Africa is the oldest inhabited continent on Earth and has had humans living in it for more than five million years (National Geographic, n.d.). Africa is made up of 57 countries and territories and about 60% of the continents is undeveloped (Pennsylvania State University, 2016a). Africa is very poor and heavily stricken by diseases such as AIDS and malaria (Pennsylvania State University, 2016a). Despite all the challenges Africa faces it still stands as one of most natural recourse rich continents (Pennsylvania State University, 2016a). As a leader in a multi-national enterprise, I ask myself how I would lead in a foreign country with such adversity but a multitude of potential.
Africa’s culture will vary by county or region having been imperialized by the Dutch, French and English (Pennsylvania State University, 2016a). South Africa was colonized by the Dutch in 1652 and some of their influence impacted their culture (CIA, n.d). If leading people in the city of Johannesburg, the largest in South Africa I would start by studying the data collected by Geert Hofstede’s model of cultural dimensions. Hofstede’s model on cultural dimensions provides details on the driving factors of Africa’s culture this information is important because it will help create the strategy on communicating and implementing business decisions and also the type of leadership needed to do so. (Hofstede, n.d.). The cultural dimension consist of, Power Distance, individual ism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, long-term orientation, and indulgence (Hofstede, n.d.).
Understanding the culture of the group of people I could be leading is important because it will shed light on what the group of people value and perhaps fear. As stated by Hofstede, culture is a mental process, values and behaviors and when leading people influencing the behaviors is key to the success of any organization because it drives output (Pennsylvania State University, 2016b). The adversity that the people of South Africa have faces has probably impacted this culture, for example on Hofstede’s model South Africa scores a 49 f or Uncertainty Avoidance (Hofstede, n.d.). A score of 49 means that South Africans will tend to have a low preference for avoiding uncertainty, so when leading there might be a negative impact on a lot of rules or regulations being communicated ( Hofstede, n.d.).
In summary, when leading people of a different culture and even different continent one of the most important things a global leader can do is educate themselves on the people cultures. Hofstede provides in depth information in his cultural dimensions model and that over wise can help lead others in a way that allows us to connect to them and drive results for the organization.

References
Central Intelligence Agency ( CIA ). ( n.d. ). The World Factbook. Retrieved from: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html
Hofstede, Geert. (n.d.). South Africa. Retrieved from https://geert-hofstede.com/south-africa.html
The City Of Johannesburg. (2016). Johannesburg. Retrieved from
http://www.joburg.org.za/
National Geographic Society. (n.d.). Africa: Resources. Retrieved from http://nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/africa-resources/
Pennsylvania State University. (2016a) Lesson 14: Africa. Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1802572/modules/items/21179154
Pennsylvania State University. (2016b) Lesson 2: Introduction to Culture. Retrieved from
https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1802572/modules/items/21179050

For eight months now, my colleague and great friend, Jill has been working in Costa Rica. Her primary responsibility is to create training material and conduct training for new hires. The new employees are native Costa Ricans, but they are trained in English and they speak English fluently. The new employees are being trained to work in a call center environment who speaks directly to customers in need of medical supplies. Jill has been experiencing resistance from the Costa Rican new hires and Manager. Jill has been operating under the assumption that the cause for the friction is her gender and position of authority.
Hofstede is a Dutch psychologist who extensively studied National culture. “Hofstede’s research has found six cultural dimensions (in culture): power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism/collectivism, masculinity/femininity, long-term/short-term orientation, and indulgence/restraint. These dimensions come from studies conducted in 93 countries around the world” (Pennsylvania State University, 2016). Upon learning about Hofstede’s D-6 model, I decided to dig into the model’s data on Costa Rica. I had been hearing from Jill for months about her struggles with her Costa Rican new hires, and I hoped to learn some insights to share with her.
The dimension that caught my attention immidiately was Individualism. The U.S has a score of 91 and Costa Rica has a low score of 15.What this means is that Costa Rica is nearly the polar opposite of the U.S. when it comes to “the degree of interdependence a society maintains among its members”, Costa Ricans place very high importance gaining loyalty and the people’s self-imagine is expressed as “We” (Hofstede, n.d). In the U.S. the people self-image is defined in terms of “I”, society is loosely-knit and the focus is more on self (Hofstede, n.d). Learning this allowed me to make more sense of Jill’s experience, it seems to me that the issue is not her gender, but the lack of knowledge that Costa Rican’s are a collective society. Jill’s is not dedicating time to building relationships and rapport, she’s from the U.S. and is focused on herself and her task to complete training by the deadline. Personal relationships are essential in collectivists’ countries like Costa Rica and she has not built any (Hofstede, n.d). In fact, a Manager resigned because Jill insisted he fire an employee who was not keeping up with the lessons.
My advice to, Jill based on what I learned from Hofstede’s 6-D Model, would be to take some time to get to know the new hires. Loyalty goes a long way in collective societies (Hofstede, n.d). I would also suggest that she adds more casual conversation when addressing individuals speaking too directly is perceived as impolite (Hofstede, n.d).

References:
Hofstede, G. (n.d.) Costa Rica. Retrieve from https://geert-hofstede.com/costa-rica.html
Pennsylvania State University. (2016). Lesson 2: Introduction to Culture. Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1802572/modules/items/21179055

Three years ago I was in Monterrey, Mexico to train a group of 14 people on a particular process my employer had out-sourced. This was the first time I would be training in a different country and for people of a different culture. I felt very comfortable being tasked to do this; although I am American I was born to two Mexican parents. From the airport, I was immediately taken to the company’s office. When I walked into the building I was greeted by the Operations Manager’s assistant, Erica. She took my carry-on off my hands and offered me something to drink. During the introduction meeting with Hector, the Operations Manager, I went over the objectives and timelines. This was not a new process to Hector. His employees are contracted out to dozens of Fortune 500 companies like ours. The next day, I had the first day of instruction with the 14 training group members and it went off without any difficulties. By day three I began to see more interaction amongst the team. Until this day, I had not realized that this society was one of high-synergy. “Synergy implies a belief that we can learn from others and other can learn from us. Cultural synergy builds on common ground, transcending mere awareness of differences to form multifaceted strategic alliances and partnerships” (Moran, et al., 2014).
Ruth Benedict an anthropologist and psychologist, Abraham Maslow conducted extensive research on the characterization of a high-synergy and low-energy societies. Through their research, they found the main features that make a high or low synergy society. As the days progressed I saw more of these high-synergy characteristics in my Mexican trainees. I saw that during practice sessions they conducted themselves as if they were one giant group. In the U.S. small pods tend to form in training, but this was not the case. The trainees moved across the room sharing information with each other. If one of them asked me a question they would then explain it to the rest of the team. There was not one over-achieving trainee. In American culture, there is usually one trainee who tends to want to answer all the questions and outshine the others. Here it seemed that they were a community, they used each other’s talents and knowledge as a shared resource for the commonwealth (Moran, et al., 2014). There was an emphasis on cooperation for mutual advantage, as Benedict and Maslow disrobe in their characteristic of high-synergy (Moran, et al., 2014). The trainees believed that if they could demonstrate a strong comprehension and adoption of what I was teaching them, they would all be considered for future projects with the company. They wanted to win together.
The fact that the trainees were homogenous helped them to form a sense of team more quickly (Pennsylvania State University, 2016). When I train adults in the U.S. they might all be American, but may identify with a variety of cultures. These differences in culture can create cross-cultural conflict. With a varying perspective on the world, conflict is more easily ignited (Pennsylvania State University, 2016). To add fuel to the fire, American culture tends to be very competitive and have more of a “dog-eat-dog” attitude; this is a characteristic of low-synergy according to Benedict and Maslow (Moran, et al., 2014). I have witnessed in the training/ learning this type of self-serving attitude can make the team building process nearly impossible and creates an environment of desperation.
From my experience of the high-synergy society in Mexico, I took the notion of allowing trainees (in the U.S.) to learn through others not just me, their instructor. I no longer award those who got the highest quiz score, but those who helped others succeed. My goal is to build a society of high-synergy in the classroom so those individuals can take it with them as they move throughout the organization.

References
Moran, R.T., Abramson, N.R., & Moran. S. V. (2014). Managing Cultural Differences. 9th ed. New York, NY: Routledge

Penn State University World Campus. (2016). Lesson 6: Cultural Synergy. Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1802572/modules/items/21179091

This week, for the first time, I began to reflect on how my culture affects how I function at work; specifically how I lead my teams. I had been looking at culture as something that is of other people and I want to understand. Sometimes because I am curious and other times because I want to have productive, and professional relationships with people I encounter of different cultures. Reading this week’s text in “Managing Cultural Differences”, Moran, Abramson, and Moran, (2014) dive into cultural preferences made me ponder mine. These preferences are in relation to speed, body space and time. Hofstede’s dimensions of culture also shined some light how I see myself and my culture in some of these dimensions (PSU, 2016).

I was born in the United States of American to two Mexican-born parents. I consider myself Mexican and American. As I reflected on how my Mexican culture impacted how I lead others I noticed some similarities in Mexican culture and American culture. One is example was the speed in which we reply and expect a reply to communication. Moran et al., (2014) discuss how Euro- North American cultures tend to prefer quick if not instant responses, but in other cultures such as Asia slower more thoughtful responses leads to stronger relationship building. In my case being that both of the cultures I identify with are in North American, I can see why I always want the quick answer from my teams. I usually request summaries of events and not full details. In my (Mexican) culture, strong relationships are not primarily built by the content of what we say, but our actions. Another cultural preference discussed by Moran et al., (2014) was appropriated personal space given. As a Mexican, I tend to lean into a person when I speak or when they speak to me. This is our way of showing that we are attentively listening to what a person is saying. Some people of Northern European decent prefer a lot more space in between them and the person they are speaking with (Moran et al., 2014). I am going to be more mindful of how much personal space I leave for a direct report of mine during our one on one coaching sessions from now on as a precautionary measure. There are even cultural preferences for time. Moran et al., (2014) describe two types of preference; monochronic which the U.S. falls into and we see time as required to be efficiently used and scheduled. There is an also polychromic person, which tend to be people in Latin American the focus is not on schedules, but more on the people (Moran et al., 2016). I came to the realization that I exemplify a bit of both the types of people and it makes sense due to my dual cultural identification. For the most part, I tend to be more monochronic because my goal is always to complete everything timely. I share with my direct reports that promptness and deadline adherence is an expectation of them. Occasionally, I will see the need to be late to a meeting or be flexible with a timeline. These are more exceptions and not the norm and I allow them if I see a direct report needs more support so I take the time to provide it.

Hofstede’s dimensions of culture provided me with more to consider (PSU, 2016). Through years of research, Hofstede has identified six cultural dimensions (PSU, 2016). My focus will be on two of the dimensions, masculinity/feminity, and long term/short term orientation (PSU, 2016). The Masculinity/feminity dimension is about gender roles in cultures (PSU, 2016). It’s been my experience that in American and Mexican cultures the female is expected to play the role of the caring, patient and nurturing one. I do not fit that value in either culture. I do not want to have children and I am very direct and sometimes insensitive to others feelings. This gave me a different perspective to people’s reaction in the workplace to me. They don’t expect women to behave like I do most likely because of their cultural dimensions on the role of females (PSU, 2016). When it comes to long term/short term orientation, I believe I am driven by my American culture (PSU, 2016). In America, most people plan for retirement and death. Everyone I know has a 401K and a life-insurance policy and none of my relatives in Mexico have ever put thought into either. I am very focused on long-term success when I coach my direct reports. I focus on helping them find the answer more than just giving it to them. I take steps to ensure that success is not short lived for any of my direct reports or myself.

To close, I am leaving this lesson with more self-awareness of how my cultures impact how I interact with people in the workplace and even how others perceive me. I will continue to be mindful of others cultures since now I know most of their values and personal preferences will come from their culture.
References
Moran, Robert T., Neil R. Abramson, and Sarah V. Moran. Managing Cultural Differences. 9th ed. New York: Routledge, 2014.
Penn State University World Campus. (2016). Lesson 2: Introduction to Culture. Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1802572/modules/items/21179050

Hello,

Name is Diana Lozano and I am a Sr. Supervisor for an inside sales team at a medical device company.

• Where are you located geographically? I am  located in San Antonio, Texas
• Where are you in your life professionally? I am learning to manage people who lead others, such as my peers,project managers, and analyst. This is a change from primarily lead direct reports.
• What are your long-term goals? My goal is earn an executive level position in my current organization. I want to play a part in the organizations goals.
• What is your current or prior leadership experience? I’ve been a people leader for 5 years and this is my first leadership role.
• Do you have a favorite leadership quote? If so, provide a brief comment about why this quote has special meaning for you. My favorite quote about leadership is not very conventional, but it does drive me to lead with courage, integrity and sense of purpose. “I am not afraid; I was born to do this” by Joan of Arc.
• Post something interesting about yourself:
  • Do you have children? No children
  • Any special interests? I love to surf, I’ve been doing it since I was 9 years old.I was born and raised in Southern California.
  • I get a rush out of selling stuff I no longer want on ebay!