Cultural Difference
If team member have cultural differences and didn’t take it into account and solve it carefully, may cause conflict in group and harm to group productivity.
Culture is “The deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, 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” (Samovar & Porter, 2003)
In 1976, Edward T. Hall suggested that culture was similar to an iceberg. He proposed that culture has two components and that only about 10% of culture (external or surface culture) is easily visible; the majority, or 90%, of culture (internal or deep culture) is hidden below the surface.
Scenario one (Visible, Surface Culture)
Firstly, we have different language speaking preference. My team members are Hong kong local people, whose official Chinese is Cantonese while my official Chinese is Mandarin. If we communicate ideas with each other, they would like to speak in Cantonese firstly. It cause me crazy and hard to understand. So I’m afraid to talk with my team members originally and don’t know how to express my ideas with them politely and clearly.
We also try to communicate in English that language we all have studied. Problem is that even we say the same language English, we still have different accent, Hong kong accent and Chinese mainland accent. We still can’t clearly understand the real meaning of each other. If we want to achieve the group goal together, we need to find a better way to communicate effectively and solve the communication conflict.
Scenario two (Invisible, Deep Culture)
We also have deep culture which is invisible but much more importantly influence our behaviours. Because of different educational and social background, we have different value and beliefs. My team member are educated in HK which is a style of UK western style, while I’m from traditional Chinese mainland education like Confucius value and belief. Our deep cultural differences can been seen from Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions:
Power distance index (PDI): I’m from mainland where we accept hierarchy and power collected by leader. So in the first assignment exercises, I would like to accept leadership more, while my team members prefer to focus on more team collaboration equally.
Individualism (IDV) vs. collectivism: My team members respect individual working, individual ideas, creation. They encourage each person to express personal ideas. They will any kind of decision or choice shall be democratic and equal to each person. While I care more about collective goal and interest, I would like to sacrifice individual interest to gain common goal quickly and efficiently.
Uncertainty avoidance index (UAI): We mainland Chinese can accept more uncertainty to keep flexible, while my team members wish to avoid uncertainty as much as possible. They think it’s necessary to clear up most of things in advance, and it will help to prevent later unnecessary misunderstanding.
Masculinity (MAS), vs. femininity: We all think hard work is necessary, and if there’s a leader, man shall be the first choice. And important decision shall be made by man in priority.
Long-term orientation (LTO), vs. short term orientation: My team member pay more attention to long-term study, not only for this course. While I think more for present goal, finish the course assignment in advance.
So we not only have behaviour difference, language understanding conflict, we also deep cultural conflict. Since we have same goal to work as a group to study together, we need to take collaborative actions to overcome these conflicts.
Solution and effect
STOP the Program: No one would like to give up the program, at least all of us want to keep on studying, and pass the course successfully.
My Way: If only using my way, insist on speaking mandarin quickly, they will be crazy and confused. In my past idea, everything shall be final decided by leader, and team goal is higher over personal aim. We don't need to specify each detail, everyone can understand and do by himself etc. But team members seemed have little interest on discussing leadership.
Your Way: Team members of course want to speak their preferred language, Cantonese, it's their public official language. They care about each team member, each person's ideas are all much important. Like we did the first assignment together, members would like to talk about team member collaboration scenario. While I'm focusing on the first scenario, how leader successfully to lead the team. They focus on everybody's hard work and personal aim, they will specify each detail before doing assignment etc. Neither I can't accept their plan at first.
New Way (Solution):
We need to search new solution to satisfy all parties and gain the common goal cooperatively. We developed two solutions for our team conflict resolution.
We need to search new solution to satisfy all parties and gain the common goal cooperatively. We developed two solutions for our team conflict resolution.
Solution 1--Problem Solving
Problem solving typically consists of four steps like Polya 4-Step Problem-Solving Process.
Since we have same team goal, we select problem-solving to conflict resolution in priority while not negotiation or politics activities.
Like we have language communication conflict. We firstly find the problem and everybody know that we need to solve this problem firstly then we can move on. We developed the plan to solve the language communication conflict. Like we all choose to speak in English firstly. And sometimes even we all speak in English, there's still misunderstanding of accent. We will choose to write down the words or draw the picture, then other members will understand quickly. We executed the plan as agreed, and find its useful and benefit for all of us. We can understand each other quickly and finish the group assignment effectively.
Solution 2--Persuasion
Greek philosopher Aristotle divided the means of persuasion, appeals, into three categories--Ethos, Pathos, Logos.
Ethos (Credibility), or ethical appeal, convinced by the character of the author. We believe in the people whom we respect.
Pathos (Emotional) means persuading by appealing to the reader's emotions.
Logos (Logical) means persuading by the use of reasoning.
Though our final goal are same, subgoal are different when we did assignment one. My team members want to discuss team member equality and collaboration, while I pay more attention on leadership questions. After communicated for a long time, I was finally persuaded by other team members' logical analysis and good reasons, their subgoal wined over my subgoal. And our assignment concluded on team collaboration issues.
Effect:
Through problem-solving 4 steps and persuasion of Logos conflict resolution methods, we finally achieved the team goal together successfully. And through communicating effectively, we avoided the cultural conflict to be exaggerated. It's glad to say that we also set up good friendship and relationship for future cooperation.
References:
Edward T. Hall (1976) Beyond culture ISBN-10: 0385124740, Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Press/ Doubleday
Hofstede, Geert (1984). Culture's Consequences: International Differences in Work-Related Values (2nd ed.). Beverly Hills CA: SAGE Publications. ISBN 0-8039-1444-X.
Samovar, L.A. & Porter, R.E. (Eds.). (2003) Intercultural communication: A reader (10th ed.).
Belmont, CA: Thompson Wadsworth.
Pólya, George (1945). How to Solve It. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-08097-6.
Link to group blog
Final Project - Managing Individual Differences
Link to group blog
Final Project - Managing Individual Differences
