For the purpose of this post I will be reflecting on this week’s course lesson regarding cultural differences and values while drawing from daily life situations. “Culture is the collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one category of people from another” (PSU, 2016). In other words, culture is a shared social system of ideas within an organization, within a friend group, within a country, etc. These shared ideas can range anywhere from communication and symbols to gestures and greetings.
In addition to cultures, values, whether personal or cultural, often differ as well. Personal values are values that are formed within a person. As humans, we go through three stages of value formation starting with imprinting very early on in life, where we learn what is right and wrong according to our parents or caregivers. For example, we often learn that lying is bad, saying please is good, and sharing is caring. These types of values are imprinted upon us all at a very young age. Second in the value stage is modeling, which happens more in teen years, where we model many things that are happening around us to try them out and see what we think about them. Think of a young girl, maybe age 8-13, and how she may be experimenting with make-up because that’s what all the pretty adult ladies do. Third and finally is the socialization period. During this phase, typically age range of a young adult, we begin seeking advice and wisdom from our peers rather than parents, teachers, and those who typically are viewed as authority figures. Additionally during the last two phases of developing values, media plays a huge role into developing the minds of young teens and young adults. Value’s are responsible for determining an individuals behavior. The behaviors that we choose often determine our cultural values.
Ethnocentrism is something that we all need to be aware of, and careful with. We may not realize it, but at some point in our lives we have all had an ethnocentric perspective. Let’s define ethnocentrism. It is essentially an “exaggerated tendency to think the characteristics of ones own group or race is superior to other groups” (PSU, 2016). In other words, this is the failure to see the world from a different perspective. Let’s get personal. About a year and a half ago I took a trip to France for a college class. On my very first day in the country, I began to judge pretty intensely. First of all, everyone kissed everyone! This just grossed me out! I couldn’t seem to understand why you would want to kiss so many people! A few days later I learned that this was their way of greeting, very much like how we as american’s shake hands or hug. I failed to recognize that their extension of greeting was just a different version of something that I did as well. The second experience that displayed how uncultured I really was, began in a cute little French restaurant. We ordered dinner, and I had ordered what I thought to be a steak (I prepared for this trip by learning 5-10 necessary French words to survive). To my surprise, squid was delivered. I shrieked. I was going to pay nearly twenty dollars for a meal that I wouldn’t eat a bite of. The poor waitress was not used to people shrieking when they received their food, and she jumped, clearly startled. There were a few more scenarios I experienced during my trip to France, but ultimately as a result I felt ashamed. I entered their country as this confident young American girl that expected everything to be just as it was back home. I was wrong, and humiliated at my own fault. Upon my return home, I promised myeslf that if I ever traveled to another country, I would adequately prepare as best I could to learn their culture, and make an effort to respect it.
To conclude, I want to stress the importance of having a global perspective of cultures within leadership. Often as leaders we neglect to understand that people are different. We have different thoughts, different beliefs, different skin color, different religions, different traditions, different cultures, different languages, and so many more. Sometimes it seems easier to just treat everyone the same. While that may be easier, it is failed leadership, and it is ineffective. In order to lead well we as leaders must rise to the occasion and learn the people we are leading. We must learn to communicate clearly and learn to understand they way that they think and feel. We need to meet them where they are, express our effort and desire to know their culture and their personal values, so that we can lead them as an individual to the best of our ability. It will be challenging, but it will be fruitful and ultimately worth it.
Penn State University World Campus. (2016). Lesson 2: Introduction to Culture. Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1802572/modules/items/21179050.
Thanks for reading my post! I apologized for shrieking, in english of course because I didn’t know how to communicate ANYTHING in french! I did not return the food, instead I switched meals with someone that was with me that wanted to try mine.. Thank goodness! I am not sure what the cultural norm of sending food back is in France.
Thanks for sharing your story – that made me laugh! I think the most interesting part is what they (other cultures) find offensive and what we find offensive. It made me laugh to think that she was offended that ya’ll left food on the table. That wouldn’t be a though that crosses the waitresses mind here!
Thanks for taking the time to read my post and craft a response 🙂
Aside from shrieking at the waitress for bringing out squid instead of steak, how did you communicate with her that you meant to order steak? As I have never been to France, is it culturally unacceptable to return your food if you are dissatisfied? Your experience actually reminded me of a time my girlfriend and I went to a Greek restaurant in our neighborhood. We had never been there before, but we heard great things on the authentic experience customers had when eating at this place. We were so excited when we saw the menu. All of the items sounded delicious, and the food looked and smelled fabulous. We decided to order a little bit of everything to try as many dishes as we could. When we came across a menu item, Xtapodi, we asked our waitress to describe what we were eating. When she informed us it was octopus, I thought it would be a great choice since I love seafood and am always open to trying new sea creatures. However, when it was brought to the table, I almost wanted to return it. Unfortunately, when the waitress explained the dish, she failed to state they grilled a tentacle over charcoal and seasoned it with fresh lemon. Instead of returning it, we tried it, and while it wasn’t the most disgusting meal we had ever eaten, it didn’t thoroughly enjoy it, either. When we were finished our meal and asked for boxes to take home the remaining of our food, the waitress was offended that we had chosen to leave the Xtapodi on the table. This was definitely a culture gaffe on our part, since it is quite common not to take home leftovers in American restaurants.