CULTURE RANKS WHAT IS IMPORTANT

 

What is of paramount importance to one group may be virtually meaningless to another. For instance, consider the amassing of wealth. In one Pacific Island culture, the Gururumba of New Guinea, a rich man is required to expend all his carefully amassed for­tune—in this case, pigs—in the lavish entertainment of the members of his society. To be able to entertain this way is the real meaning of wealth because it means the giver is owed and therefore has great prestige. But explain that to a businessperson in the United States or Hong Kong or Italy who has spent his or her life amassing wealth! Usually in these cul­tures resources are to be husbanded and increased, not depleted in one big blow-out. To be sure, businesspeople in these cultures often make generous charitable and philanthropic donations, but their cultures teach them to treat wealth with care and make it grow. Cultures rank what is important. In other words, cultures teach values or priorities.

The term values crops up frequently in books about intercultural business. So does the term attitude. What is the difference? In distinguishing between attitudes and values, one writer explains that values provide us with standards of competence and of morality, guiding or determining attitudes, behav­ior, judgments, comparisons of self and others, rationalizations and justifications, exhortative attempts to influence others, impression management and self-presentations. Thus defined, values are moreover fewer in number than attitudes, are conceptions that transcend specific attitude objects and situations, are determinants of attitudes as well as behavior, are dynamically closer to needs, and are more central to that core of the person that we identify as the self.

 

Values underlie attitudes. They also shape beliefs. They enable us to evaluate what mat­ters to us or to apply standards to our attitudes and beliefs. Values are what people go to war over or conduct business by. In order to communicate about business in another cul­ture, it is necessary to understand the values that operate in that business culture.

Because values tell us how to weigh the worth of something, they indicate a relative hierarchy. We can talk about values as cultural priorities. Within a culture, values may be of greater or lesser importance. For example, a culture may put a high priority on honesty and a low priority on making a minimal effort. Priorities vary from culture to culture: Progress reports about the delivery of a component from a joint-venture may be of great value to a Dutch firm doing business with Japan, but may be of little value to a Japanese firm awaiting delivery of a component from Holland.

Cultures enable people to find answers to their recurring questions:

- Who are we?

- Where did we come from?

- What is the meaning of our being here, on this particular whirling planet, at this time, within this ecosystem?

- How does the meaning of life reveal itself?

- How should we organize so we can get along?

- How can we know our spiritual dimension?

- What does the best life include?

The variety of responses to these questions can astonish and enrich us all. We all can rec­ognize and make a claim to some elements of all cultures because we understand the fun­damental need that is behind them.

In business contexts, the motivations of employees, partners, superiors, contractees, social associates, and members-at-large of a society spring from cultural values, or in other words, what people think is important. In order to understand how to do business with members of another culture, it is necessary to understand what motivates them. No list of do's and taboos tells you that. But where to begin? What do you need to know to cover all necessary bases in order to do business?

The strategy for learning about another culture can be applied to any culture. It involves asking certain questions about a culture—and con­tinuing to ask them without being content that the whole answer has ever been received. You will constantly be building your knowledge structures about cultures. The questions are in five general areas:

1. How do people in this culture think and know?

2. What do they consider achievement?

3. What is the relation of members of this culture to time and spiritual issues?

4. How do they see the individual self in relation to the rest of the culture?

5. How is their society organized?

These categories and subquestions within them can give enough information for a learner of the culture to become fluent in that culture. When you understand the priorities people have, you can predict with some confidence how they probably will respond to a specific situation.