Cultural Differences in the Workplace?

[Olive42]

I know you should just treat the human being as an individual but I am struggling a little in my multi-nationality workplace at negotiating some cultural differences.

I am English and of a certain age (late 40s) and have been socialised to be polite, self-deprecating and to not offend people, I suppose. However, I am pretty strong at work and have to be direct but tactful and professional. (Am middle manager in the organisation).

Anyway, cutting a long story short, I work with some lovely people but at times the cultural differences really seem to stand out eg a French woman I work with definitely calls a spade, a spade which is refreshing but causes tension at times in meetings. A South African man I work with is great, funny and kind but seems to tell me how to do my job a few times a week and has breath-taking confidence/arrogance. But he is efficient and gets the job done.

How do I negotiate these perceived cultural differences without losing my cool? And do you think cultural differences exist? I don’t want to fall foul of my own unconscious bias to these differences if that makes sense. Any stick phrases I can go back to when my blood is inwardly boiling? 😆

Take a look at Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions theory. I’ve come across it a number of times whilst studying for my MBA and it is interesting in some of the insights on cultural differences. You may even get some ideas on how best to navigate your colleagues.

geerthofstede.com/culture-geert-hofstede-gert-jan-hofstede/6d-model-of-national-culture/

I am English and of a certain age (late 40s) and have been socialised to be polite, self-deprecating and to not offend people, I suppose. However, I am pretty strong at work and have to be direct but tactful and professional. (Am middle manager in the organisation).

this is so cringeworthy.

I doubt you’re doing this whole “socialisation” thing as well as you assume. As a manager, it’s likely your direct reports don’t see you in this manner and probably have plenty of negative things to say about you/your management style.

Ultimately you can do a lot to influence the culture of work. This sounds like you’re lacking basic management skills.

With the “French lady”, has anyone actually raised concerns or are you assuming they are offended?

With “South African” man, it sounds like a war of egos. You should just let it go unless anything has been said/done that he can be written up about. In either case, do you have the full support of your own management if you were to go down that route?

I get what you mean completely, it can feel tricky when different styles clash even if everyone has good intentions. You’re not imagining it, cultural differences really do show up in the workplace and they can feel personal even when they’re not meant that way. A book I’d really recommend is The Culture Map by Erin Meyer, it’s helped a lot of people make sense of exactly these situations. Another one is When Cultures Collide by Richard Lewis, which gives really practical advice for working with different nationalities.
Something that helps in the moment is having a go-to phrase like “thanks, let’s build on that” or “I hear you, let’s keep this balanced” so you don’t feel caught off guard. Over time you’ll probably find a rhythm with each person.
If you want to hear how others are navigating this kind of thing too, you might like to check out lifeabroadhero.com, people share their own experiences working and living across cultures there. Sometimes just knowing others are going through the same challenges makes it easier to handle

I'm not sure these are really cultural differences. To me they sound more like personality traits. Perhaps it would be helpful to look at these as personality clashes. It' sounds as though it's not their ethnicity or nationality giving you grief.

Ok…thanks for your point.

What I am getting from your post is that you are making quite a lot of assumptions about my management style from my ‘cringeworthy’ paragraph.

My role is definitely not to socialise my direct reports. They are already socialised and are professional adults who are good at their jobs - we all are in my organisation.

I am looking for ways to improve team dynamics and to encourage understanding.

My thoughts exactly!

There are plenty of English women who say it as it is in the workplace, and lots of English men think they can do a job better and are arrogant.

I don't know why you put it down to cultural differences.

@Matthew1324 i will read those books. Thank you for the recommendation. And thank you for the phrasing suggestions. I usually have pretty good communications skills but when inundated with workload (which we all are at the moment) or blindsided by a (what I would consider) crass comment, I sometimes forget the neutral phrases and tend to just stay quiet - which is sometimes helpful too as it allows the team to discuss, then I come in when ready.

It’s so interesting but not easy at times.

A friend really dislikes their DiL who is from one of the plain speaking countries. They are quite unpleasant about her, because she tells them what they should or shouldn’t do/eat/exercise. She sees nothing wrong in advising them constantly, and in contradicting them freely, they it as incredibly rude and overbearing.

It’s sad. Mind you, I don’t actually know she’s well meaning, but she seems to be!

I get this. I think the key is communication.
I was managing a lady who had just moved from India in a role that requires you to come up with solutions to problems. At first she would just ask me how to do things and follow to the letter what i'd said. When she got more experienced I noticed she was trying to solve any problems in exactly the same way - i.e. as I'd per my exact instructions, even if it didn't really work. When I fed this back to her she was shocked that I expected her to come to me with ideas of how to solve things. She said in India the hierarchy is everything and it's considered rude to not follow exactly what the more experienced person has said.

Great, thanks. That’s what I was asking. Maybe it is just personality traits.
i am starting to become more aware of my own (un)conscious bias - maybe this is part of that. Interesting.