Guiding principles

Anthropology and other disciplines can certainly aid our understanding of business behaviour worldwide. And while all national cultures inevitably contain a range of attitudes, some key guiding principles do provide valuable indicators as to likely behaviour or expectations in a business setting. In a 1973 study of IBM employees in more than 70 countries, Dutch organisational psychologist Geert Hofstede identified several key sources of cultural difference. One of the most important was " power distance", or “the extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organisations within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally”.

One possible, extreme example of the " power distance" phenomena is illustrated in Norman Dixon's study On the psychology of military incompetence (a fascinating insight into poor management). He cites the case a century ago of Britain's navy in which no crew member dared question, let alone correct, the course set by the ship's captain, even though it was about to collide with another ship in the fleet, with the predictable result that both vessels sunk and the crews drowned. But " power distance" can shorten: Malcolm Gladwell noted in his book Outliers how Korean Air's high accident rates in the late 1990's were overcome after staff were encouraged to question their pilot's commands.

Hofstede identifies other vital factors that help us analyse cultural-based behaviour, such as whether a society is generally more comfortable with uncertainty, ambiguity and nuance; or if a society stresses group harmony and " saving face". Cultural anthropologist, Edward T Hall, includes the degree to which cultures rely on gestures, tones and context in their communication. And management researcher Fons Trompenaars adds into the mix the extent to which cultures separate business and private lives; or express emotions in public.

The lesson here seems to be that sweeping judgments about the right way to conduct business in unfamiliar cultures, apart from the risk of giving offense, is also likely to be incorrect. A 2004 study, Global Leadership and Organisational Behaviour Effectiveness, from Wharton Business School, found that most of the 65 desirable leadership traits mentioned around the world were “culturally contingent”, in other words, not universally shared or admired. These included such attributes as “ambition”, “enthusiasm”, “compassion” and “logic”. Moreover, some attributes triggered quite opposite responses, with " risk taking" for example, scoring top in some countries and near the bottom in others. Executives should at least be aware of the extent to which their management style is likely to cause friction in different locations.

On the other hand, while familiarity with the cultural kaleidoscope may be important, accommodating those differences has its limits. Beyond a certain point, the risk is that cultural over-sensitivity can paralyze a manager, and serve only to embed differences ever more deeply. While managers may, for example, see no reason to stay late at work, they shouldn't forget that the boss is still the boss, no matter what his nationality.