Social Engineering Blogs

An Aggregator for Blogs About Social Engineering and Related Fields

Cultural Adaptation & Global Dexterity

© Diane Cramer | Dreamstime Stock Photos

Cross-Cultural Adaptation has become a hot topic in this global business world.  From the Internet, Skype and overseas travel,  it is important to be able to adapt and communicate with a variety of varying cultures.

Andy Molinsky, who is an associate professor at Brandeis University’s International Business School and author, has broached the topic of global dexterity.

Forbes  comments on Molinsky’s topic and how important it is to not only be able to work in a global economy but be able to work well in a culturally infused workforce.

“People doing  work in today’s global economy must be capable of moving smoothly and seamlessly across cultures. That’s true for simple cases of etiquette, like learning how and when to bow or shake hands, but it’s especially critical when performing core professional tasks such as giving or receiving performance feedback, pitching an idea to your boss, getting heard at a meeting, networking, or motivating others. These are situations that make or break your ability to be an effective global manager and leader.”

So how does one try to adapt to a different culture?  The key is to Really learn the culture really well.  This means more than just reading a book or two on the people/country you are working with.

One of the most challenging aspects of varying cultures is the differences between that culture and your own. That is the behaviors you need to learn are different from what your used to and might even require that you act in a way that conflicts with your intuition.

An example, from the article:   A Korean employee in the US having to learn how to deliver constructive feedback to an American boss, when in Korea, you would never interact with a boss in that manner.

Molinsky points out that it’s not just knowledge that’s important its the ability to take what you know and put it into action.

Humintell has a Great Cultural Adaptation Tool that improves a person’s global skill set and teaches them how to interact more effectively with people from different cultures and achieve their goals !

Purchase IntelliCulture and interact more effectively with people from different cultures to achieve your goals

Emotions: Unspeakable Words

PopSci.com has an interesting article on emotions for which there are no English words.

The article delves into the insightful fact that certain languages do not attach words to some emotions. Therefore, emotions and language seem to be culturally entangled.

An example that the article provides is the lack of an English word for the emotional, painful, bittersweet, wistful feeling you get when your driving at night and hear a song from your past on the radio.  However, the Japanese language does have a word that is specific to that emotional state.

Therefore, it seems that for an emotion to receive a word specific to that feeling it must be culturally acknowledged and widely accepted to be worthy enough to put into language “words”.

View the Chart below to see some of the interesting findings:

Gestures, Emblems & Cultural Variances – New Research

In our global world, cross-cultural communication is extremely important in a variety of fields from the legal world, education, law enforcement, to the business world.  Being able to understand how an individual or collective group of individuals communicate is very beneficial.

Dr. Matsumoto,  Humintell’s director and lead researcher, along with fellow researcher and colleague Dr. Hyi Sung Hwang have conducted a one of a kind research project that catalogs and compares emblems across different cultural groups to a standard list of verbal messages.

The researchers produced a list of verbal messages to highlight emblematic differences across cultures.   Inspection of the different messages conveyed suggested that the culturally similar gestures included more basic or elemental messages than did the culturally variant ones.

The study entitled Cultural Similarities and Differences in Emblematic Gestures, which can be found in the Journal of  Nonverbal Behavior purports that gestures are as an integral part of verbal messages as words are.  They are categorized as two types, those co-occurring with speech (Speech Illustrators) and those independent of speech (Emblems).

Gestures/Emblems:

Gestures are an important part of nonverbal communication.  They illustrate speech, amplify meaning, and deliver verbal messages.  The capability to gesture co-evolved with adaptations in our physical anatomy and cognitive and language capabilities (Bouissac2006), allowing for more rapid and efficient communication systems.

Emblems deliver verbal messages without any verbal utterances (i.e. Peace sign for Peace). An emblem’s versatility, being able to occur with or without speech is why they are so useful; therefore, widely used in each culture.

However, it is important to note that emblems do not mean the same thing across cultures and misinterpreting an emblem’s meaning can lead to disastrous cultural encounters. The study notes that groups exist in different ecologies, which necessitate differences in the generated cultural solutions (Georgas et al.2004; van de Vliert 2009).

Thus, while communication is a universal human ability, the specific forms by which that communication occurs can be different, both verbally and non-verbally.

 Results:

The researchers observed three types of cultural differences in emblems.

1.  A difference in the form of an emblem across cultures in relation to the same verbal message.  Insults, for instance, occurred in all regions and likely serve the same function, conveying offensive or aggressive messages to another.

2.  A difference in meaning to the same forms. The ‘‘ring,’’ for instance, in which a circle is made with the thumb and index finger and the other three fingers are open, can mean ‘‘A-OK,’’ ‘‘money,’’ or a variety of other messages.

3.  Culturally unique emblems. The message for ‘‘apology,’’ for instance, occurred only in South Asia; the message for ‘‘hunger’’ occurred only in East Asia; and the message for ‘‘day after tomorrow’’ occurred only in the Middle East, despite the fact that these are clearly universal concerns.

 To view a chart of various verbal messages and their gestures along with their meaning, and region of origin as well as view any information on the limitations of the study,  please read the entire paper.