What do you think is the ‘right’ way to behave?
If your boss is talking to you, should you look them in the eye or look down at the ground? What’s the best way to show respect?
We all have our own behavioural preferences but these are heavily influenced by the different cultural environments we have spent time in. This means the country or countries we’ve lived in, our family, our friends, the schools we’ve gone to, the industry we work in, the company we work for and so on.
Generally speaking, in the UK, most people would probably agree that looking your superiors in the eye when they’re talking to you is a sign of respect (and honesty). However in other cultures around the world (such as in Nigeria or Kenya, for example) the opposite is true. It’s a small and simple thing but a lack of knowledge about these cultural differences can cause serious problems if people working in diverse teams take offence at each other’s behaviour.
And it’s not just non-verbal gestures such as these that differ, so too does our communication style. In countries like the UK and even more so in the US many people tend to favour a more direct communication style. It is fairly normal to come straight out and let others know if we can’t make an appointment or important engagement, for example. However, we’re not all the same, and others prefer to go for the gentle approach with a more indirect communication style. ‘It could be tricky but I’ll do my best’ etc.
Nevertheless, in the Anglo/Western world there usually comes a point at which even those indirect communicators recognise the onus is on them to make it clear that they can’t do whatever it is they’re being asked to. This is something that differs greatly in other cultures such as in Japanese or other East Asian countries where people prioritise saving face over direct expressions of the truth. When interacting with people from such cultures, we need to spend a lot more time ‘reading between the lines’ to understand what others are telling us. We need to become attuned to picking up when a ‘maybe’ is actually a hard no!
Over the years, cross-cultural psychologists, sociologists and organisational theorists have tried to identify these cultural differences in values, attitudes and behaviour in order to help those of us ‘crossing cultures’ (i.e. all of us, nowadays) to navigate their way through this complex maze.
In the early 1970s, the Dutch social psychologist Geert Hofstede developed the first version of his well-known cultural dimensions theory, based on the cultural differences in work-related values revealed after he surveyed thousands of IBM employees around the world. Hofstede’s model was highly influential on subsequent studies in the field and introduced dimensions such as Individualism/Collectivism (cultural differences in the importance of the individual as compared to the community), Power Distance (how cultures think about hierarchy and leadership) and Uncertainty Avoidance (the extent to which cultures tolerate uncertainty and ambiguity).
In the 70s and 80s the American anthropologist Edward Hall focused his research on communication style, coming up with the concept of low-context (direct) communication versus high-context (indirect) communication we have already described. He was also interested by cultural differences in the use of personal space and in approach to time, and came up with the idea of monochronic time (which prioritises punctuality and sequential tasks) versus polychronic time (which prioritises relationships over tasks and flexibility).
In the 1990s Fons Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner created a new 7 dimension cultural model which extended Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, adding – amongst other things – the concept of universalism (the notion that rules apply to everyone, regardless of context) versus particularism (the notion that rules should be bent on occasion, depending on circumstances and relationships). Other interesting cultural dimensions they uncovered included Neutral versus Emotional (cultural differences in the expression of emotions) and Specific versus Diffuse (cultural differences in the extent to which work and personal life are separated).
In the early 2000s Michele Gelfand and her colleagues started to develop their concept of tight versus loose cultures, which essentially is based on the idea that certain cultures are much more averse to their cultural rules being broken than others. If you’ve ever tried to order a cappuccino after lunch in Italy, you’ll know what this is all about!
This is a short overview of just some of the most significant research into cultural values that has taken place over the last 50 years or so, and which has fed into the creation of the Cultural Intelligence Centre’s Behavioural Preferences profile.
This profile may be taken alongside the Cultural Intelligence Assessment. To create someone’s profile, we chose to measure someone’s preferences with regard to the top 10 cultural dimensions which cause the most misunderstanding/conflict in the workplace. We also made adaptations so we could capture individual behavioural preferences rather than cultural values at the country level. This gets away from the danger of stereotyping, and acknowledges the intersectionality of culture and the fact that there is huge variability within national cultures and within other social groups (eg race, gender, generation etc).
Being able to measure our behavioural preferences is a fantastic way to raise cultural awareness. This is how we can start to be more systematic about understanding our preferences and how they compare with those of our colleagues. However, increased cultural awareness is not enough on its own – we need to know what steps we can take to reduce potential conflict!
This is why the Cultural Intelligence assessment was developed alongside the Behavioural Preferences profile. Cultural Intelligence is our ability to relate to and work more effectively alongside those who are from different cultures to ourselves. And Cultural Intelligence training gives us the tools to start thinking about how to adapt when you have a team member who has very different ideas to you about the ‘right’ way to behave.
So, next time you think someone has behaved rudely, or oddly… don’t rush to judge! Stop and ask yourself – could it be down to their culture? And if so, what might you do differently next time?
Polly Collingridge, Senior Business Consultant, Cultural Intelligence Centre
14th Jan 2025
Reading list
Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind – Geert Hofstede, Gert Jan Hofstede, Michael Minkov (McGraw Hill, 3rd edition, 2010)
Riding the Waves of Culture: Understanding Diversity in Global Business – Fons Trompenaars & Charles Hampden-Turner (John Murray Business, 4th edition 2020)
Rule Makers, Rule Breakers: How Tight and Loose Cultures Wire our World – Michele Gelfand (Robinson, 2020)
Leading with Cultural Intelligence, David Livermore (HarperCollins, 3rd edition, 2024)