Power of Recognising ;Culture and the Effect on Managers' behavior

“Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do [it].” Bible.

The basic rule of effective people management in organizations is a deep understanding of the work ethics in different cultures. In the culture of collectivism, the value of people and social acceptance are high compared to culture of individualism where importance is on individual excellence. The collectivist culture, values the group needs of cohesion and working as one team.This is the culture in most African nations. Collectivism places higher importance on collaborative task execution and focuses on what the group has in common. It will be futile to design rewards for individual excellence in those cultures.

Individualism  focuses on engaging in competitive tasks and the emphasis is on making the individual noticeable.

In a culture that  puts importance on agreeing on social norms and treat jobs as interdependent, collectivism is more powerful, whereas  in stratified cultures in which affluence, independence, and differences are emphasized, individualism is significant.

The culture of the affluent societies, like the American culture, eulogizes individualism, always forcing the members of the community to chase the “American dream”.

Every new generation of Americans is conditioned to learn surviving individually for a better quality of life and aspire to have a higher standard of living than the previous generations. Similarly, Britain, Australia and the  Netherlands also reflect a culture of individualism.

The Japanese management style is based around the principle of group harmony (wa). Japanese managers focus on enabling and helping employees, unlike American counterparts. They place less emphasis on compliance and focus on providing group harmony.

As a team, managers rely more on consensus building (nemawashi), and even workers seek group approval for ideas before presenting them to seniors.

Group approval system restricts any individual not to be rebuked  for mistakes. Reprimanding in front of others is considered as shaming and is very disastrous for any worker in life.

Chinese work culture centers on collectivism. In that  culture, respect for seniors and bosses, as a social obligation, is very important. The collectivist cultural influences the management style in China.

The Middle East even though has been exposed to western culture has not changed its fundamental style. Instead, there is increased influence of religion these days.

 The Indian society is divided as forty-eight percent of the population is individualistic while fifty-two percent is collectivist.

Perhaps for the majority, the influence and the driver are the Hindu philosophy which is similar to the African philosophy of - Ubuntu- (driving mutual respect and tolerance.)

It is worth emulating the learning methods from some of the African cultures, where they teach children the concept of respect for others and collectivism from early stages. There are no parental conditioning and lollypop culture.

An anthropologist narrated an exciting experience that he had during his stay in   the Ubuntu community. He proposed a game to a group of children .He then placed a basket of chocolates under a tree about 100 meters away and told the children that they had to run and the winner would get all. Quite surprisingly the children did not run and compete with one another. They all joined their hands and ran together and got the sweets only to share and enjoy. When asked for the reason for their behavior, they responded by saying Ubuntu (humanness). The value system taught to them is not to be seeking happiness at someone else’s cost.

The word, “Ubuntu” originates from one of the Bantu dialects of Africa. Ubuntu teaching is about striving to help people with the spirit of service and to show respect to others and be honest and trustworthy.

In both the Shona and Zulu language spoken by majority in Zimbabwe   the common teaching is a collective living “munhu munhu nekuda kwevanhu”.

Ubuntu is an African universal human brotherhood concept. Ubuntu is the potential for being human, to value the good of the others above self.

In one play school in the northwestern region of India, closer to the border of Pakistan, I had seen a dedicated teacher adopting a unique method to train young children to help each other.

In the play school, the teacher had placed few colorful balls that varied in size from smaller and lighter to bigger and heavier. She made the children stand in line and asked them to lift the ball one after another, starting with the lightest ball. The children experienced initial success with the lighter  balls, but faced difficulty as they moved on to the heavier balls until they were unable to lift the heaviest ball by themselves.

That is when all other children were encouraged to join and lift together the heaviest ball. The group effort gives them experiential learning of the philosophy to live the life with the philosophy of “united we stand”. This learning is something vital in shaping this collectivist attitude necessary for survival in a war zone.

Today’s workplace is much complex and different due to widespread use of technology and the diversity of culture. Therefore the traditional, proven reward programs are not relevant to produce the enthusiasm and motivation.

 In one experiment when people were offered enough money to live comfortably for their entire life, seventy percent of those who had jobs showed preference to working than fade away. On the other hand, there were people for whom work was important, but would always look for up the ladder. The million dollar question is what then is a good work or great workplace and how to create it?

Details in e book Amazon kindle version-"The Invisible Hand-How to reward employees without killing the motivation of others"