I was invited to give a 15 minute presentation to the first annual Cross Cultural Event Day, hosted by Aarhus School of Business (ASB) on the 31 March 2011. The objective of my presentation was to share my professional experiences working abroad. As simple as it was, I found it quite difficult to put my various thoughts on paper in a way that would communicate my Cross Cultural Professional experience in an insightful and enriching way. Why was this important? The audience I was presenting to was a mixture of Danish professionals, PhD academics, Researchers, Students (local and international) and ASB Alumni members. Therefore, I had to ensure that my message had to be communicated using some of the European theoretical frameworks, (Hofstede, 2001) and incorporating some aspects of it in a way that incorporates the practical lessons that I have experienced in the university of life!
It is also important to note that the ratio of Danes to International peers was visually-low. So, the question is who really is/was our target audience or the interested customer for this special event? I will leave that question to the market research experts to investigate this visual disparity.
So what was my talk about? The theme of my topic addressed the Cross Cultural Intercessions in South Africa as a young budding Entrepeneur. I focused on two major points:
1) National culture vs Individual Culture
2) Power-Distance culture
The main discussion points of my talk challenged the theoretical notion of 'national culture' as the pre-assessment to understand the culture of another in a professional setting. For example, it is so easy for foreign investors seeking to do business in South Africa or Southern Africa to ask questions like: "What are the right communications/negotiating tools in business to use when talking to a South African?" Well, my response was well, which South Africans do you want to talk to, (inspired by Professor Horacio Falcao, INSEAD - Negotations from Cultural Factors, 2008)? Using the same cultural framework presented by Professor Horacio Falcao interview on the topic in 2008, I stated in a nutshell that South Africans have different cultures beyond just being South Africans (Educational Culture, Religious Culture, Gender Culture, Race Culture) therefore, the answer-question is do you want to speak to a South African from Johannesburg or from Cape Town, etc...; do you want to speak to a South African who has studied abroad and returned home or do you want to speak to a South African who never left their home town, let alone the country? Get the idea? The point is professionals make the mistake at using the 'national culture' notion to go into international negotiations and therefore, are either negatively or positively surprised by the direction these negotiations end up taking! So, what do we do? Well, one of them is to open your mind in understanding that there are other types of cultures as indicated above. For example, let's look at Educational Culture. What does that mean in the South African/Southern African context? Well, for one it means that education is privilege and not a human right. In comparing the South African government to the Danish Government we do little in offering FREE education from Creche/Kindergarten right up to Phd Tertiary Level. Therefore, the rightfully-educated South African that a foreign-national will be exposed to, is someone who usually comes from a 'privileged' background. Keeping in mind that the context of 'privilege' I refer to is relative and can encompass many variables that can be discussed under a separate topic. Now where does 'attaching-a-national-flag' to this individual represent the status-quo of ALL professional South Africans from an international intercessions point of view? Perhaps we need to consider that every interaction/intercession you have as a professional working abroad IS cross-cultural exercise. Why? Whenever, we disagree with a point of view from someone who is from a different country in a professional setting it is so easy to blame everything on the 'national culture'; it's so easy to attach their way of thinking to the 'national flag'!
The second main discussion point looked at the power-distance culture that exists in South Africa and provided my professional experiences in addressing the high power-distance culture that at most times impedes or acts as a barrier-to-entry on the entrepreneur's ability to generate revenue. As a result, affecting the entrepreneurs ability to be a functional and positive contributor to South Africa's socio-economic developments, for example creating employment for skilled and unskilled labour workforce in their business'.
So, in conclusion Cross Cultural Intercessions Internationally particularly in South Africa are much more complicated and can not prescribe all of Hosfedes theoretical framework especially in this increasingly globalized network we are finding ourselves in! Therefore, unless you personally or professionally experience cross cultural intercessions in your lifetime, accepting the theoretical notions without the practical applicability in testing these theories is like committing professional suicide!
Visit: http://expatindenmark.com/Documents/Invite_Cross%20Cultural%20Day.pdf
Copyright @ Friday April 1, 2011 on FB, (Reposted on BlogSpot Friday April 1, 2011) by Tambudzai Ndoro– Non-Executive Director of Global Business Assignments Inc,
