Culture shock

• Refers to the feeling of disorientation,

uncertainty, and anxiety that people may
experience when they enter a culture that is
significantly different from their own.

The Four Stages of Culture Shock

1. Honeymoon stage
2. Frustration stage
3. Adjustment stage
4. Acceptance/Adaptation stage.
5. The Reverse Culture Shock Stage
Challenges of cross cultural comm’
1. ETHNOCENTRISM
• We all have a natural tendency to look at other cultures through our
own lenses. Ethnocentrism happens when we implicitly believe our
way of doing things and seeing things is the right and only way.
• As a result, we negatively judge behaviours that don’t conform to our
world vision. We perceive other’s behaviours as odd and improper.
Ethnocentrism also creates an “us versus them” mentality that can be
detrimental.
2. STEREOTYPING
• It’s also common to rely on oversimplified clichés about people from
different cultures. In fact, there are quite a few cross-cultural trainings
in the market that are focused on memorizing cultural differences and
can reinforce stereotyping. For example inviting guests for dinner,
kikuyus are thieves, etc
1. ETHNOCENTRISM
• We all have a natural tendency to look at other cultures through our
own lenses. Ethnocentrism happens when we implicitly believe our
way of doing things and seeing things is the right and only way.
• As a result, we negatively judge behaviours that don’t conform to our
world vision. We perceive other’s behaviours as odd and improper.
Ethnocentrism also creates an “us versus them” mentality that can be
detrimental.
2. STEREOTYPING
• It’s also common to rely on oversimplified clichés about people from
different cultures. In fact, there are quite a few cross-cultural trainings
in the market that are focused on memorizing cultural differences and
can reinforce stereotyping. For example inviting guests for dinner,
kikuyus are thieves, etc
3. PSYCHOLOGICAL BARRIERS
• To manage cross-cultural teams successfully, you need to flex your
own style. It’s not easy to go against your natural preferences.
4. LANGUAGE BARRIERS
• All teams have a common language, but when some people are more
fluent than others, it creates social distance between members.
• In global teams, people who are less fluent in English tend to
withdraw from communication, which means the team may not get all
the input it needs.
5. GEOGRAPHICAL DISTANCE
• In global virtual teams, people don’t get the chance to interact and
build relationships with each other as in a traditional office
environment. And the less you know about people, the less you share
information with them. Collaboration within virtual teams is,
therefore, more challenging.
6. CONFLICTING VALUES
• Culture is like an iceberg: what you see are the behaviours, and those
are influenced by the invisible values under the water line.
• Cultural clashes happen when other people’s behaviour compromises
our own values. Often, when you don’t understand or don’t agree
with a behaviour, it means that there are conflicting values under the
water line.
• There is no right or wrong way of doing things; it’s just a matter of
cultural norms.
Common conflicting cultural values (Compoint, 2018) :
a) Task oriented vs. relationship oriented - conversations
can be to enhance relationships or build business
contacts
b) Direct vs. indirect communication - it is a sign of
professionalism to speak clearly and leave no room for
misinterpretation. In some cultures people prefer to
communicate indirectly.
c) Open subtle disagreement - People from different parts
of the world also vary in the amount of emotion they
show during professional conversations. Cultures that
place a high value on “face” and group harmony may be
averse to confrontation, like in China & Japan. In other
cultures, having a “good fight” is a sign of trust, like in
the Netherlands & America.
a) Informality vs. formality - To informal people,
formality might be interpreted as the sign of
stiffness, while informality to formal people
might be perceived as a lack of
professionalism.
b) Structured vs. flexible scheduling - All
businesses follow timetables, but in some
cultures, people strictly adhere to the
schedule, whereas in others, they treat it as a
suggestion. For example time keeping
c) Egalitarian vs. hierarchical - Team members
from more egalitarian countries, such as
Sweden, may be accustomed to voicing their
unfiltered opinions and ideas, while those
from more hierarchical cultures tend to speak
up only after more senior colleagues have
expressed their views.