CHAPTER 11

The Cultural Conundrum

It was 8:22 a.m., and Ben was extremely frustrated. He had traveled to Latin America to meet a major client. His mission was to learn more about the important consumer market there and to get a better gauge on the customer base in the region. Aside from gathering data through market research, Ben thought it would be helpful to connect with the sales division and meet up with some of the region’s largest customers directly. This was his first customer meeting, and as he looked down at his watch for the umpteenth time, he noticed that the sales manager sitting next to him looked totally relaxed. Ramon was a local in the region and had been an extremely successful sales manager through the years. Most importantly, he had a very solid understanding of the market, and he had great relationships with his region’s major customers. He liked to be in the field, not giving orders behind a desk. Ben was exasperated, and he wondered how Ramon could be so relaxed. The customer was over 20 minutes late.

“Do you think we should call him?” Ben asked.

“Call him? Why?” Ramon said with a chuckle.

“Well, he’s almost thirty minutes late. Maybe he’s a no-show,” Ben said, failing to hide the irritation in his voice.

“Don’t worry, sir. He’ll be here!” While Ben didn’t share the manager’s confidence, he decided to trust him. After all, Ramon understood his local customers. Sure enough, five minutes later, in walked the client. Ben introduced himself, and they all moved into the back office. Ben couldn’t believe that the customer didn’t apologize, despite being almost 30 minutes late.

The men sat down, and Ramon asked the customer how his family was doing. Ben listened for a few minutes as the two men spoke about their family life and activities. Finally, after losing his patience, Ben interjected with a question about the customer’s business. The customer looked at Ben with a mark of irritation on his face. He answered the question, but as the conversation progressed, he disclosed less information than Ben had hoped for. In the end, Ben felt that it was a highly unsuccessful meeting. He was also disappointed with Ramon, thinking he had a good relationship with the client. If that had been the case, Ben felt they would have been able to get more information out of the meeting. Nonetheless, the client seemed cold and even antagonistic throughout the whole discussion. At the end of the day, Ben sat in his hotel room and tried to reflect on what happened during their discussion. He even considered telling Ramon’s vice president about his experience. However, he decided to wait and see how the next day’s meeting went before mentioning anything.

The following day they were planning to meet with two customers. In both cases, the same thing happened. Ben was beside himself. At the end of the day, he asked Ramon why he didn’t have better relationships with his clients. Ramon replied that he did, but that Ben’s intrusions during the conversation reflected the fact that he didn’t understand the local culture. He explained to Ben that it is often customary to open with a long, personal discussion about family, football (soccer), or other topics unrelated to business. Only after this could one get to the business discussion. He explained that this initial conversation could sometimes last 30 minutes or more and was an important part of relationship building with his customers. When Ben interrupted and delved right into business, he likely offended the customers.

Ben was taken aback by the inference that he was to blame. How could it be his fault? After all, the customers had already wasted time by showing up so late. Didn’t they have a business to run? Ben was dumbfounded but decided to go back to his hotel and reevaluate the meetings. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that Ramon may have been right. The customers, despite their tardiness, seemed relaxed and happy to talk with Ramon. However, when Ben started talking business, their whole demeanor had changed. Ben realized that he would have to change his behavior. Through experience, Ben was learning the hard way about cultural bias and framing. As in Ben’s case, these concepts are often learned the hard way in virtual teams, or sometimes not at all.

If we examine Ben’s experience, there are a few important points that can be learned. The first of these is that despite his extensive travels, Ben didn’t have much experience working in Latin America. Therefore, Ben was psychologically framing the experience through his perspective of his upbringing in the United States and specifically the monochronic values of his culture. While Ben comes from a culture that values focusing on a single, linear task at a time and specifically merits punctuality as important, Latin American culture is often very polychronic. Polychronic cultures value relationships over time. Since time is a part of the natural way of life and can therefore be influenced by spontaneity, scheduling precision is less important (Duranti and Di Prata 2009). While Ben had arrived 10 minutes early and was expecting a prompt and timely meeting, the customer was perfectly comfortable arriving later than the agreed-upon time. For Ben, this became a stressful situation in which he actually began to wonder if the customer would show up at all. His local sales manager, however, was perfectly comfortable; and while he didn’t mention it, he would have likely shown up just a few minutes before the customer. Furthermore, as the meeting started so late, and Ben was already stressed by this fact, he felt a greater urgency to begin the business discussion as soon as possible to make up for his perception of lost time. This, in turn, offended the customer, who felt that a discussion of relationships and matters that Ben perceived as trivial was as important as the business itself.

Cultural differences are common when businesses expand their activities across global borders. Cultural diversity happens when at least two people with differing demographics come together (McGrath, Berdahl, and Arrow 1995). Given the global nature of the environment, it can be a very important factor in virtual teams. As was stated in earlier chapters, one of the great benefits of having a virtual team is the ability to source unique talent in regions that were not previously accessible. By doing this, organizations increase their level of diversity, creativity, and, in some cases, access to new markets. While there are many benefits to cultural diversity, it is not always without its challenges.

As Ben discovered, the simple perception of time can sometimes translate into serious problems. Yet, this seemingly simple disconnect can sometimes grow into a serious problem. Reverting back to Ben’s team, imagine a situation where one employee sets a meeting for 3:00 p.m. However, his international colleague comes from a polychronic culture and calls into the meeting a few minutes late. The person from the monochronic society who set the meeting is furious because, he allowed for exactly 30 minutes to discuss any issues before his next call began at 4:00 p.m. However, because the colleague called in late, the team has only 24 minutes to cover all the material. The organizer proceeds to berate the late caller in front of his peers and expresses his disdain for such lackadaisical and unprofessional work behaviors. On the other hand, the individual who called in late doesn’t really understand why his coworker is making such a big deal about it. In his experience, people sometimes call in to a meeting 10 to 15 minutes late and no one says anything. As far as he is concerned, he was right on time! As a result of this single situation, the relationship between the coworkers was tarnished and the resulting fallout could ultimately impact the team as a whole.

Aside from perceptions of time, other considerations of cultural diversity are identified in Geert Hofstede’s six dimensions of national culture. These include the Power Distance Index (PDI), individualism versus collectivism (IDV), masculinity versus femininity (MAS), the uncertainty avoidance index (UAI), long-term orientation versus short-term normative orientation (LTO), and indulgence versus restraint (IND) (Hofstede n.d.). For example, the PDI addresses how subordinate employees perceive power or hierarchy as it relates to their superiors. Ben comes from the United States, which is relatively low on the PDI scale. This means that Ben’s general perception of power is that it should be equally and justly distributed. However, Ramon, the sales manager whom he met with in Latin America, comes from a country with a fairly high power index. This means that his perception of power is more hierarchal in nature, and thus his perception of superior authority is likely greater than that of Ben’s (Clearly Cultural n.d.).

Similarly, the United States has a relatively high IDV as compared to most Latin American countries. This means that Ben’s societal perspective is likely more focused on individual needs and abilities. Ben, from the United States, is more likely to rely on his own abilities to get ahead and may therefore be less concerned with the advancement of other colleagues or members of his society. Ramon, on the other hand, would likely perceive the collective society as a more important factor than his own individual advancement. Therefore, as an example, he might be more apt to help a coworker or friend advance than would Ben, even if it came at his own expense. While Hofstede’s model is useful in gauging different country cultures, the question still remains: How can Ben and managers like him alleviate some of the difficulties that can come with cultural variance?

To begin with, one way a person can better understand different cultures is to reframe his or her mind. Our brain makes order out of confusion through framing, and thus creates bias based on our own cognitive perceptions. In essence, we judge individuals and situations through the goggles of our own “framed” experiences and that becomes our reality (Shpancer 2010). Recalling the case of the late meeting attendee, imagine the outcome if the meeting organizer were more understanding of the late attendee’s culture. Instead of reacting in an inflammatory way, he could have simply called the attendee at a later time and explained that tardiness is not an acceptable behavior in the current organization and to please make sure to be on time moving forward. Such a response would demonstrate empathy and potentially defuse what became a hostile situation.

Oftentimes, people are quick to judge others’ behaviors without considering the cultural context. This is a very real challenge in the virtual environment. On the other hand, the results can be tremendous when a team figures out how to effectively work through their cultural differences and engage in a productive relationship. Imagine the creative potential of a team where one person calls in from Kansas City, while others call in from Lima, Lagos, Rome, and Oslo! Each member of the team brings with them a wealth of unique experiences, not only culturally, but also potentially from different businesses and industries. Research supports the notion that global and cultural diversity, when aligned with team goals, can be a massive benefit for virtual teams. In a study that examined the possible benefits of diversity in short-term projects, the results showed that heterogeneous teams, or those without any type of language, cultural, geographical diversity, actually had more conflict in their teams and were less cohesive and satisfied with their group than were the culturally diverse group in the tasks they were given (Staples and Zhao 2006).

While culture is often thought of as being defined by the behaviors, values, and norms that people develop in society, other aspects of culture come to play in virtual teams (Groeschl and Doherty 2000). For example, each organization has a unique culture and even a manager can instill a distinct culture in his or her team. Even so, regional differences can have a powerful impact on overall team behavior (Kirkman, Gibson, and Shapiro 2001). Therefore, to facilitate active and progressive communication, a leader and his or her team should work hard to learn about and understand the differences between varying cultures represented on the team. This can help lessen the potential negative impact of working on a team where cultural diversity exists (Robey, Khoo, and Powers 1999).

When conflicts due to cultural differences do occur, it is important for a virtual leader to act in a controlled and collected manner. Having constant flare-ups between team members is not only unproductive, but could even derail the entire project. Virtual leaders must understand that while the communication process is a notable concern for them and their team, overlooking and ignoring the impact of cultural diversity will not likely contribute to successful outcomes. Instead, virtual managers should help their team understand each other’s differences and focus on a common and unified goal (Au and Marks 2012). For example, to tell employees from a monochronic society that they are simply “wrong” in their behavior leaves the possibility that they will feel insulted or offended. Rather, it would behoove the virtual leader to set boundaries initially and inform the team that timeliness is greatly valued and tardiness will not be tolerated. In this manner, the leader is not singling any individual employee, but rather he or she is simply setting the rules for the team.

Ben learned an important lesson while working with Ramon in Latin America. He realized that by framing his experience with his limited U.S. perspective, he may have sabotaged his own productivity in his planned research project. Furthermore, if their discussion had been a negotiation or sales call, he might not even have progressed beyond the first meeting. Ben decided that he would try to be more culturally sensitive moving forward. He even thought that this decision was somewhat in line with his commitment to be more empathetic and develop his skills in emotional intelligence. Ben rubbed his head and stared at the floor for a moment, as a startling fact hit him. He still had a heck of a lot to learn. Just then his phone vibrated, and he looked at the screen. The e-mail was from EMEA HR. It seems that another employee had complained about Thomas’s belligerent attitude and unwillingness to work with the Dutch team.

Ben had put this problem off for almost a year, and now it was clearly coming to a head. He called his administrative assistant and asked her to book a trip to Amsterdam. Ben felt like he was getting smacked in the face with one challenge after another. His corporate training programs were doing little to alleviate his problems. The lack of sleep from late night and early morning calls was taking their toll, and his wife wasn’t pleased about the fact that he often missed dinner to take calls from Asia. Now he had to miss his son’s big soccer game to travel to Amsterdam to read Thomas the riot act. The thought of firing him even crossed his mind, but he knew that it wasn’t an easy decision, especially in Europe, where it wasn’t so easy to let someone go. Ben was exhausted. Regardless, in a week he would be on the plane, and things were going to get a whole lot worse before they got better.