Conference 2011 IMQ

Intercultural Management Quarterly Integrating Culture and Management in Global Organizations

In This Issue...

Journey into America: The Challenge of Islam.............3

by Akbar Ahmed A War That Can’t Be Forgotten ............................................8

by Lara Logan The University Years: I Am Such an Individual, We Are Such a Nation.......................................................................11

by Alexandra Parrs Action Learning in Multicultural Contexts....................14

by Arthur Freedman Intercultural Knowledge Management in Global Organizations .............................................................................18

by Neal Goodman Misreading the Afghan Cultural Code............................22

by Faizullah Jan A Changing Landscape: Cell Phone Apps as CrossCultural Trainers?.......................................................................25

by Zoe Stathopoulos Cross-Cultural Conflict Experienced by English Teachers in Korea.......................................................................29

by Ben Sommers

Spring 2011 Vol. 12, No. 01

From the Editor Dear Readers, Welcome to the 12th Annual Conference on Intercultural Relations edition of IMQ! This is also a special extended edition, featuring pieces not only by our esteemed presenters, but by some of American University’s talented graduate students as well.

We start off with articles from our distinguished keynote speakers. First Ambassador Akbar Ahmed shares some of his observations on Muslims’ place in American society in an excerpt from his latest book Journey into America: The Challenge of Islam. Next journalist Lara Logan reflects on her experiences reporting on the war in Iraq for CBS News.

In our first presenter’s article, Alexandra Parrs describes the differences in beliefs and behaviors she perceived between American and Omani college students while teaching in Muscat, Oman. Then Arthur Freedman presents the ways action learning can help us benefit from our mistakes and better understand multicultural situations. Next Neal Goodman explains the importance of knowledge management to retain skills and prevent redundancy in international organizations. These pieces represent just a few of the many fascinating topics our presenters will discuss.

We finally have three articles from graduate students in the School of International Service at American University. First Faizullah Jan explains how the United States’ failure to understand Afghan culture has contributed the continuing difficulties of the war there. Next Zoe Stathopoulos reviews cell phone apps as potential tools for cross-cultural training. We finish with a piece by Ben Sommers discussing the cross-cultural challenges faced by the many Americans who teach English in South Korea.

IMQ STAFF

Publisher: Dr. Gary R. Weaver Managing Editor: Kathryn Schoenberger

Editorial Review Board

David Bachner, Dan Deming, Annmarie McGillicuddy, Adam Mendelson, Darrel Onizuka, Chris Saenger, Karen Santiago, Gary Weaver, Sherry Zarabi The Intercultural Management Quarterly (IMQ) is published by the Intercultural Management Institute at American University. IMQ combines original research conducted in the field of interculutral management with the applied perspectives of industry experts, professors and students.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Professionals, scholars, and students are invited to submit articles of 1,000-2,000 words on issues related to the study and practice of intercultural management. Articles must be innovative and contribute to the knowledge in the field but should avoid overly academic jargon. Footnotes or endnotes are discouraged except for direct quotes or citations.

Each submission is refereed by the members of the IMQ editorial review board. Accepted pieces are subject to editing.

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I would like to thank Professor Gary Weaver, Dan Deming, Mary Margaret Herman and Jennifer Tether for their help with this edition and tireless efforts to make this conference our best yet.

As always, I welcome your feedback (especially if it’s positive). I hope you enjoy this edition and look forward to meeting many of you at the conference.

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Kathryn Schoenberger, Managing Editor

© 2011 Intercultural Management Quarterly

Journey into America: The Challenge of Islam

by Akbar Ahmed Editor’s Note: This article is an excerpt from chapter one of Ambassador Ahmed’s latest book, Journey into America: The Challenge of Islam, (copyright June 2010, Brookings Institution Press, Washington, DC) in which he and a team of researchers traveled the United States exploring American Muslim communities. It has been reprinted here with the permission of Ambassador Ahmed and the publisher.

S

tephen Colbert, the popular television satirist, is fond of telling guests, especially those who are non-white, that he “does not see color.” In the guise of a conservative who means precisely the opposite of what he says, Colbert is implying not only that he sees color, or race, but also that it is everywhere. He is right. While many Americans doggedly do not want to see race, they cannot ignore it. Many feel threatened by what they see as potential challenges to the ethnic composition and normative ideas of American society.

goodness, nobility, virtue, and purity, whereas black conjures up negative or bad images. Think of expressions that are widespread both in America and other Western cultures, such as the “white knight” or “pure as snow,” on the one hand, and the “dark side,” “black mark,” or “black magic,” on the other. Villains in film and drama dress in black to depict their black hearts, while heroines wear white to symbolize purity. Color discrimination and segregation have marked American identity with a legacy of tears, bloodshed, and violence.

Color-created boundaries gave the WASPs (White, Anglo-Saxon Protestants) a dominant social position over the “red” (Native Americans), the black (African Americans), and the yellow (Chinese and Japanese) groups.

This tradition persists. On our journey, some referred to Muslims as “sand niggers.”

My journey confirmed that color functions as an important factor separating social groups in America, just as tribal identity does in Muslim societies and caste in Indian society.1 The lobbies and dining rooms of many hotels we stayed in invariably had an overwhelmingly white clientele. They were mostly husbands and wives, sometimes with families, touring America and enjoying its sights. A few visitors might be black, but almost none were visibly Latino. In some cases, reception staff were black, while those who cleaned the rooms and tended to the grass and garden were Latinos who spoke little English.

One could easily argue, however, that the category “white” is quite diverse in itself, with its different languages, customs, religions, and regional and historical characteristics. White populations, quite different from the English settlers, also came to America’s shores bringing with them diverse religious and social traditions, all now lumped in the category “white.” America’s “black” category is just as diverse in its linguistic and cultural origins, which range from light-skinned communities of North Africa to dark-skinned tribes along the equator and to the south. This rich diversity has also been compressed into that all-too-simple label, “black.” And, of course, before the “white man” arrived on its shores, America, north and south, had a native population of some 112 million people, 18 million of whom lived in what is now the United States.

America’s ethnic hierarchy is apparent not only from direct observations. Even more telling are its social symbols. The color white, for example, is associated with

What does all this mean when it comes to defining Muslims? The Muslim community represents the entire spectrum of the world, because it, too, is not defined

Ambassador Akbar Ahmed is the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at American University in Washington, DC, the First Distinguished Chair of Middle East and Islamic Studies at the US Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD and a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institute. He has also taught at Princeton, Harvard and Cambridge Universities and advised General David Petraeus, the late Ambassador Richard Holbrooke and other US Agencies on Islam and foreign policy. Ambassador Ahmed is the author of more than a dozen books including Journey into Islam: The Crisis of Globalization.

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Journey into America... through any one racial or ethnic group. But, accustomed to categorizing people by race, Americans are befuddled by the great variety of Muslim ethnic backgrounds and skin color. When the first Muslims arrived in the late nineteenth century from the Middle East, there were too few and their backgrounds too varied to warrant a label.

They also posed a “color problem.” Being brown, with a range of skin color within the communities, they were neither quite white enough for the white category nor dark enough for the black category, nor would their features qualify them for the Asian category, as it is understood in America. In time, those from the Middle East and Iran would be called Arab and those from South Asia, Indian.

The importance of color in defining American identity was recognized over a century ago by [W. E. B.] Du Bois. His observation that the “problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line” still holds true, except that today “Muslim” could substitute for “Negro.” Du Bois argued that African Americans are separated from the mainstream white culture not by a wall but a “veil”—a metaphor that also has great resonance for Muslim Americans.

Du Bois was right to sound the alarm. By the time America achieved its independence, the structure of white male power was already in place. For the next two centuries, the men who ran the country—the president, vice president, the head of the armed forces, the Supreme Court judges—would be white and male. The legislative arm of government would be dominated by whites. If a black man was arrested, he would invariably have been apprehended by a white sheriff, then would have faced a white judge and white jury, and in jail white officials.

The leading business tycoons, entertainment figures, and scholars would also have been white except in sports and entertainment, where blacks began to emerge in the twentieth century. Where it mattered in terms of making the law, interpreting it, and executing it, America was a white country for most of its history. And its philosophy toward race, formulated early in its history, was summed up in the motto “zero tolerance.”

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The American “Club” From the seventeenth century onward, then, being American was like belonging to a club with membership based on the criteria of race and color. The leadership, organization, values, and attitudes of the club formed the basis of what came to be loosely and widely referred to as “the system.” Its definition remains amorphous and intangible, but people who refer to it do so as if the system is as concrete as the U.S. Constitution. Furthermore, the English had appointed themselves the guardians of the club. Even white immigrants from places like Ireland or Italy who had become legal citizens were not automatically accepted as full-fledged members. As others arrived, their faith, if not Protestant, would keep them from becoming full members.

Jewish immigrants posed an interesting new challenge.

Although Eastern European, Irish, and Italian Catholics were outside the Protestant pale, they were still white and Christian. It would take the Jewish immigrants a century or two to become fully accepted. Non-white communities like African Americans and Mexicans were only permitted to provide “services” to the club, the former as slaves and the latter as hired help. Meanwhile, Native Americans, many of whom had been forced into separate communities far from urban areas, had no association with the club whatsoever and were reduced to an anthropological curiosity.

After 9/11 immigrant Muslims also posed a problem.

Although they arrived throughout the twentieth century, especially from Egypt and Lebanon, the largest number appeared from the 1960s onward, many coming as students, others to take on a professional life. Many moved into professional jobs and assumed they were part of the club. On 9/11, however, they found themselves out in the cold. In an address to South Asian leaders in Chicago after 9/11, Jesse Jackson reputedly admonished them for ignoring African Americans and noted, “Before 9/11 you thought you were white but now you realize you’re black.”2 Lawrence Rosen of Princeton University explained the problem of “placing” Muslims in America [in our interview with him]: “It is not so much that Muslims in America are out of category, but that they

Intercultural Management Quarterly

were never clearly in a category, and now, people aren’t sure which category to put them into.” Rosen, too, recognizes the defining force of color: “Race in America is literally skin deep. When somebody passes for white, it’s not really an issue. When somebody is visibly different, then Americans historically have not known what to make of that person. They are out of their category.”

Perhaps the elderly Muslim we talked to in al-Mahdi Mosque in “Little Pakistan” in Brooklyn, New York, captured the dilemma best. White colleagues in his office repeatedly shoved him against the wall and tried to choke him—or as he put it, “to kill him”—because they thought he was a potential terrorist. But he was also a target of the black community, which saw him as a “Jew or a Christian,” meaning a white man. “I am in much trouble,” he ruminated dolefully.

Obama’s election in 2008 and inauguration in January 2009 unleashed euphoria in the United States among those who wished to see America moving beyond race— or becoming a club open to all. The New Yorker had Obama dressed up as George Washington, white wig and all, on its cover. Newsweek’s cover showed a reflective Obama with the title “Obama’s America: Who We Are Now.” The Atlantic cover with the new president asked, “The End of White America?” While these magazines reflected an exuberance felt by millions of Americans, they failed to appreciate that there were limits to what had actually changed and what could be changed. Demographic changes are seriously challenging the white population’s hold and alarming many of its members.

The Latino population has topped 50 million, and in a few short decades whites will actually be in the minority for the first time. Samuel Huntington, who borrowed the idea of the Clash of Civilizations from Bernard Lewis and popularized it, thus shifted his focus from Muslims to Latinos, who, he argued, were threatening the white Protestant way of life.3 In short, issues of identity trumped even those of terrorism and security.

Many white Americans, already feeling threatened, believe that the natural order has been further disturbed

by Obama’s presidency. Extreme hysteria built on absurd arguments marked the first counterpunch in the

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media following the Obama inauguration. In the forefront of the onslaught were media heavyweights such as Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, and Glenn Beck. Obama was compared to Hitler and called a Muslim Marxist. Beck questioned Obama’s “Americanness” and called him a “racist” who “hates white people” and “white culture.” Crudely and explicitly, the attacks on Obama suggested that he hated the very foundations of the country of which he was the president. Through innuendo, Islam, widely demonized in certain media outlets, was associated with Obama. Later in the year, Beck vented his fury on those Europeans who were responsible for awarding Obama the Nobel Peace Prize because, he warned, they were “dismantling America.” It was a dangerous game because the passions generated by discussions of race have frequently triggered violence.

A Facebook poll asking if Obama “should be killed” was only removed after the Secret Service discovered it.4 In late September 2009 columnist John L. Perry, a former top official in the Lyndon Johnson and Jimmy Carter administrations, wrote in the online newspaper Newsmax that a military coup may be necessary to “restore and defend the Constitution” and stop Obama from turning America into a “Marxist state.”5 Some people even seemed to be calling for Obama’s assassination or unconstitutional dismissal in a very public way and getting away with it. Matters reached such a point that two former presidents felt they needed to comment publicly on the tone of these assaults: Jimmy Carter said he detected racism, and Bill Clinton suspected a “vast right-wing conspiracy.” Racial ideas obviously continue to shape American identity. In order to probe further, it would be useful to go back to the Greeks—the source of Western culture.

Greek Philosophers, Viennese Psychiatrists, and Pakistani Anthropologists What is more fundamental to Western thinking than the notion that the human mind can be divided into three parts, or the use of color as a metaphor for virtue and vice, or the importance of “shame” in defining character and controlling passion? It is said that Freud discovered the mind’s tripartite division, the Ku Klux Klan

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Journey into America...

(KKK) invented color prejudice, and Japan’s Samurai created the code of shame and honor. Yet all these ideas are reflected in Plato and Socrates.

the guardians; and the productive class, including various businessmen, craftsmen, and artists, who are concerned with money and the passions.

The concept of the tripartite division was introduced in Plato’s Republic, Book IV, in which the Greek philosopher explained the Socratic approach to the human soul as being divided into three parts: logos (reason), which seeks truth and knowledge; thumos (spirit), which desires honor; and alogon (irrationality), which lusts after the objects of passion, including drink, food, sex, and especially money. The just man sets these three parts together as “chords in a harmony” and controls his passions in pursuit of balance, philosophy, and truth.

In another dialogue, the Phaedrus, Plato compares the soul to a charioteer with two horses, one representing reason and the other passion, that he must steer and control through life. Socrates describes the two horses:

These three parts of the individual soul correspond to the components of an ideal society, says Socrates: at the top are the “guardians,” whose concern is philosophy and just governance, and not money or property; then come the “auxiliaries” such as the military, who keep the peace, protect the city, and implement the directions of

“The horse that is on the right, or nobler, side is upright in frame and well jointed, with a high neck and a regal nose; his coat is white, his eyes are black, and he is a lover of honor with modesty and self-control; companion to true glory, he needs no whip, and is guided by verbal commands alone. The other horse is a crooked great jumble of limbs with a short bullneck, a pug nose, black skin, and bloodshot white eyes; companion to wild boasts and indecency, he is shaggy around the ears—deaf as a post—and just barely yields to horsewhip and goad combined.” 6

Write for IMQ IMQ publishes book reviews, case studies and other articles that explore culture and management in global organizations.

The deadline for submissions for the summer edition is April 1, 2011 Send submissions to: imqeditor@american.edu for more information visit: www.american.edu/sis/imi

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Intercultural Management Quarterly

Plato reveals that the notion of “shame” is enough to keep the white horse in check, but something much more violent is required to control the black horse.

When the charioteer tries to restrain the black horse by whipping it and pulling on the reins, causing blood to gush from its mouth, the horse has the ability to taunt the charioteer with insults and accusations of cowardice and unmanliness. The black horse, writes Plato, is “without any shame at all.”

One can see, then, that Freud’s analysis dividing the human mind into three parts was not entirely original.

Freud described the “psychic apparatus,” which is the function of every individual’s mind, as being divided into an ego, super-ego, and id. Ego means I, or myself.

Ego is anchored in reason and common sense and aims to be organized and realistic. The super-ego is critical and moralizing, aiming for perfection. The id is uncoordinated and based in instinct.

2. Kamran Khan, personal communication, Chicago, 2008.

3. Samuel Huntington, Who Are We? The Challenges to America’s National Identity (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2005).

4. David G. Savage, “Secret Service Investigates Obama Poll on Facebook,” Los Angeles Times, September 29, 2009.

5. John L. Perry, “Full Text of Newsmax Column Suggesting Military Coup against Obama,” Talking Points Memo (www. talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2009/09/full_text_of_ newsmax_column_suggesting_military_co.php [March 2, 2010]).

6. Alexander Nehamas and Paul Woodruff, translated and introduction, Plato: Phaedrus (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1995), pp. 44–45.

In some ways, nations are like individuals. The character of both reflects a constant internal struggle between various forces that sometimes pull in different directions. External forces also influence and shape them.

Under such pressures, nations change over time, yet try to remain true to their character. The challenge for social analysts is to understand society and identify these pressures and their effect on its character. As an anthropologist, I approach the task through ethnicity and identity in pursuit of the principles that define and determine the behavior of a particularly diverse society: that of the United States. i

Endnotes 1. Akbar Ahmed, Journey into Islam: The Crisis of Globalization (Brookings, 2007); W. E. B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk (New York: Penguin Classics, 1996); Lawrence Rosen, interview on camera, October 2008. For works on caste in India, see Declan Quigley, The Interpretation of Caste (Oxford University Press, 2001); Louis Dumont, Homo Hierarchicus, the Caste System and Its Implications (Oxford University Press, 1988); C. J. Fuller, ed., Caste Today (Oxford University Press, 1996); M. N. Srinivas, Village, Caste, Gender and Method: Essays in Indian Social Anthropology (Oxford University Press, 1996).

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A War That Can’t Be Forgotten

by Lara Logan

try, a fierce national pride - and a terrible fear of what or who would replace the Iraqi dictator.

About ten days into the U.S. invasion, the air above Baghdad was thick and dark with plumes of black smoke rising from oil fires lit by Iraqi fighters, to mask targets on the ground from U.S. warplanes.

In the months before the invasion began, that was the question most often heard on the streets—and most oft repeated—even from Iraqis who hated Saddam Hussein: Who will be next?

But it seemed to make little difference. The earth thundered with deep, roaring explosions, one after another….and fires rose up from the ground around us.

In the years that followed, that question would be posed again and again - but this time, with the answer:

The promised U.S. “shock and awe” campaign was well underway.

“Look what we have now—a hundred Saddams, a thousand of them or more,” Firas said. “Who can save us from this?”

And we were heading directly into the chaos. The road swarming with human traffic that was coming towards us as we headed into Baghdad—the people going in the opposite direction: Iraqis desperately fleeing their city, afraid for their lives.

It was with great sadness that I looked out of the window one day in the CBS bureau as my colleague Firas gestured towards the ancient Tigris River. It was during the time of increasing ethnic violence between Iraqi’s majority Shiites and the Sunnis.

Fighting with them for space on the crowded road was an impressive march of military hardware—Iraqi artillery on the move. Thousands and thousands of heavy artillery pieces being carried away….to disappear somewhere else or be destroyed.

I had asked Firas what would happen if the U.S. pulled out, and that was when he pointed to the river.

I was forced out of the capital the day U.S. bombers made their way towards Baghdad. Now just as the sun dropped from the sky in a brilliant orange glow behind the black smoke, I was back with colleague Firas Ibrahim who had made the journey possible.

“That water will run with our blood—with Sunni blood,” he said quietly, his voice soft but firm with conviction.

A lot has changed since that moment. Many Sunnis—and many Shiites—have died, along with Kurds, Turkmen—even Iraqi’s minority Christians. Tens of thousands—no one knows for sure how many because there is no reliable body count.

Like so many other Iraqis, he shared no love for Saddam Hussein. But he also shared a passion for his counLara Logan is CBS News’ chief foreign correspondent and a correspondent for 60 Minutes. Logan has reported extensively on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. She has won numerous awards for her work, including an Emmy Award, an Overseas Press Club Award and a Murrow Award for “Ramadi: On the Front Line,” a 2006 report she and her producer shot while embedded with U.S. soldiers in Ramadi, Iraq. Prior to joining CBS, Logan worked as a correspondent for ITV, ITN, Fox/Sky, ABC News and NBC, reporting on crises and conflicts in Mozambique, Zimbabwe, India, Northern Ireland and Kosovo among others.

This article was originally published on the CBS News website on March 19, 2008 and is available at http:// www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/08/notebook/main4001925.shtml. It has been reprinted here with Logan’s permission.

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I have watched the war ebb and flow, giving most of the past four years to its gruesome battle rhythms, watching Iraqi society disintegrate before my eyes.

It starts with a family caught in a U.S. air raid during the initial invasion. I made it to the hospital to find the three children, all with more than 80 percent burns over their bodies. Their parents had been killed in the blast, they were all to follow. But it would be two agonizing weeks before the last of them—a little girl no more than eight years old—succumbed to her wounds.

In our office the cleaner has lost a brother to a death squad, and another to kidnapping. One local producer has lost a brother—executed—and has two more brothers in prison. We lost another local producer when he was taken by a death squad and executed. We had to send another out of the country after he was taken hostage in the south of the country. Still another local producer left after his father was kidnapped and executed.

Our drivers have all had family members murdered, many of them multiple losses—mothers, fathers, uncles, sisters, brothers.

That image is no less or more disturbing than looking The list goes on. And on. into the eyes of a 19 year old corpsman, (the navy word for medic), as he describes for me I knew as I looked at that boy, that in spite of his uniform and his first four hours his weapon and his soldierly smile, he was just a damaged young on the ground in Ramadi, just west kid who would never look at the world the same way again. of Baghdad, three years later: It is a reason to keep coming back and covering the “We were hit by an IED and in the chaos, we shot war. It is a reason to care even when it feels like the rest up a vehicle coming towards us really fast. But when it of the world has stopped caring. stopped we found an Iraqi mother with four of her children inside. We couldn’t save our guys because the humAnd there is another reason. Around 150,000 U.S. vee was on fire and we couldn’t get to them so we just soldiers, airmen and sailors. Not to mention tens of had to listen to them scream as they burned to death— thousands of contractors doing jobs in the name of U.S. and they just kept screaming,” he told me. forces or the U.S. government or the U.S. cause.

“Then we realized we’d shot the mother and her children. I was doing mouth-to-mouth on an eightmonth-old baby as its mother died in my lap. Then the two-year-old died, and then the baby died in my mouth.

It was the worst four hours of my life.”

I knew as I looked at that boy, that in spite of his uniform and his weapon and his soldierly smile, he was just a damaged young kid who would never look at the world the same way again.

It’s a look that shadows many young faces here, both U.S. and Iraqi. The suffering has left no one untouched.

You cannot walk down a street in Baghdad and find a home now that has not known death. And fear.

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It is unconscionable to me that any American, if faced with this reality, would honestly say they do not care to know about what their military is doing in Iraq. I cannot believe that if they saw even one soldier wounded, watched him drop right in front of them without even the whisper of a sound as blood spurted from his injury and the bullets kept coming, crackling through the air as others rush to his aid—I cannot believe they would say they do not care.

I want them to imagine what it looks like, when you walk past the chaplain’s office in the main U.S. hospital in the Green Zone, not long after a unit has come under major attack.

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War...

I remember walking past such a line one day, after a unit I’d embedded with often in Baghdad suffered their worst single day of losses: nine soldiers killed and more injured, including three quadruple amputees.

First I walked past the emergency room where the survivors were crowded waiting for news. I walked past the operating theatre where blood was rushing under the door and into the sterile corridor, now trampled with dusty boots.

There is a look that soldiers get after they have survived a fight, swollen with the wounds of battle. And there is a look they get after losing their friends, after realizing the fight for life is over and nothing more can be done. Wearing the blood of their comrades, wearing the beaten look of the defeated, they slowly begin to mourn.

Mourning that will be allowed only for a moment, before they head out back into battle and survival means you must move on.

Anyone who could go to an Iraqi hospital, and see the terrible conditions or the families desperately trying to help a loved one in the mayhem after a blast. Or see the young girl who’s lost her whole family and both her legs and isn’t yet 14 years old.

Five years on the truth is that Iraq’s leaders have failed their people. Just as the U.S. has failed here—time and again.

But that doesn’t mean the world has to fail the Iraqi people—again—by forgetting about this war.

And Americans cannot fail those fighting in their name. No matter what they feel about the war.

In fact it seems that those opposed to it have an even greater reason not to let the country forget. i

But for the time they stood in line to see the chaplain, for that moment still in shock as the reality slowly set in, unable to hide the raw pain as they wept with faces buried in filthy sleeves, or staring straight ahead, dazed.

Muffled cries escaping every now and then. Eyes hollow or swollen. Some holding back still. All broken.

You don’t forget faces like that, grief that sears your soul. You lower your head as you pass, feeling unworthy.

Just like you don’t forget the firm grasp of a young man, as he grabs hold of your hand from his hospital bed and stares you down, talking fast like any eager young kid. You can’t explain why you expected his handshake to be weak, just because you’re looking at the stump that used to be his leg. But you do. You’d never expect you could lose a leg and still be 19 years old and still be so strong.

It makes no sense. It’s just that way.

I have to believe that anyone who could see the suffering up close, would never say they’d lost interest in this war.

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Intercultural Management Quarterly

The University Years: I Am Such an Individual, We Are Such a Nation

by Alexandra Parrs

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or many Americans, the college experience is a formative and unique one. Going to school far from home, enjoying a sense of freedom, making choices on lifestyle, classes, friends, time allocated to developing academic, social, or athletic skills, opportunities to travel abroad and to expand horizons. Or not. It is a question of choice, anchored in a deep sense of individualism and self-achievement, a standard American rite of passage to adulthood.

However, the college years are indeed different elsewhere as a set of videoconferencing sessions between students at American University, in Washington DC, and Al Bayan College, in Muscat, Oman, sharply highlighted. There are practical differences as well as differences in perceptions, of what being a student means and what one’s place within the larger society may be. Professor Bram Groen and I set on a project that allowed Omani and American students to communicate via videoconferencing and to discuss topics of their choice, typically related to their cultural practices and traditions. As the Omanis’ instructor at Al Bayan College, I witnessed first-hand not only their way to communicate with their American counterparts, but also how the academic years fit into their general life. It is important to put into perspective what higher education means in Oman: it is only since Sultan Qaboos’ accession to the throne in 1970 that education has become a priority and the first university, bearing the name of his Majesty, was opened

Alexandra Parrs, PhD, is an adjunct professor of cross-cultural communication at American University. Her research interests are Arab American political activism, political Islam and interethnic relations in the Middle East. She previously taught anthropology and cross-cultural communication in Muscat, Oman and in Rangoon, Burma where she conducted seminars on ethnicity, gender and nationalism for civil society actors.

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in Muscat in 1986. Going to university is indeed a very recent phenomenon.

Interestingly, in the U.S., the university years offer an opportunity to set free your individualism. In Oman it allows you to become more precisely Omani: for male students, wearing the national robe, the white dishdasha, is compulsory, to the extent that professors are required to report those who don’t comply to the dean. During the videoconferencing sessions, the students introduced themselves and, while most students from American University talked about their own achievements and unique opinions, the Omanis introduced themselves, proudly, as “Omanis” and explained how amazing their country and leader are. The very fact of being Omani was their primary social identification. Omanis often used “we” instead of “I” in the discussions. “We” represented the student body, but also more generally the Omani people, highlighting as a positive trait, the relative homogeneity of their people: Omani nationals, Muslims (mostly Sunni and Ibadhi), responding to a set of values, among them respect and tolerance. That representation contrasted with the image that the American students naturally conveyed: the United States as a mosaic composed of a variety of people with a variety of religious, ethnic, political backgrounds, each one with a definite sense of uniqueness. The desire to be unique or to take pride in cultural homogeneity were core values that set the students apart.

The college years in the United States focus on critical thinking. Every student is entitled, or even required, to have an opinion and takes great pride in challenging concepts and in being experimental. The American educational system values active “doing” (discussions, involvement in research projects, extracurricular activities) more than passive “being” (listening, rote memorization). Learning to be an Omani student entails a far more restricted space for critical thinking and a greater space for learning what is or is not appropriate, not only within the close cell of the family/tribe/village, but the nation in general. Respect for authority is an important element, but not blatant authority without any recourse for the student. Quite the opposite. When they feel they have been treated unfairly, Omani students have enough

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University Years... latitude to fight for their case and, as Gary Weaver and Edward Hall highlighted in their analysis of the Arab system of negotiation, reach a “win win” solution.1 A compromise. The dean of the college is approachable and can find a solution to any problem, including reviewing grades, or challenging the instructor’s judgment if necessary, as long as everyone is satisfied with the outcome. The paradox lies in the coexistence of authority and rigid implicit rules on one hand, and compromise, and the opportunity to be heard and obtain reparation on the other. The system’s objective is to create group harmony by satisfying everyone instead of allowing a potential winner to stand out.

During one discussion, the students asked each other: if you were to explain American/Omani culture, what would come to mind? The American students focused on diversity in terms of ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, and geography, stressing how a New Yorker and a person from the Midwest’s perspectives, values, and attitudes varied intensely. The Omanis talked about specific objects that symbolized their culture such as the khanjar, which is a knife that Omani men wear at their belt and an emblem of the country. This is actually a rather modern politically-created representation and a very pragmatic one too. It does not represent any group in particular and it is, therefore, unifying. Different tribes used to display miMost American students go to university for the experience, nor differences in the learning, and the professional outcome. Omanis learn to be their khanjars (in colors, materials, Omanis. etc.) but now, the khanjar is uniform, Reaching harmony means modifying an unpleas- allowing no group to stand out from others and impose ant situation and, for that matter, making sure one’s their symbolic artifact. The cultural representation lies grievances are being heard and respected, for instance in a tangible unifying object when diversity is seen as by working to modify an unsatisfactory grade, while a hindrance to contact. Once the videoconference was concomitantly incorporating ideas that are acceptable over, some Omani students reflected on the concept of without challenging established norms, such as ques- diversity that had been presented as such an important tioning the instructor’s teachings for the sake of sheer cultural feature by the American students. They first reargumentation. An example comes to mind to illustrate marked that Oman was definitely a homogeneous counthis last point: one Omani/U.S. team decided to discuss try, religiously and ethnically. However, after reflection, the coverage of the Iraq war by their respective newspa- they also highlighted that there were some differences pers. During the discussions, the U.S. students immedi- related among the country’s tribes and, finally, they adately exhibited skeptical views of their own newspapers, mitted that, in reality, the tribal identity was still very sastressing that the truth was only partially displayed and lient, to the extent that endogamy between certain tribes they aimed to show the war in a light favorable to U.S. was not acceptable. political interests. They gave many examples of articles drawn from newspapers, both liberal and conservative.

Most American students go to university for the experiThe Omanis listened patiently and, rather empathically, ence, the learning, and the professional outcome. Omaagreed that the U.S. newspapers were indeed biased but nis learn to be Omanis. In a broader, more urban sense, that, fortunately, their own newspapers were far more they learn to be Omanis as nationals more than Omanis accurate in their coverage. This is ironic because in real- as members of villages, families, or tribes. They learn cerity, Omani newspapers are not known for their extensive tain values that are the foundation of Omani life: respect freedom: Oman ranked 156th out of 196 countries in for authority and the right to alter a situation in order to 2010 in terms of freedom of press.2 However, similarly create group harmony and unity. Everyone dreams of a to instructors’ teachings newspapers stories are rarely job in the public sector for many reasons, partly because challenged, especially in public. it provides stability and security, but also, more symboli-

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Intercultural Management Quarterly

cally, because working for the public sector is a way to work directly for the nation and be an intrinsic part of it. Strikingly for the American students, most of their Omani counterparts explained that they were studying something such as literature or media studies out of interest, but would then look for work in the Ministry of Finance or their uncle’s export company, because that’s what their collective society expected them to do. They were very satisfied with this path, and did not display any kind of resentment, which surprised the Americans.

Many aspects of a collective society are illustrated and intentionally reinforced in the Omani university microcosm; among them the maintenance of precise ascribed roles, particularly gender roles. Males and females, albeit not officially segregated in most universities, practice self-segregation in classrooms, which creates a black and white landscape: the males in crisp white dishdashas on one side and the females in silky black abayas on the other. Very rarely would you see a white spot in the sea of black or vice versa. Male and female students seldom work, are usually supported by their parents (or the government), and live with them if possible. When parents live in remote villages, the students live in hostels that are closely monitored by the university, locked and guarded from dusk to dawn, guaranteeing the protection (physical and moral) of the students, especially the women. For example, in order to go ahead with the project and have female students come to the videoconferencing sessions outside of traditional school hours, I had to obtain permission from the dean who, in turn, wrote a letter to the director of the hostel stipulating that I was to pick up and drop off the students at their hostel at certain hours.

The university is also, ironically, a place where the two genders meet and interact with ease. These interactions, albeit closely monitored, actually create a new set of social relations that incorporate the rigidity of gender physical separation and an intense creativity fueled by technology. Even if in the classroom the students seem to have very little contact, it may be enough to exchange phone numbers, quickly leading to “text dating,” something that was impossible a few decades ago because no

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primary contact was established outside of the family control and cell phones were not available. From inside their guarded hostels, the students spend interminable hours communicating and flirting with each other via cell phone.

Because university life is so new to Oman, it is a fascinating field for the study of cultural behaviors in the country. It fosters a precise collective identity based on certain symbols (dishdasha, khanjar), behaviors (authority and compromise, gender self-segregation), and values (predominance of the group) that sharply contrast with the traditional American experience of individualism, broad experimentation, and critical thinking.

However, while reinforcing traditional Omani values and behaviors, university culture is also taking on a life of its own by creating new forms of social and gender communication, which may be reinvented and adapted to creatively combine basic values and inevitable technological and cultural imports. Male and female students, but also students belonging to various tribal or social groups, are now interacting with each other and confronted with new worldviews and perceptions and one can only wonder how much those new relations will impact the course of their personal and professional lives. i

Endnotes 1. Gary R. Weaver, “Intercultural Aspects of Conflict and Negotiation” in Culture Communication and Conflict: Readings in Intercultural Relations, revised 2nd edition, Gary R. Weaver, ed. (Boston, Pearson Publishing, 2000), 458-459.

2. Freedomhouse, Freedom of the press report 2010, http://www.freedomhouse.org/uploads/pfs/371.pdf.

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Action Learning In Multicultural Contexts

by Arthur Freedman

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n 1969, Dick Walton, a psychology professor from the Harvard Business School, asked a team of Applied Behavioral Science interns to help him prepare for an unprecedented consultation he was about to undertake. The problem was how to gain an agreement between three African countries—Somalia, Ethiopia, and Kenya—regarding their boundaries. They had been close to war several times in the recent past over this issue.

The disputes centered around a nomadic tribe that historically wandered across their borders depending upon the season. This tribe did not claim citizenship in any of these counties, yet all three claimed them as justification for expanding their boundaries to cover the territories through which the tribe wandered.

Walton, an expert in third-party dispute resolution, and his colleagues were prepared to use their full arsenal of known conflict resolution theory and methods. I created a three-way Lewinian force field analysis based upon the background information that Walton had available.1 This analysis demonstrated that whatever forces were driving one country in the direction of an agreement were also restraining one or both of the other countries from an agreement, driving them in the opposite direction. The forces neutralized one another and the result was that no clear path to an agreement seemed plausible. At best, the force field analysis laid out the nature and extent of the issues aligning and dividing the three countries. Walton took my analysis with him to

Arthur M. Freedman is a consulting organizational psychologist and organization development and change scholar-practitioner.

He is a Master Action Learning Team Coach, Director of Scholarship and Publication and Board Member with the World Institute of Action Learning. He has consulted and lectured throughout the world to public and private sector organizations and is an adjunct Professor in the MBA/OD Program in the Carey Business School at Johns Hopkins University.

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East Africa and later said it had been useful but insufficient. In fact, the effort failed. In large part, this was due to the third-party interveners’ excessive reliance on their expertise and their efforts to apply known theory and structured methods to an unprecedented, complex problem. Undoubtedly, their failure was exacerbated by insufficient attention to the multicultural context. 2 Learning from Failure Revans cautioned, “No learning without action; no action without learning.” 3 It is essential that we learn from our failure experiences—as well as from our success experiences. Studying our previous experiences to help ourselves do better in the future is the foundation of action learning. No organizational intervention is a complete failure. Walton and his colleagues undoubtedly did some things well. These should have been noted.

They could also certainly have done other things better or differently. These, too, should have been noted and should have served as the basis for determining how to improve such interventions in future, similar situations.

My hunch is that the interveners were overly confident in the power of their North American theories and methods to accommodate all of the interests of the East African stakeholders. The interveners undoubtedly applied their well-known existing processes that had proven to produce satisfactory results in a number of familiar contexts. They were probably confident the processes would also be effective in this novel context. But this context was discontinuous with the interveners’ past experiences. They may not have thought through if and how their theories and methods were compatible with the cultural norms, values, practices, and interests of the principals. It may have been that the interveners tried to impose their methods and induce the participants to conform. This would have forced the participants to abandon their respective cultural norms and practices.

Not surprisingly, the participants would probably have become highly motivated to make sure that no agreement was reached and that the intervention failed.

The interveners needed a comprehensible, acceptable process that made it desirable and possible for partici-

Intercultural Management Quarterly

pants from all three countries to incorporate their varied interests and cultural beliefs, values, and practices.

A sustainable agreement between the three countries might have been achieved had Walton and his colleagues known about and were skilled in applying the theory and methods of action learning in a multicultural context.

Action learning has emerged as a method of choice for global companies, governmental agencies, and non profit groups that challenged by complex, unprecedented organizational issues for which there are no pre-established solutions: e.g., to settle multi-state border disputes, improve quality, cut costs, create new products and services, expand into new foreign markets, deal with culture shock and integration in mergers and acquisitions, and change organizational cultures. From Boston to Brazil, from Finland to Tokyo, organizations as diverse as Microsoft, U.S. Department of Commerce, Samsung, Dow, GE, Deutsche Bank, Boeing, Sodexho, Novartis, Nokia, Cambio, and many others use action learning to solve complex problems, develop leaders, build teams and expand corporate capability.

Since Reginald Revans first introduced it to coal miners of Wales and England in the 1940s, action learning has become a dynamic process that assists organizations to challenge the status quo and to develop creative, flexible and successful strategies for solving problems while also developing future organizational leaders. Action learning positions inquiry and reflection at the core of organizational behavior, develops critical thinking, and creates mutual respect among employees at all levels. The focus on inquiry and reflection speaks to Peter Senge’s concern that organizations should move from an institutional training strategy of changing organizations to creating and maintaining a learning culture.4 Action learning is a skill-set and process that enables organizational leaders and members to resolve problems—i.e., fix what is broken, exploit opportunities, and manage dilemmas—of all types and at all levels of complexity. Action learning is particularly effective with critical issues that may appear unsolvable when previously known solutions are applied. It elevates the norms, the

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collaboration, the creativity, and the courage of teams that solve problems of great urgency to the organization.

Action learning solves problems and develops leaders simultaneously because its simple ground rules force participants to think strategically and critically and to work collaboratively. The critical role of the action learning team coach is to assist team members to reflect, not only on their problem solving and decision-making, but also on elevating their team functioning and their leadership skills.

Action learning blends well with and enhances any organizations’ leadership development programs and organization development and change initiatives.

The Components of Action Learning Action learning is a powerful problem-solving tool that has the amazing capacity to simultaneously build successful leaders, teams and organizations. It involves a small, four- to eight-person team that works on real problems, takes action, and learns both as individuals and as teams. Action learning is most effective when all six of these components are in operation: •

A problem: (project, challenge, opportunity, dilemma, issue, or task). The problem should be urgent and significant and should be the responsibility of the team to resolve.

•

An action learning team: Ideally composed of 4-8 people who examine an organizational problem that has no easily identifiable solution. The group should be diverse in background and experience.

•

A process of insightful questioning and reflective listening: Action learning tackles problems through a process of first asking questions to clarify the exact nature of the problem, reflecting, and identifying possible solutions, and only then taking action. Questions capitalize on team members’ natural curiosity and build team dialogue and cohesiveness, generate innovative strategic and sys-

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Action Learning... tems thinking, and enhance organizational learning.

•

•

•

An action taken on the problem: There is no real meaningful or practical learning until action is taken and reflected on. Action learning requires that the team be able to take action on the problem it is addressing. If the team makes recommendations only, it loses its energy, creativity, and commitment.

A commitment to learning: Solving an organizational problem provides immediate, short-term benefits to the company. The greater, longer-term multiplier benefits, however, are the learnings gained by each team member and the team as a whole, as well as how those learnings are applied on a systems-wide basis throughout the organization.

An action learning team coach: The action learning team coach helps team members reflect on both what they are learning and how they are solving problems. The coach enables team members to reflect on how they listen, how they may reframe the problem, how they give each other feedback to develop leadership skills, how they are planning and working, and how they may verify or disconfirm assumptions they make that may be shaping their beliefs and actions. The action learning team coach also helps the team focus on what they are achieving, what they are finding difficult, what processes they are employing, how they may improve, and the implications of these processes.

Benefits Derived from Action Learning Action learning benefits organizations as a whole as well as their members, both individually and in teams.

Action learning can: • Assist succession planning by developing a cadre of highly qualified candidates for promotion to executive leadership positions.

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• Deepen participants’ competence, confidence, and comfort in their leadership and team problemsolving and decision-making skills.

• Enable participants to establish effective, mutually respectful working relationships with co-workers at all organizational levels.

• Apply action research and action learning theory and methods appropriately to organizational challenges.

• Enhance participants’ capacity to reflect on and learn from their individual and collective experiences.

• Develop in participants an awareness of how their implicit assumptions, beliefs, attitudes, preferences, and organizational interests influence their thinking, feelings, decisions, and actions.

• Increase competence in preparing and presenting recommendations concerning urgent organizational issues to executive management.

• Enable team members to develop enduring networks of colleagues across organizational boundaries and levels.

Conclusion Action learning enables members of any set of organizations to specify mutually desirable goals and to develop viable solutions or action plans to achieve these goals.

Action learning has a dual focus in that in addition to helping participants to solve unprecedented, critical problems, participants also learn and practice essential leadership skills, participatory problem solving and decision-making skills, intra- and inter-organizational boundary spanning skills, and organizational change skills. Those who work with—as members of or consultants to—organizations confronted by discontinuous, unprecedented organizational problems can benefit from mastering action learning theory, methods, and skills. i

Intercultural Management Quarterly

Endnotes 1. Kurt Lewin, “Psychological Ecology,” in Field Theory in Social Science: Selected Theoretical Papers, ed. D. Cartwright (New York: Harper & Row, 1951), 170187; Lewin, (1931). “The conflict between Aristotelian and Galilean modes of thought in contemporary psychology,” in Journal of General Psychology, Vol. 5, 1931, 141-177.

2. Richard E. Walton, Managing Conflict: Interpersonal Dialogue and Third-Party Roles, 2nd edition, (Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1987).

3. Reginald W. Revans, Action Learning: New Techniques for Management. (London: Blond & Briggs, 1980); Revans, The Origins and Growth of Action Learning (Bromley, UK: Chartwell-Bratt, 1982). Revans, ABC of Action Learning (Bromley, UK: Chartwell-Bratt, 1983).

4. Peter M. Senge, The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization (New York: Doubleday/ Currency, 1990). Senge, et al., The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook ( New York: Doubleday/Currency, 1994).

Want to Learn More?

IMI Presents A One Day Symposium: An Introduction to Action Learning Saturday, April 16, 2011, 9am-5pm, at American University With H. Skipton Leonard, Ph.D., Executive Director, World Institute for Action Learning (WIAL) and Arthur M. Freedman, MBA, Ph.D., Director, Scholarship and Publications (WIAL) Participants will learn 1. The three elements of individual, team, and organizational learning 2. The six components of Action Learning 3. The two basic ground rules 4. The experience of participating in an Action Learning Team 5. The benefits of Action Learning In order to register, contact Mary Margaret Herman, IMI Program Coordinator, at mmherman@american.edu

Spring 2011

17

Intercultural Knowledge Management in Global Organizations

by Neal Goodman

I

ntercultural competence has been identified as one of the greatest needs in today’s organizations. However, within every organization there are different constituencies, each with its own needs, definitions, measurements and development programs for attaining global competence.

The most efficient global companies are just now realizing that if they are involved in a multitude of training and development programs to support their globalization efforts, they need to develop a centralized system that leverages the collective global intelligence of their organizations. Ernst & Young reported that they believe 44 percent of employees are poor or very poor at transferring knowledge.

Increasingly, global corporations are seeking knowledge management systems to enable team members to efficiently capture, share and leverage their collective cultural intelligence.

Managing knowledge means finding ways to create, identify, capture and distribute organizational knowledge to those in the organization who need it.

The Cost of Not Investing in Knowledge Management According to statistics provided in Best Practices for Managers and Expatriates by Stan Lomax, multinational companies invest up to two million U.S. dollars per expatriate and lose up to 40 percent of its expatriates after just two years of their return from their assignment. Additionally, the collective amnesia of the remaining expats Dr. Neal R. Goodman is the cofounder and President of Global Dynamics Inc., an international consulting firm which designs, organizes and implements cross-cultural training programs. He is also Professor Emeritus of Intercultural Relations and Sociology at St. Peter’s College. He is the recipient of the 1995 Senior Interculturalist Achievement Award from the Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research for his lifetime contribution to the field.

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result in a loss of at least 50 percent of the information they accumulated during their assignments. Had the expatriates’ knowledge been captured via a knowledge management process, this would results in savings of millions of dollars of intellectual capital.

This loss is just the tip of the iceberg for companies not adequately utilizing knowledge management processes.

The costs of not having a knowledge management system can also result in the following consequences: • Brown outs (international assignees working wellbelow peak performance • Black outs (expatriates who return home prematurely) • Low retention • Process redundancy • Marketing mistakes and inconsistencies • Loss of market share • Customer defections Effective Cross-Cultural Knowledge Management Systems Effective knowledge management systems are essential components for establishing global cross-cultural competence. They provide the ability to codify knowledge and personal experience, making it available to the entire organization.

Elements of an effective cross-cultural knowledge management system include the ability to: • Capture, integrate, store, and provide easy access to all information types including data, voice, image, and full-motion video • Interface the knowledge management system with key internal business processes and external information sources.

• Enhance an organization’s global “professional development” process.

Intercultural Management Quarterly

The Challenges of Implementing a Knowledge Management System

•

When companies recognize the need for—and are ready to—create a knowledge management system, they should be prepared to face the following challenges: •

•

Data inaccuracy: It is often likely that existing electronic data is incomplete or inaccurate. Companies are advised to cleanse the existing databases as well as adopt new data collection and maintenance standards.

Internal company organizational structure: In large corporations, individual divisions and departments typically maintain redundant versions of the same data, while that data is categorized in different ways. Company-wide data storage protocols will be necessary.

Bias for action: A common impediment to knowledge management (in some cultures, such as the United States) includes a bias for action that prevents learning and the bureaucracy of different constituencies and functional areas.

Example of a Successful Cross-Cultural Knowledge Management Process The following is an example of cross-cultural knowledge management process that has successfully been implemented in numerous global organizations. This process illustrates how a successful knowledge management system captures, retains and disseminates all global information gathered through every global experience and every cross-cultural training program.

This knowledge management process demonstrates a systematic approach to capturing and retaining, in a central database, all of the global information obtained

Figure 1

Knowledge Management System Model Working Globally Developing a Global Mindset and Core Cross-Cultural Competencies

Repatriate Training & Debriefing

Continuous Contact & Care

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Global Dynamics Inc.’s Web Site Corporate Intranet HR Dept. Database

Expatriate CrossCultural Training

Customized Interventions • Country-Specific Training • Team Building (in the field) • Team Building (online) • Executive Coaching • International Negotiations • Keynote Speeches • Global Project Management • Leadership Competencies • Global Clinical Trials • Diversity Training • Effective Electronic Comm.

• Transforming the Global Org. • IJV’s & M+A (including postmortem)

(& Host Managers) Copyright © Global Dynamics Inc.

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Knowledge Management... through every training program that has a global and cross-cultural component. The system enables deployment of this information across all groups within the corporation, crossing silos and functional areas through the database and internal social networking.

For example, all information about a specific country, including all the people working with or in that country, is in that database. Because there may be more than one group working in a particular country, personnel are encouraged to use the database to identify those individuals and connect through appropriate groups in internal socially networks. Through these groups, they can discuss their experiences, challenges, successes and tap into (and add to) the company’s collective intelligence about the particular country.

• Capturing international issues and triggering personal coaching based on individual circumstances.

• Analyzing the information to identify and interpret trends and uncover process improvement opportunities.

• Establishing a cross-cultural library of blended learning courseware consisting of in-house developed programs and available through third-party partnerships that support the roadmap concept.

• “Querying” the collective knowledge derived from the case studies, “lessons learned” and personal/ business experiences maintained in the database.

Conclusion

The system enables corporations to achieve cultural competency and leverage global intelligence by: • Delivering a core cross-cultural competency course for all employees that captures and categorize all participants’ global challenges, issues, personal goals, case studies, “lessons learned” and e-mail addresses to form an electronic social network.

• Establishing curriculum “paths” based on building specific core competencies. For example, one path may be focused on building cross-cultural teaming excellence while other paths could be focused on developing future global leaders, negotiators and project managers.

• Enabling each associate to create their electronic, competency roadmap and skills component—systematically tracking individual progress toward competency goals.

• Establishing an international assignment “series of interventions” in support of expatriates and repatriates.

• Recording “lessons learned” throughout each international assignment.

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This process is being successfully applied by one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical/biotechnology companies to integrate and disseminate all of their cross-cultural knowledge and experience, specifically as it relates to cultural differences in communication, meeting protocol and national differences in regulatory affairs. Use of a knowledge management process has been recognized as best practice by numerous corporations.

Being able to easily access the wealth of information that most corporations have accumulated over time is essential in the global marketplace. By effectively streamlining the process through which an organization stores and accesses its information, it is possible to eliminate inefficiencies and prevent redundancies in data. Though this process requires significant effort, the resulting ease in obtaining the relevant cross-cultural information needed will result in marked, company-wide improvement across the board. i

Endnotes 1. Ernst & Young, survey of 431 US and European firms, “Executive Perspectives on Knowledge in the Organization.” (1997).

Intercultural Management Quarterly

Intercultural Management Institute Fall 2011 Workshops Creative Arts and Intercultural Conflict Resolution

September 24-25, 2011 Michelle LeBaron, Director, Program on Dispute Resolution, University of British Columbia In today’s organizations, a range of creative, holistic approaches are needed to prevent, understand, and transform conflict. Holistic approaches meet difference with dialogue, integrating intuition with analysis to inform collaborative processes. In this intensive course, participants will learn ways to work across cultural and worldview differences by drawing on a range of creative tools such as using art, the power of storytelling, and improv techniques and approaches.

Intercultural Training and Facilitation October 8-9, 2011 Ray Leki, Director, Transition Center of the Foreign Service Institute, U.S. Department of State What does it mean to be a “trainer”? What are the skills necessary to be effective with diverse populations, including children? Effective intercultural training must first be effective training. This course will review the unique combination of skills necessary for effective and responsible intercultural training with an experienced practitioner and provide participants with an opportunity to work on training designs for a variety of intercultural training challenges.

Intercultural Leadership Competence October 29-30, 2011 Bram Groen, Professor, School of International Service, American University This course is an intensive practicum for individuals engaged in or aspiring to a leadership role in a global, cross-cultural setting. The practicum addresses important cross-cultural aspects of global leadership and related subjects such as diversity management, teamwork, decision making, and negotiations. Drawing from “real-life” international work situations and challenges, participants will be exposed to case studies and smallgroup activities designed to articulate and reconcile cross-cultural business/organizational dilemmas.

Building Mediator Capacity in a Multicultural Context November 19-20, 2011 Gururaj Kumar, Training and Policy Program Director, ICONS Project, University of Maryland, and Jared Ordway, Senior Practitioner, Catalyst, IpF To successfully tackle the challenges of today’s multicultural academic and professional landscape, individuals must be able to facilitate difficult conversations and manage conflict effectively. Building the capacity to mediate successfully with differing cultural perspectives is a critical component for creating and maintaining sustainable relationships with colleagues and stakeholders. Designed as an interactive workshop, this institute provides participants with essential cross-cultural conflict management skills for building collaborative relationships when working with individuals and groups in conflict.

For the most up-to-date information and to register visit: www.american.edu/sis/imi Skills Institutes are available for academic credit or as professional development workshops.

Spring 2011

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Misreading the Afghan Cultural Code

by Faizullah Jan “Once we decode the Cultural DNA of any given culture, we can use it to better understand behavior and shape future decision and actions.”—Dorothy Guy Bonvillain and William Gary McGuire1

W

ithin days of 9/11, President George W. Bush issued a five-point ultimatum to the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, which included handing over Osama Bin Laden. He called upon the Taliban to comply immediately, or to face the consequences. The Taliban has faced the consequences for not complying, but so has the United States for attacking Afghanistan without understanding its Cultural DNA. Case One: To the U.S., the Taliban looked defiant, but for the fanatic rulers of Afghanistan, the American ultimatum was no less than outlandish. Both the parties could not understand each other’s action chains because they did not know about each other’s culture. Throughout its history Afghanistan has been ruled by ethnic Pakhtuns*, who comprise more than 50% of the total population. The Taliban, too, are ethnically Pakhtuns who live by their centuries-old tribal cultural code called Pakhtunwali.

It is this Pakhtunwali which has stopped the Taliban from handing over Bin Laden to the U.S. Pakhtunwali, which means “the way of the Pakhtuns,” is the tribal code of honor and ethics and “for the Pakhtuns there is no contradiction for being Pakhtun and practicing Pakhtunwali and being Muslim and adhering to Islamic law.”2 To understand the behavior of the Taliban, it is necessary to understand the unwritten code of life of the Pakhtuns.

Faizullah Jan is a graduate student of International Communication at the School of International Service of American University and hopes to continue on for a Ph.D. in Communication. He previously worked as a journalist for six years in Peshawar, Pakistan covering conflict and social issues and also served as a lecturer at the University of Peshawar’s School of Journalism.

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Intercultural There Management are nine core tenets of Pakhtunwali: Institute Puth (self-

Skills Institutes

esteem), Khegara (welfare), Toora (bravery or chivalry), Wafa (loyalty), Nung (honor), Badal (revenge), Nanawatay (asylum or refuge), Jirga (arbitration) and Milmastya (hospitality). The tenant Fallof2010 Nanawatay is central to the idea of this article.

Building Mediator Capacity in a Multi-cultural Context For Pakhtuns, Pakhtunwali is their skin, their identity

20-21, and their very November purpose of life.

“It 2010 is the core of social behavior Pakhtuns although unwritten not deGururajforKumar, Training and Policy and Program fined precisely; it is Project, part fiction and partofreality and can Director, ICONS University Maryland, beand found in the songs,Program proverbs, Specialist, metaphors,National thus never Jared Ordway, away from the individual’s mind.”3 Association for Community Mediation Pakhtunwali, though rigid, makes the Pakhtun society egalitarian: boundSpring by a code of 2011 honor and ethics, every Pakhtun enjoys a great degree of freedom irrespective of his social or political standing in the society. The following anecdote illustrates how a common Pakhtun lives by this code of Nanawatay and how it makes him “defiant” even in front of no less than a sovereign ruler: Amir Sher Ali Khan (1863-1866), the king of Afghanistan, had been hunting in the mountains of his country when he hit a goat which got injured but ran away. The king’s retinue chased the goat which entered the hut of a peasant. The king’s men asked the peasant to hand over the injured goat to them. But the peasant refused to do so. His argument was that since the goat has taken shelter or asylum with him, his Pakhtunwali did not allow him to hand it over. He was told that the king had been hunting it, but even this did not waver the poor peasant in his determination. Thus, Amir Sher Ali Khan’s men had to return empty-handed.

The king and his men knew that the peasant would rather choose to die than violate his Pakhtunwali and therefore set off on their expedition without any grudge or retribution against the peasant. However, it does not mean that any person who commits a crime can take refuge with another Pakhtun to escape the law or tradition.

Pakhtunwali dictates that once the situation is clear, after an arbitration, which is Jirga (by a council for arbitration)—another tenet of Pakhtunwali—the accused is handed over to a council of the elders to decide his fate.

Intercultural Management Quarterly

Bin Laden was wanted by the U.S. and had taken refuge in Afghanistan. Expecting the Taliban to hand him over to the U.S. without any arbitration by a third party was a grave breach of their code of Pakhtunwali and was culturally impossible.

Bin Laden, long before 9/11, had sought asylum with the Taliban by entering their “hospitality” (Milmastya).

With the passage of time, the Bin Laden issue weaved through every tenet of Pakhtunwali: for the Taliban, it became the matter of self-esteem, welfare, bravery or chivalry, loyalty, honor, revenge, asylum, arbitration and hospitality—all at the same time.

A grand Islamic council of around 800 men had concluded after the U.S. ultimatum—and the Taliban leadership endorsed it—that Bin Laden should be asked to leave Afghanistan. “The Taliban covertly offered to turn Osama Bin Laden to Pakistan for trial in an international tribunal that would operate according to Islamic Shari’a law.”4 The Taliban’s reaction to the whole issue was within the context of Pakhtunwali because they did not want to “lose face” by acting otherwise.

Hawkins says once provided hospitality, the guest is assumed to be under the protection of the host and great loss of honor will result should the guest be harmed.5 “Anyone who hands Bin Laden over to the Americans might be $25m richer in reward money but the disgrace would hang over this person, along with his family, clan and tribe for many generations. Whoever betrays him, why, his life wouldn’t be worth an onion.”6 Milmastya is almost without limit, even to those that are considered to be outlaws by another authority (other families, tribes, provincial or national governments, etc.). The Taliban’s refusal to hand over Bin Laden can be justly viewed as a manifestation of this aspect of the tribal code they had been raised to view as normal.7 In short, the U.S. could get Bin Laden if they would study and understand Pakhtunwali whose grip even the “puritanical” Taliban could not afford to escape. After all they are Pakhtuns, for whom Pakhtunwali is the essence of their identity and there is no distinction between practicing Pakhtunwali and being Pakhtun.

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Case Two: After the toppling of the Taliban regime by the U.S., the United Nations committed a cultural faux pas by convening a Loya Jirga in Bonn, Germany, which established the Afghan Interim Authority. Loya Jirga (council of the elders or grand council) is a centuries-old Afghan institution that works like a parliament, but its members are not elected. The members of the Loya Jirga represent the different ethnic groups of Afghanistan and it is convened by the ruler in times of crisis or to take a major decision.

Just like Pakhtunwali, there are no written rules governing the Loya Jirga, but it is an abiding part of the Afghan culture whose values are internalized by the people.

As per tradition, a Loya Jirga cannot be held outside the soil of Afghanistan. Historically, only one such Jirga had been held in Quetta, Pakistan. Perhaps this was admissible because this border city had been part of Afghanistan before the British colonials drew the Durand Line in 1893 to make Afghanistan a buffer state between the British Empire and Czarist Russia. The 1500-mile long Durand Line, which for most of its length is not clearly defined, cuts across the Pakhtuns’ mainland—dividing them between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Since the Bonn Loya Jirga had been convened by an outside force (the U.N.) and in a foreign territory, it carried no sanctity in the eyes of the Afghans. Even the Taliban could not convene such a Jirga inside Afghanistan in the present circumstances because the participation of all ethnic communities of Afghanistan is difficult to ensure. Just using cultural and historical names for imposing a government in Afghanistan is not going to deliver results.

Case Three: In 2004, Afghanistan held its first-ever “democratic” elections to choose a government. Afghanistan is a tribal/feudal society, which has a unique relationship with its central authority. Even kings and rulers had no absolute authority across the country. Most of them had their hold on the capital of Kabul, with a loose power-sharing arrangement with tribal chiefs.

Democracy is about making a free and informed decision to elect a parliament in a secret ballot. In the case of Afghanistan, which is war-shattered and has one of

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Cultural Code... the lowest literacy rates in the world and no widespread independent press, a common Afgan cannot make an ‘informed’ decision when casting a vote. Furthermore, democratic elections require the secrecy of the ballot, while in the Afghan culture loyalty or preference has to be expressed openly without any fear.

An individual’s immediate protection is his tribe.

Therefore, when it comes to elections the whole tribe decides whom to choose after a collective and unanimous decision. Here individual choice ends; whereas, in case of an independent/individual decision the “deviant” has to fend for himself all alone. I by no means want to build a case against democracy in Afghanistan, but this is how the present feudal/tribal set-up functions in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan needs social and economic development, which brings social and cultural changes in its wake.

With economic development, tribal and feudal structures will soften and make way for democracy. Without shedding tribalism, Afghanistan (or, for that matter any other country) cannot leapfrog to the higher stage of democracy. No one country can impose its way of life on other countries that have not lived through the stages of similar development, and Afghanistan is one such country.8 The United States and the West seem to be in a hurry to see a democratic dispensation in Afghanistan by staging elections without first decoding the Cultural DNA of that country. The liberal traditions that are embedded in the United States’ founding documents and its civic culture are not universal. Every country evolves its own traditions and civic values in a historical context—and in a time of peace and tranquility, which Afghanistan desperately needs at this point of time than any time else.

It is this historical context that the United States and the Western world seem to be oblivious to in Afghanistan. Understanding the progressive stages through which cultures inter alia evolve provides a key to resolving major conflicts, so many of which stem from clashes between different ways of thinking.9

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Looking at today’s Afghanistan through the prism of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, peace comes out first followed by socio-economic development. Western-style democracy can take a back seat, at least for the time being. If the present democracy fails to deliver, which seems fairly certain, the people of Afghanistan will hark back to their dark past. i

*Pakhtuns

are also known as Pashtuns and the code is also called Pashtunwali. This article will uses the term Pakhtun and Pakhtunwali.

Endnotes 1. Dorothy Bonvillain and William McGuire, “American Cultural DNA,” Intercultural Management Quarterly, Vol. 11, No. 02, (Spring 2010): 16-18.

2. Palwasha Kakar, “Tribal Law of Pakhtunwali and Women’s Legislative Authority,” Afghan Legal History Project, Harvard Law School.

3. Ahmed, Akbar S. “An Aspect of the Colonial Encounter in the North-West Frontier Province.” Asian Affairs, 9(3), 1978: 319-327.

4. Marya Williamson, Terrorism, War and International Law: The Legality and the Use of Force Against Afghanistan in 2001 (Burlington: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2009), 170.

5. Jonathan Hawkins, “The Pashtun Culture Code: Pashtunwali,” Australian Defence Force Journal, 180 (2009): 16-27.

6. Hawkins, 2009.

7. Richard Strickland, “The Way of the Pashtun: Pashtunwali,” The Canadian Army Journal, Vol. 10.3, (Fall 2007): 44-55.

8. Bonvillain and McGuire, 2010.

9. ibid.

Intercultural Management Quarterly

A Changing Landscape: Cell Phone Apps as Cross-Cultural Trainers?

by Zoe Stathopoulos

A

mid an increasingly complex and interconnected global media landscape, a system of borderless communication has developed that defies traditional avenues of information dissemination and intercultural interaction. Within this system, new forms of digital communication, namely online technology and social media, have become vital vehicles through which information is received and processed. These virtual, web-based systems have fostered an interactive media scene that clouds the conventional boundaries of intercultural relations and makes international communication an instantly accessible reality. However, widespread access to these new mediums increases the number of channels through which intercultural misunderstandings may occur. As a result, cross-cultural training becomes a greater necessity in order to provide a contextual understanding that may help explain cultural behaviors both on and off-line.

These digital systems of communication have become arguably the easiest and fastest means of information diffusion. Facebook and Twitter are used internationally as mediums for cross-cultural interaction and civil society engagement; their influence on the global free flow of information is immeasurable. While these media channels facilitate international communication, they function primarily as a means for information sharing and do not provide guidance for intercultural interactions. They generate connectivity, not cultural training. However, a new facet of digital media has emerged that attempts to undertake the role of cross-cultural training, and further challenges the traditional resources through which we receive cultural information: cell phone applications.

As these programs continue to build online indexes of culture-specific data, the frequency and demand for live,

Zoe Stathopoulos is a graduate student in the American University, pursuing a master’s degree in International Communication. She received her bachelor’s degree from American in International Relations, concentrating on International Peace and Conflict Resolution.

Spring 2011

facilitated training in intercultural communications may be simultaneously threatened.

The need for this interactive training emerges as a result of the global expansion of businesses and of employees entering unfamiliar overseas work environments.

Alongside this rise in international assignments, the reality of experiencing debilitating culture shock becomes an increasing concern. As scholar and professor Gary Weaver argues, culture shock results primarily from the following three causes: a clash of values, a breakdown in communication and an identity crisis. In order to help soften the symptoms often associated with culture shock and to empower employees with the skills essential in fostering intercultural understanding, proper cross-cultural training is essential.1 However, the desire or ability to attend these programs varies; the likelihood that an international business traveler begins his overseas experience with insufficient knowledge of the new culture’s behavioral norms and appropriate business etiquette is a worrisome reality.

So, if the traveler is unable or unwilling to attend a facilitated cross-cultural training prior to departure, is he doomed to disabling culture shock or committing a business faux pas? Well, maybe not entirely, suggests the new, digital wave of mobile technology.

The popular social media blog, Mashable, recently wrote an article about the top five iPhone business etiquette applications in its International Business series.2 Many of the highlighted applications (apps) are designed to build cultural understanding by providing easily downloadable and portable sets of culture specific data to help prepare the international traveler or businessman for an overseas experience. These condensed cultural encyclopedias offer the user baseline knowledge of cultural differences and expectations, behavioral cues and business etiquette tips. Mashable acknowledges that the apps do not suffice in developing international fluency, but that they “supplement research by providing important cultural information when you need it.”2 The list of apps includes: Business Practices by the Brannen Group, Culture GPS Lite by sales-genetics Ltd & Co. KG, Business Traveler’s Passport Series by rid!culous, World Customs

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Cell Phones... & Cultures by Hooked In Motion and International Business Etiquette by Kwintessential Ltd. The pervasiveness of these iPhone apps illustrates how, as digital media continues to permeate our communications landscape, consumers are becoming increasingly dependent on cell phones as providers of cultural information. With such a growing mobile audience, these applications harbor the ability to influence consumers and cultural affairs and to create programs that build crosscultural awareness and that foster successful intercultural relations. But, as cultures continue to change and evolve, phone apps that provide “how-to” guidebooks also threaten to oversimplify the intricacies of cultures and of our globalizing world and offer the consumer an incomplete understanding of cross-cultural interactions.

As it was one of the free apps recommended in Mashable’s article, I downloaded Culture GPS Lite on my iPhone to test its effectiveness. This program uses Geert Hofstede’s set of five cultural dimensions—power distance, individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance

and long-term orientation—as a guideline to generate an index of cultural data, with a list of associated traits that allows for cultural comparison.3 This app provides a concise description of each dimension and Hofstede’s numerical ranking for each country, from 1-100, under all five categories. Accompanying each dimension is a list of characteristics indicative of a high or low ranking, with one representing the lowest. For example, the application defines Power Distance as the “extent to which the less powerful members of society expect and accept that power is distributed unequally,” a higher number denoting a greater societal acceptance of hierarchy. Prior to viewing a country’s ratings, a reminder box pops up on the app’s home screen that encourages the user to review the traits associated with each dimensions. However, the user is also given the option to turn off the reminder, which could cause him to misinterpret the dimensions.

After testing this app myself, I would argue that it illustrates both the advantages and threats of digital media in adequately providing intercultural training. This app is likely valuable to the international traveler who

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Intercultural Management Quarterly

has not experienced cross-cultural training. It provides an introduction to the culture’s normative behaviors and customs that may help him avoid offensive actions. It offers increased access and convenience to a reference set of relatively robust cultural pillars for business etiquette and management, proper behavioral practices and cultural cues. And, in a consumer-based society driven by efficiency and the availability of information “when you need it,” this app is appealing to an on-the-go traveler.

It is also the simplicity and portability of this app, however, that is perilous and threatens to underestimate the complexities of a given culture. For example, the app (and Hofstede’s ratings in general) fails to distinguish or note the variety of cultures that likely exist within the country itself; culture in this app is defined by country. The app rates Kenya a 70 for Power Distance, but does not distinguish between the many cultures prominent within Kenya whose cultures differ greatly, like the Kikuyu, Masai and Luo tribes. How beneficial is the knowledge provided in this app, then, if it does not train the user to understand the attributes of a specific culture? And, to further critique its content, these dimensions have not been updated since 2008 and includes roughly 100 countries, leaving out many like Cyprus and Nicaragua.

Thus, the use of Hofstede’s rating system without proper context is one of the most critical flaws in the application. In addition to omitting the various cultures within a given country, the app does not explain how Hofstede determined each country’s rating; what does an uncertainty avoidance of 75 really mean? Which characteristics are most prominent in that country—is it the “inner urge to work hard” or the “showing of emotions accepted”? These traits matter in understanding cultural behavior.

As an example, let’s assess the United States, which received the following values: Power Distance 40; Individualism 91; Masculinity 62; Uncertainty Avoidance 46; Long Term Orientation 29. The meaning of an individualism rating is fairly straightforward. The United States is rated very highly in individualism and

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one could deduce that this means it expects people to look out for their own interests and values personal achievement, which as an American, I found to be accurate. However, the meaning of a masculinity rank is much more ambiguous. What does it mean to have a masculinity rating of 62? Culture GPS Lite describes a highly masculine country as an achievement-oriented society that “lives in order to work” and exhibits a “need to excel.” This ideology is pervasive in a competitive society like the United States where ambition is rewarded and revered, and I would have expected a high number value. However, the application ranks countries that are arguably more oriented toward social welfare and family affairs, and less focused on achievement, such as Italy and Colombia, higher than the United States on masculinity (Italy 70; Colombia 64). Just as puzzling are those countries typically viewed as achievement-oriented, like Singapore that scored lower than the United States (42).

This confusion is largely a result of the program’s failure to provide a narrative explaining the specific traits that each country emphasizes, an omission that may contribute to cultural misunderstanding.

Aside from content review, and as a more rudimentary design review, the application has a few drawbacks.

The app requires you to search for a country by scrolling down the list and does not let you type in a country name, a feature that would save time and improve its ease of use. The app’s look could also be improved; the home screen is deceiving, as touching the world map yields no result and functions purely as an image.

Furthermore, a critically important disclaimer for this application is relatively hidden at the bottom of the application’s “about” section. This disclaimer appropriately argues that cultures are complex interconnected systems and that the information presented within the application is merely a “guideline”; that the use of the program without complementary intercultural management trainings “may result in error.” However, this clause is barely visible and would be more beneficial if it appeared on the app’s main screen, serving as a constant reminder of the incomplete cultural framework depicted.

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Cell Phones...

Based upon my experience with this app, its increased accessibility to an index of cultural differences alone does not suffice in adequate cross-cultural training. Furthermore, other free apps hosting similar limited content would likely contain the same weaknesses. As business executive Dean Foster emphasizes, cross-cultural training is incomplete without a live, facilitated training session that helps foster the “global mindset” necessary for complete cross-cultural preparedness.4 He argues that the goals of cross-cultural training “should not merely be to access and download cultural facts on the level of an awareness of “dos and don’ts,” but rather to be able to implement new and effective behaviors.”5 Thus, while Culture GPS Lite offers an initial introduction to intercultural differences and has the potential to lessen the intimidation, inconvenience and resistance often associated with cross-cultural training, it does not promote the “global effectiveness skills” that Foster advocates.

In conclusion, for the traveler who doesn’t experience facilitated training, this app can help soften the impact of culture shock and prepare the international traveler with an introductory set of cultural customs and appropriate behavioral cues. Culture GPS Lite and other limited apps, however, do not develop the “global mindset” that is a crucial component to cross-cultural success and sustainability. Their condensed nature provides a seemingly “how-to” cultural guidebook, which may oversimplify and generalize the behaviors and cultural nuances only understood through facilitated crosscultural training. While other, more expansive apps may provide a greater range of content and detail for the traveler, it remains to be seen whether they can replicate the cross-cultural skills gained from in-person training; my assessment of Culture GPS Lite suggests this would be a difficult feat to achieve. Thus, as digital media and new technology advance, they will juggle the responsibility of developing programs that accurately illustrate cultural intricacies and sufficiently prepare the overseas traveler, while simultaneously appealing to a consumer-based audience. i

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Endnotes 1. Gary R. Weaver, “Understanding and Coping with Cross-Cultural Adjustment Stress” in Culture, Communication and Conflict: Readings in Intercultural Relations, 2nd ed. Gary Weaver (Boston: Pearson Publishing, 2000), 178.

2. Mashable, “5 iPhone Apps For Avoiding International Business Faux Pas.” http://mashable.com/2010/12/06/ iphone-apps-business-travel/ (accessed December 5, 2010).

3. itim International, “Geert Hofstede Cultural Dimensions,” http://www.geert-hofstede.com/index.shtml (accessed December 5, 2010).

4. Dean Foster, “Don’t Just Blend In: Cultural Training in a Post-Global World,” Intercultural Management Quarterly 11, no. 3 (Fall 2010): 20.

5. ibid.

Intercultural Management Quarterly

Cross-Cultural Conflict Experienced by English Teachers in Korea

by Ben Sommers

F

ree airfare, no obligation to pay rent and insurance, and all you need is a Bachelor’s degree–these are the basic elements found in any job description for English teachers in Korea. For students fresh out of college and looking for adventure overseas, working as an English teacher in Korea sounds appealing and safe.

Admittedly, my own two years as an English teacher in both rural and urban Korea was largely motivated by this combination of a foreign environment and the accompanying economic incentives.

The demand for English teachers has boomed in parallel with the rising number of private after-school English academies that serve as a complement to language classes in public schools. The US Embassy estimates there are over 100,000 English academies in Korea, and the vast majority of those are staffed by one or more foreign teachers.1 The proliferation of supplementary English education is due to the increasing importance placed on English proficiency in Korean society.

As an export-driven, Western-integrated economy, Korea is home to many companies that now require potential recruits to take the Test Of English for International Communication (TOEIC) examination as part of their application for employment. The emphasis on English is beginning at younger and younger ages as competition intensifies over a limited number of jobs. English-language kindergartens are becoming a standard and most elementary and middle school students continue their English language education at private academics called hagwons after their normal school day. While on the surface, this phenomenon may simply look like progress, but, there are important implications that arise from the intersection of two very different cultural backgrounds.

Ben Sommers is a first year M.A. Candidate in International Communication at the School of International Service at American University.

After completing his B.A. he spent two years as an English teacher in Korea.

Spring 2011

Not all foreign English teachers are recent college graduates; there are a wide range of ages and lifestyles within Seoul and Korea’s other provinces. However, what does remain consistent is that most English teachers are Caucasian North Americans. They are Western-educated and have had limited exposure to Korean educational and societal culture. Many teachers get off the plane at Incheon International Airport, are transported to their new, semi-furnished homes and find themselves in the classroom the next day. In the span of a little over a day or two they are transported from a room of family and friends to a room with twelve nervous Korean children.

There is little time for cultural adjustment, and few opportunities for any type of formal orientation to Korea.

Teachers are left alone to experientially discover the subtleties of Korean culture. This rapid transition and the stark differences between the Korean pace of life and the Western one, is combined with one’s natural tendency to experience culture shock, resulting in great difficulties for many new English teachers.

The stress incurred from not only physically being in a new place, but also the high expectations placed on teachers within a short time of their arrival, can lead to severe instances of culture shock. Teachers are often “thrown to the wolves” and placed alone in classrooms of ten to twelve primary school-aged Korean children with varying levels of English proficiency. Not only must they begin to function as educators, they are also confronted with immediate communication difficulties due to linguistic and cultural differences. Outside of the classroom, foreign teachers are also vulnerable to insecurities that arise as a result of a loss of their ability to fully assert themselves due to language barriers that exist not only within their school, but also in their personal life. Many teachers are often ill prepared for the cross-cultural interactions that will occur, from the intrigue their appearance provokes in a very homogenous population, to the necessary adoption of new social cues to perform the most basic functions, to problems communicating clearly with their boss. The reaction to these difficult situations varies greatly by individual, but they are common instances the majority of English teachers face.

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Korea...

The implications of culture shock can be particularly serious for English teachers. They do not have time to mentally adjust to the changes around them; rather they must shelve their discomfort while beginning their teaching jobs. Some are better at coping with this than others. While most teaching contracts last one year, in 2009, 42.4% of foreign teachers in Korea ended their contracts after only six months. Out of this percentage, 15.4% “pulled a runner,” or abruptly left the country without notifying their school.2

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workday in what I viewed as an intrusion into my personal time. These examples of differing realities, which many English teachers experience with great frequency, can lead to negative perceptions and cross cultural tension.

Other struggling teachers seek isolation or form tight communities with other foreigners to help insulate themselves from unsettling situations. Another more dangerous consequence is the onset of aggressive behavior. Misunderstandings because of language and cultural differences can lead to hostile confrontations with Koreans. As foreigners become increasingly paranoid due to their inability to function in their new environment, they may view incidents as personal attacks based on their status as a foreigner. This can begin to cultivate an “us versus them” mentality and firmly shape their view of Korea and Koreans in a negative light. Oftentimes, this negative attitude toward Koreans sticks throughout the duration of their time in Korea, and the individual will continually find new ways to reinforce the feeling that Koreans intend to humiliate and alienate them.

It took a considerable amount of time for me to realize the cultural bases for these realities and become comfortable with them. For instance, with age comes a certain amount of unspoken privilege in Korea. Younger Koreans understand and live with this compromise partially by ceding to older generations, including in line at the supermarket. In a restaurant an intervening server not only feels responsible for the quality of the food, but may also be trying to prevent you from being embarrassed. They treat tables of dining Koreans no differently.

The mandatory after-work drinking sessions are reflective of Korea’s collectivist foundations where the workplace is seen as an extension of the family, and therefore constitutes a set of expectations unfamiliar to more individualistic foreigners. There is a limit to the extent that foreign English teachers can insulate themselves from these features of Korean culture, as they are required to interact with the people and society everyday. Learning to adapt to them and approach them with humility, even humor, is part of the process that creates a positive experience for the foreign population in Korea.

An already tenuous situation is exacerbated further if the teacher is living in the Seoul vicinity, which is home to over twenty-three million people. It is one of the most densely populated cities on the planet. The differences in environment and expectation are what I personally had the hardest time adapting to. If, like me, a teacher is fresh from a sprawling college campus, the constant jostling and lack of apologies in a city as big as Seoul can become a common source of frustration. While at a store there were times when older men and women would entirely disregard the line in what seemed to be instances of blatant arrogance. In my early days going out to eat barbecue I would often be surprised by a server silently removing the cooking utensils from my hands and proceeding to cut and cook the meat themselves. I also struggled with the burden of being required to eat and drink with my boss and coworkers at the end of a tiring

The saga continues inside the classroom. Western philosophies on child rearing and education are distinctly different from Korean ones. While the school might ask its teacher to provide an English environment for their students, the teacher unconsciously brings their culture into the classroom as well. For the teacher and for the young Korean children, this cultural collision can be confusing. At the most fundamental level Korean education is centered on listening, absorbing and regurgitating, which is very different from the active, participatory environment that is encouraged in a Western classroom.

English teachers in Korea, even those with formal backgrounds in education, may find it frustrating that their questions go unanswered. However, young Korean students simply may not be able to understand the changing contexts and expectations between their Korean and English classrooms.

Intercultural Management Quarterly

Discipline is another issue where cultural differences arise. When a child avoids eye contact in America, it is seen as an act of defiance, a refusal to acknowledge the discipliner. In Korea the opposite is true. Children may avert eye contact to show they accept their reprimand and are not challenging the authority figure. A teacher who misunderstands this basic conflict interaction cannot help the child, and will only perpetuate a negative learning atmosphere.

So what is being done to increase cross-cultural understanding? Institutionalized solutions are tricky. Most English schools are private businesses and accountable only to the parents holding the wallet. While the majority of teachers have high standards for themselves, ones who should not be in classrooms are often not released from their contracts because the process of replacement is costly and time consuming. The government faces a similar conundrum. It wants to support the increase of English education as it benefits Korea’s twenty-first century economy; but by implementing tighter hiring standards on the industry it would be hindering its growth.

One increasing trend among established hagwons is to hire only teachers who are professionally certified.

However, such standards may be pointless as there is no evidence that a certified English teacher will adapt any more smoothly than a non-certified teacher. There are additional logistical problems with creating crosscultural orientation programs. Many foreigners are hired through private recruiters or directly by the school.

These entities do not require cross-cultural orientation, and many adventure-hungry foreigners may feel they do not need one. Whereas State Department or military officials have the infrastructure in place to both ease them into new cultural settings and support them during their stay, a similar framework is missing in Korea. The Peace Corps is comprised of some of the world’s most altruistic and culturally-empathetic individuals, and they still experience drop outs!

Clearly there are no clear-cut or easy answers, and complete cross-cultural harmony is an unrealistic expectation. But as the industry grows there is an immediate need for change. One good place to start would be

Spring 2011

to encourage hagwons to give their teachers more time to adjust to the uncertainty and sensory overload they experience when stepping into their new environment.

Additionally, current government-sponsored cultural orientation programs should be required by both public and private schools that staff foreign teachers. The content of these programs should be focused on relevant issues, regardless of how embarrassing they may be, rather than simply promoting Korea’s cultural highlights. Instead of showing pictures of kimchi, the limited time would be better spent bringing together Korean school workers, seasoned English teachers and new teachers to engage in constructive dialogue that addresses situations they will likely face. At my first job, I was the only foreign teacher at my school and therefore lacked the guidance from more experienced peers. An inclusive orientation program could never have provided solutions to each difficult situation, but could have helped align my expectations with the reality that awaited.

Ultimately, responsibility lies with the teacher to exercise patience and empathy in adjustment. Many foreign teachers are able to do just that and leave Korea with a rich set of experiences and a feeling of personal growth. But for those who do not, while they may experience personal feelings of failure, there are also consequences that can extend beyond themselves into their interactions with their students. The process of becoming comfortable in Korea is not intended to be easy, and there are no silver bullet solutions. But, without proper cultural adjustment, simple misunderstandings can balloon into larger, more serious tensions. Well-designed cross-cultural orientation programs would have a hand in minimizing these negative effects. i

Endnotes 1. Embassy of the United States Seoul Korea, “Teaching English: Cultural Pitfalls”; available from http://seoul. usembassy.gov/t_cultural.html.

2. Yonhap News Agency. 2010. English teacher dropout rates raise alarm bells. Joongang Daily. Oct. 1 2010.

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