Sephora a big chain of cosmetic stores that opened cosmetic stores in Japan. The only problem was
that they missed the point that we in Europe have our perfumes in front of the store but the
Japanese want more cosmetic product such as skin and hair care. So the lay out of the stores in Japan
didn’t get the attention of the Japanese woman. Japanese woman do not use perfumes so they had
an error in the research of culture. The reasons:
- Cleanliness and naturalness: if you take a shower every day, why do you need perfume?
- Modesty: enhance your attractiveness is against the norm.
- Individualism: it’s very low. So don’t express yourself.
- Social class: perfume is low class.
The list of situations where intercultural skills are needed involves almost everyone nowadays.
Simply exposing people to different cultures does not automatically lead to mutual sympathy and
improved understanding.
Some arguments plead in favor of using country membership as a primary cultural group:
- A convenient number: about 200 countries.
- Clear membership: clearly defined borders.
- A clearly defined societal framework: own legal and political framework, educational system,
economic weaknesses and strengths etc.
- Empirical evidence.
Ecological fallacy: ascribing characteristics of groups to all individuals belonging to that group.
The Dutch and the Flemish (Belgium) share their ‘high culture’ (art, literature, historical heritage)
Hofstede’s data shows that they differ in cultural dimensions such as uncertainty avoidance and
masculinity. They are more “French” then “Dutch.
The reason for many differences in values and practices can easily be traced back to the cultural
characteristics of the countries and societies involved. But it would be naïve to interpret a human
behavior in terms of cultural origin only. If I learn that a Japanese woman tend to be shy and keep
their eyes down, then it is possible that you meet a Japanese woman that is loud and outspoken.
Many dimensions other than their cultural background intervene in defining the unique human being
we are communicating with. Some of them: gender, social class, individual, corporate culture,
situation, age.
In this book ‘high culture’ means the literature, music, paintings, thinking, talking, acting, etc.
Culture: a key attribute of culture is that it is by definition something shared with other members in
the group, it cannot be property of an individual in the group.
The onion model of Hofstede: Symbols, heroes, rituals, values and practices. Values express
themselves in practices, in behavior. But in reality a large number of practices cannot be traced back
to underlying values. There is maybe an underlying value at the outset, but it is lost in history.
1
, Chapter 2
Which course of action is appropriate in a given situation? You rely on the norms that are framed in
your mind, your frame of references. The SRC: Self Reference Criterion.
If you only look at your own SRC and not considerate that other people may have different norms,
values and habits may lead to political, business decisions that are extremely costly. Most of time the
SRC is so strong that it makes the participants blind.
Attribution: attributing a meaning, ascribing an interpretation to what people around you say and do.
Attribution mistakes: we ascribe to the other person’s words or deeds a meaning which does not
correspond to the intended meaning. If you make a mistake you have a attribution error.
In order to lower the attribution errors we need to know and understand how the interpretative
frameworks in other cultures differ from our own, and become aware of what is considered normal,
unmarked behavior in other countries.
Every attribution error in an encounter is reversible: person A may get a mistaken impression of B,
while B may get the reverse mistaken impression of A.
The errors are also transitive: which impression will the Westerner get from the Japanese, the same
for the impression of the Arab to the Westerner.
Chapter 3
Backchannelling: the feedback signals the listener provides to the speaker in a conversation and
basically understands what the speaker is saying. For example saying ‘yes’ ‘mm’ or nodding your
head. Backchannelling frequencies are in every culture different.
Turn taking in conversations is very usual only person A finds it inappropriate when B starts talking
and person B thinks this was the time he can talk so he takes the turn of speaking. There are 2 basic
options B has for taking turns:
- B may wait for a moment of silence in A’s to take turns;
- B may interrupt A in the middle of a word or sentence.
The acceptability of the two differs per culture.
The tolerance of silence during a conversation is in the western European countries not high. Like 2-3
seconds. So tolerance of silence in Europe is low. Silence in conversations makes people
uncomfortable. But in Asian countries or Native American cultures it is common that a person will
take a moment of silence as long as he/she wants to, to make a good decision.
The degree of punctuality will not be identical in different cultures. Not only is the time lag between
the stated time and the real starting time of the event different depending on the culture, the way in
which a complex event is structured also differs. So a dinner party in India and France is very
different in duration of the different part of a dinner party (pre-dinner/talks, the dinner itself, after
dinner conversations and drinks). See figure 12 page 45.
2
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