A
compass for navigating cultural diversity
“Germans
are punctual and organized. Italians are late. The
French are disorganized. The Portuguese are fun loving.
Americans are loud.” These are merely a few of the
generalizations or stereotypes that you have no doubt
heard about. They are a part of how we see the world.
They can pull the curtains down over our eyes or they
can open windows upon the world. It is up to us to what
we make of them.
Years
ago, I worked with a group of young professionals from
12 countries in an educational program. Many of these 50
people, including my friend Miguel from Portugal,
displayed the characteristics for which their homelands
were famous. He was relaxed, fun loving, disorganized,
late for meetings, and somewhat irresponsible.
I also
found that images and generalizations are not always
true. Over time, we learned about each other as
individuals. There was the Frenchman who worked with
Teutonic organization and punctuality. There was my
Portuguese friend Jorge who did not fit the image cast
of his countrymen. He would be on time for meetings. He
did his homework. His high level of organization allowed
him to contribute to meetings. Getting to know Jorge
added my view of Jorge, the individual, to my view of
Jorge, the Portuguese. It also meant that we learned not
just about our thoughts and behaviors but also about our
feelings and values. From then on, I learned to move
smoothly between my understanding of someone as part of
a group or culture and my understanding of him as an
individual.
We all
have ideas about other cultures’ personalities. Though
we typically learn them (from others) as we grow, they
stick with us well into adulthood. In homogeneous
societies, these ideas stick even stronger because fewer
people from the outside are encountered. These images
can become stereotypes - distortions, inaccuracies and
exaggerations, which can be used to reinforce a belief
system, especially one conferring a feeling of cultural
superiority.
They are rigid and the person believing them refuses to
change their views, even when confronted with evidence.
The
images we carry can also become generalizations that are
grounded in logic, experience and fact. Like
stereotypes, generalizations are useful for navigating
the extreme variety of every day life. However, unlike
stereotypes, people who hold generalizations are open to
adapting them when new data becomes available. They use
them as working categorizations while they search for
more data. They do not use them to reinforce a belief
system.
My
experience in the educational program gave me these
ideas on how to work with cultural differences in a
group:
1. Bring out the
generalizations in the group. We owned the beliefs
about the many cultures represented. You would hear
comments such as: “Oh, it’s Patrick being late again...
The French again,” in a lighthearted manner. We also
celebrated our differences, organizing parties to which
all contributed with food, drink, stories, and songs
from their home countries. These activities enabled us
to learn about each other.
2. Be aware that set
ideas about a group, country or culture are limiting.
Growing up in Europe we had all ‘learned’ these
generalization from others and from experience, but we
also had friends from other countries, so we understood
that deeper levels of understanding often negate these
generalizations.
3. Generalizations are a
starting point. Do not let them keep you from being
curious about others. Add experiences with
individuals to your views of foreign cultures as much as
possible. An interpersonal relationship will deepen your
understanding as you move from the level of thoughts
into feelings and values. The first few weeks when we
all got together, we primarily functioned on the limited
information of generalizations. Over time, we got to
know each other, got curious, asked a lot of questions,
shared experiences, and discovered the individuals. As
we became friends, our understanding deepened, as
feelings and values became part of our interpersonal
relationships.
4. Be able to move
between the different ‘dimensions’ of understanding.
Over time, we learned to view Patrick both as a
Frenchman and as a person. Jorge became the Portuguese
who is also a highly organized and responsible
individual.
Overall, experiences with other
cultures allow us to view diversity with both depth of
understanding and breadth of awareness, allowing us to
avoid stereotyping while recognizing the traits that
individuals carry for the groups to which they belong.
Note:
This article refers the example to a concept presented
by Dimensions of Diversity: A basic framework adapted
from Kate Kirkham, Institute for Women and Organizations
Conference, Long Beach, 1988