The Fabulously Multi-Multi-Cultural World We Live and Work in
February 1, 2024 – In case you were wondering, “multi-multi-cultural” is not a typo. It’s how I love to describe the world we live and work in.
It also makes people – like you, smile – stop and think: “wait, what?”
We hear and read so much about cross-cultural, inter-cultural, intra-cultural, and multi-cultural that we no longer stop to reflect on what culture is and what these words even mean.
Many of us work for global companies. Headquarters may be in the Netherlands, but you work in their Singapore office where the CEO could be a Frenchman. Which culture prevails?
Culture influences so many aspects of how we work:
For an American, 3 years can be seen as a long time for a company to be in business, but for the Japanese a company is barely considered old at 30 years.
Germans love a checklist when working – but nothing irritates the French more.
It also influences how we see leadership and want to be managed:
In France decisions are made from the top down. In the Netherlands companies are more focused on getting everyone’s insight and opinion.
Mexicans and Malaysians wait for directions from their Manager before doing anything. However, the Swiss and Norwegians prefer to be left on their own to perform their work.
Culture dictates how information is sourced and decisions are made:
The French and Germans look to documents and details for information in their decision making and don’t need much – if any – direction from their Managers.
Americans and Danes on the other hand prefer to source their information by asking lots of questions from anyone they see as having answers.
When it comes to legal contracts, Americans leave the details to their lawyers. But the Swedes will discuss and agree to every detail themselves.
And what we talk about around the water cooler or what time we have a business dinner:
A business dinner at 9pm is early for the Italians but much too late for a Belgian.
Germans and Belgians don’t like speaking about finances, however Scandinavians talk about money all the time.
Culture’s Influence
And culture doesn’t stop with employees.
There’s also the customers’ culture to take into account.
Wal-Mart’s culture is having people at the front door of all their stores greeting customers as they enter. They found out the hard way that the greeters irritated their German customers.
Starbucks didn’t live up to its expectations when expanding into Australia because they failed to take the time to really understand Australian coffee culture. As a result, their menu didn’t appeal to Australian customers.
Some companies do understand the importance of customers. When Nestle, for example, was considering expanding into Japan, they were excited that potential customers loved the tastes and flavors of their ice creams. However, they also learned that the customers would not buy the ice cream because the packaging was too big for Japanese freezers. A quick resizing took care of that issue and today Nestle successfully sells multiple ice cream brands across Japan.
So, when you are next in your office or sitting on a train or in a café, take a look around. How many cultures can you count?!
If you’d like some help with counting cultures reach out via drdeannedevries@icloud.com and we’ll discuss over some virtual coffee how multi-multi-culturalism can have a positive impact on your business.
Photo source: https://www.translatehive.com/how-to-say-hello-in-different-languages/