The Culture Gap.docx

1、The Culture GapThe Culture GapThe Challenge of Intercultural EffectivenessShipping has always been an international branch of trade and industry. At the real challenge of working effectively in an intercultural session, it is a very new development. Technological improvements have led to decreasing

2、numbers of crews on board but its extremely high demands on those on detail. At the same time, more and more shipping companies turn to employing multicultural workforce. These changes challenge the effectiveness and productivity of those from different cultures working together. Some maintain that

3、culture is not an issue. There are both good and bad workforces and it makes no difference where they come from. There is much truth to it. But the experiences of the past couple of decades show that working together across cultures is more complex. What works perfectly well in Japan among Japanese

4、or in Norway among Norwegians may not work when interacting with Americans, Spaniards, Chinese or Philippinos for that matter. It is little to do with good or bad seamanship but its a lot to do with cultural differences. A few multicultural crews work extremely well together, but in most cases the o

5、utcome is far below average and sometimes it is close to a disaster. Those who succeed seem to possess so-called culture management skills. This video will identify a few of these cultural management skills and will even suggest how you can learn to make use of them.Doctor Anders Hovemyr is an inter

6、cultural expert in the shipping industry, helping sea fellows in the multicultural environment to work more effectively and productively. Working as a consultant to shipping companies, he conducts seminars and workshops among the world focusing on these questions. We join him now at one of his semin

7、ars with an international audience and a question has just been asked whether any one has visited Japan.Those who have been to Japan, Im sure you recall that Nashita s a very nice modern airport but its very far from downtown Tokyo. It takes you maybe two hours to get there. And then you have to be

8、there at least two hours before departure to all the security considerations. Not just that, but when you get there, they are so extremely efficient that they check you in two minutes and then you are, boarding card on hand, two hours to wait, and nothing to do. So what most westerners to do, they d

9、ig deep in their pocket and they get their last few yen and go over to the bar and get a cup of coffee or Coca cola. So you do the same thing. You go over to the bar, get your Coca cola, sit down and then you discover that right next to you sits a very different sort of Japanese, a very nice Japanes

10、e. But he is a very talkative guy, you know. You have hardly time to sit down before the Japanese turns to you and says, you are in Japan many day? You like Japan? What do you think of Japan? Then conversation is already going. And then as a genuine kind of Japanese, he bring forward pictures of his

11、 grandparents, grandmother and grandfather both on the mothers and fathers sides, and also the Buddhist temple he used to visit on the occasion of major Buddhist holidays and so on, which is a little embarrassing because you havent got any pictures of your uncles or aunties with you. Nor do you have

12、 any pictures of cats or really, whatever, you know. Never mind. Instead, you bring forward your wallet. You show him pictures of your home, of the car at home and the dog you have just got last year. So its a very nice conversation, you see. Just the second you find yourself in a very nice conversa

13、tion, you hear the loudspeakers. It is the final call for SK982 bound for Copenhagen. All on board please. So you very quickly say goodbye to your 见本Mimoto-san, all the way to the gate, and get your belongings. By the time you get to the gate, most of the people have actually got on board. So its no

14、w your time to board. And you just, Jeez, my boarding card. You see, the boarding card and your wallet is no longer where it should be. Your credit card and your cash is still in your pocket. Its there. But you cant find the boarding card. Then it strikes you that just perhaps, you left it at the ba

15、r when you had such a good time with Mimoto-san. So in all haste, you go back to the bar and think of your Mimoto-san is still there. So you rush up to him and you say, Mimoto-san, you know, wallet, boarding card? You see it? Then upon Mimito-san response, I will replay this response. It is somethin

16、g like this. Sorry, sorry, no see, no wallet.Something like that. Now lets stop there for a moment. My question is, what is your first feeling, your first thought when Mimoto displayed all that he hadnt seen your wallet?-It seems something fishy. He is trying to hide something. He is not being hones

17、t about it. -OK, how about you, madam? -Very similar. I thought he would be guilty as well. Wasnt being direct about it. -OK, someone else? How about you sir? Captain Semiyana. -He is lying. He is lying, ya. You know, of course, its not that we suspect that, yes. Totally. You know that Japanese are

18、extremely, we understand, honorable people. But just something innerlies that Japanese behavior tells us that its not OK. Maybe if you secures, maybe it looks to you like something is fishy. Yes, that was an advisable definition. What did I do that give you that impression? I look down. Yes, lack of

19、 eye contact. You see, this thing about lack of eye contact is very interesting in many of our cultures because I grew up in defining that eye contact means honesty, openness, integrity, not being disguising. Indeed, we tend to pass it on to all our children. The fantastic thing is that we make this

20、 assumption. All of us, or most of us sitting here abide this automatically. However, Mimoto-san grew up in another culture and he learn from all his childhood that only a disrespectful or bad-mannered person would, in this type of situation, please note, in this situation, like this, stare straight

21、 into the face, straight into the eye of another person who is in distress or in trouble. So what he does when he sees you come in, you know you are very worried in face, very distressed, what he does is that he brings forward the best of Japanese behavior. And with a lot of empathy, with a lot of w

22、illingness to put things up in your situation. And with a lot of kindness and politeness and consideration, he tells you: Sorry I didnt see your boarding card. And of course he doesnt dream of looking or staring at face. On the contrary with all his body language to tell you how sorry he was. Mimoto

23、-san, in this manner, was putting forward the best of his behavior, also his most natural reaction. Oh you know the Japanese is something efficiy that.Can you see, the best of his intentions interpreted by us as something less than honorable intentions and actions. Whats behind it is, of course, not

24、hing that has got to do with intelligence or experience. It has got to do with culture management skills. Because you see every time people meet, whats happening is, this communication process takes place where you have got sender or receiver. Of course the sender sends the message to the receiver b

25、y means of medium or different media, and at the same time, looks forward to getting some feedback. However, if you put together people across cultures, a Swede and a Japanese, an Englishman and Norwegian, a German and a Chinese, or whatever other constellations, what really happens is that both the

26、 sender and the receiver will make use of the so-called culture filters. That is, as we talk, as we communicate, I will make use of kind of cultural glasses. Are we looking at you, are we perceiving what you do, what you say by means of these culture filters. And these culture filters are different

27、between cultures because they simply represent our assumptions about other peoples behavior. Lets illustrate. Culture filter Sweden, eye contact means honesty, openness and integrity. As we have seen, culture filter Japan, eye contact means, in this situation, being disrespectful, being bad-mannered

28、. Lets take another illustration. Culture filter Sweden, a lady has two identical rings on her finger and then, she is? Of course those of you who are familiar with Swedish culture will recognize that she is -married? She is married, of course. Another round of engagement or another marriage. Howeve

29、r, culture filter Spain or Portugal or some other European countries, when you see a lady with two identical rings on her finger, you would not, for sure, that she is, any guess? A waiter? Yes, thats great. This could, of course, give rise to some fine interesting misunderstandings. Married or a wai

30、ter. However, if culture filters would have been only about eye contact or number of rings on the finger, I wouldnt have spent five seconds. But you see the culture filter affect also everyday interaction when we work together in the company, when we work on board of ship, in the multicultural workf

31、orce. And I would give all of you who sit here, and also you who watch this video a chance to test yourself and see whether you also make use of culture filters and if so, to stop it, you must imagine that the situation that Im going to tell to you, takes place in your country and in your culture. S

32、o now, our company has been planning to buy a subsidiary in Nebanance for quite some time, but for a variety of reasons, we havent yet succeed. Lot of factors. However this morning, as I got into office, all these teller faxes are on my desk, coming from our Dutch office, from Hanfun Shilder. It say

33、s that company outside on the Fokadon is now for sale, and we can get it if we want, but we have to act very fast on this. And while I am just thinking whom I should give this assignment to, I recalled that maybe just a few weeks ago, at a management meeting, I was told that we have just hired a young man who is an expert at cash flo