businessmen was a single phrase: "Fish out of water."
Returning Home: Culture Shock in Reverse In 1995, a Wall Street Journal reporter observed: "More
and more, U.S. businesses are calling their expatriates home
and staffing the top role at their foreign subsidiaries with
skilled, local talent." The homecoming of the these returning
expatriates is often just as shocking as the experience of
going abroad in the first place. Barry Newman reports in the
Wall Street Journal the case of Ira Caplan, who came back
to the United States after 12 years living in Japan:
He had never heard of Rush Limbaugh: "I
listened once and it was enough." He was so politically
incorrect that he didn't know what "PC" meant: "I
got a book on it." Prices astonish him. The obsession
with crime unnerves him. What unsettles Mr. Caplan more, though,
is how much of himself he has left behind.
Once people adjust to living abroad, they
often find expatriate life exciting and glamorous. "I
was running briefing breakfasts for congressmen and senators,"
said Caplan. Now he's just another midlevel executive in New
York. Coming back to their old job is often the most traumatic part
of returning to the United States. Ways of doing business
have been changing dramatically in the United States, just
as they have all over the world. The old job usually doesn't
exist anymore, and returnees often find they don't fit into
the new scheme of things. After a time, many are laid off
or simply quit. The problems of adjustment and culture shock for returning
employees can be as severe as those involved in sending them
abroad in the first place. Companies make an enormous investment
in their expatriates, and they should think carefully about
how to utilize the expertise they have gained. As Caplan remarks
about his experience: "You're a source of wisdom overseas.
Once you get back, it's all over. Nobody can relate to your
experience."
(1317 words)
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