Achievement vs. ascription (how status is accorded, that is, your own record vs. your credentials, connections, etc.)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\nHe also identifies additional cultural differences in how we view time \u2014 not just the bit about some cultures being \u201cchronically late\u201d but whether one thinks primarily in terms of everything going in its order vs. thinking in a \u201cpolychronic\u201d way: \u00a0\u201cthere is a final, established goal but numerous and possibly interchangeable stepping stones to reach it\u201d. \u00a0In addition, cultures differ in how they think of the past, and the short vs. long-term future.<\/p>\n
And cultures also very in terms of how we relate to nature\/the natural world and how we perceive our ability to control the world around us, vs. fate controlling us.<\/p>\n
This is probably not something unique to Trompenaars; it\u2019s a book I have on my bookshelf but I presume there are others like it. \u00a0I find it fascinating, though, that things that we, as Americans, think of as \u201cperfectly normal\u201d simply operate quite differently in other cultures. \u00a0For instance, he describes different cultural norms with respect to contracts: \u00a0Americans want to develop extensive lawyer-approved contracts that specify every contingency, and expect that, having done so, the contract will be abided by in all circumstances; a country such as Japan will expect that one builds up a personal relationship with one\u2019s business partners, and then, having established trust, the particulars of the contract are less important because one assumes that one\u2019s partner will do the \u201cright thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now perhaps you\u2019ll say: \u00a0\u201cstop right there. \u00a0\u2018Multiculturalism\u2019 means exactly accepting that we do not all share\u00a0the same culture, even in this deeper sense.\u201d<\/p>\n
But if that\u2019s the case, we\u2019re in serious trouble.<\/p>\n
The well-being of our society depends on our ability to integrate newcomers into our culture, in this deeper sense, even if superficial things like community celebrations differ. \u00a0The well-being of any society depends on this ability to function with the same set of common expectations about the way we relate to each other. \u00a0To take some superficial examples: \u00a0imagine a deli counter in which half the people dutifully take their numbers and wait their turn, and the other half barge up and expect that the loudest get served first. \u00a0(Side comment: as much as Germans are known for orderliness, I tried to avoid the deli counter if at all possible, going to stores that had packaged lunchmeat instead, because they did not have a take-a-number system and it seemed that it was always the turn of whoever made themselves heard.) \u00a0Imagine a meeting where half the people show up on time, the other half an hour late. \u00a0Imagine a corporate culture in which half the people expect that it\u2019s perfectly normal to hire and promote based on nepotism and cronyism and the other half expect to get hired and promoted based on achievement (yes, there are instances of nepotism\/cronyism but that\u2019s considered objectionable, not \u201cbusiness as usual,\u201d by the large majority).<\/p>\n
Consider the protests that flare up periodically at universities \u2014 where it seems to me that what\u2019s going on is a clash of cultures at a much deeper level, in which universities have evolved into a subculture (perhaps influenced by non-American cultures?) which is at odds with mainstream American culture. \u00a0If you look at Trompenaars\u2019 list above, you can identify a clash in many of these aspects of culture: \u00a0protesters reject the idea that individual achievement matters vs. perceiving the world as having been giving advantage to white men and jostling to take that advantage for themselves; they see things with a lens of group identity vs. individualism; they \u201ctake everything personally\u201d; they reject the notion that the system operates on notions of \u201cfair play\u201d and \u201cthe rules are the same for everyone\u201d; and they look backwards, to an unjust past, rather than being generally forward-looking.<\/p>\n
Now,\u00a0in most of these contrasts, my instinctive reaction is \u201cof course, the American way is the best.\u201d \u00a0Your own personal ability should matter more than who your father was or what school you attended, for instance \u2014 though I can also see that the American tendency to want everything in black-and-white and spelled out in The Rules has its own problems. \u00a0And I presume that, were I Japanese, or Korean, or whatever, my perception would be quite different.<\/p>\n
But my point is that, if we disrupt our culture in this deeper sense, if we perpetually have to manage these sorts of conflicts, that aren\u2019t really manageable<\/em> within a culture, then we\u2019re in a covfefe-load of trouble.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Photo: \u00a0own image.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
What follows is, ahem, a load of covfefe, but it\u2019s something I was thinking about subsequent to my post yesterday about American culture and international agreements. If you think about \u201cdiversity\u201d and \u201cmulticulturalism\u201d and reports of the same at schools and universities, you probably land on things such as: Celebrations of the traditional music, dance, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":2325,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[497],"class_list":["post-6620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-multiculturalism"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/p>\n