Tweet

Tribe, Nation, Business Unit – Are we not are all the same?

Guest post by: Philip A. Foster

Article Overview: We often look to cultural diversity when considering organizational processes and strategic leadership. This article notes the need to understand cultural differences as they relate to business operations.

Tribe, Nation, Business Unit – Are we not are all the same?

Recently I participated in a conversation with a colleague on the other side of the globe. While our focus was specifically on the nature of self-leadership what emerged was an important discussion on culture. What I am learning is that culture is important. I was raised in a culturally diverse community and attended school with a mixture of cultural influences around me. Having grown up in South Florida I rarely considered culture as it seemed natural to me to be immersed in so many cultural differences.

However, culture is an important aspect of what we do. If we look to the Western influence, we note that leadership focuses mainly on performance. Conversely, if we look to Eastern Asia we find a different reality in that leadership qualities are not so much utilitarian. The larger question remains, as the world embraces a global perspective, how will organizations best meet the challenges of the heterogeneity of many cultures. While I would prefer to see the world as beige, (all the same) we must accept that cultures do in fact create their own ‘configurations of motivations and incentives’. What we learn is that cultures organize around deeply rooted assumptions and values, which individuals take with them into all aspects of their life. These assumptions and values will influence workplace attitudes and behaviors. When a member of a culture feels threatened by change, they will revert to their values and cultural norms in an effort to protect the culture from a pending change.

Taking it one step further, strategic thinking must take into account cultural differences. While strategic thinking is applicable to all countries and cultures, one should understand the importance of religious, ethnic and even nationalist movements. We cannot underestimate the impact of such things as the standards of living, patriotism or religious factors as we develop understanding of cultural differences. Typically, we as leaders are blinded to the external conditions of the world around us and we respond in terms of our own cultural lens. In other words, we stick to what we know and attempt to impose it on others.

While I agree, we are all members of the human race; all residence of this beautiful blue ball we call Earth we must learn to overcome the tribal/cultural relativism that is rooted deep within us from birth. Unfortunately this is not that easy. So rather than trying to create a one-size-fits-all universe, we must learn to cohabitate with other cultures; learning how to work with each other to progress a common and agreed upon set of goals and objects.

As leaders, all we can do is continue to learn and understand cultural differences as we lead our organizations. While I still hope for the day of beige organizations when it comes to cultural differences; I realize this utopic view is limiting and not very practical.

Related Articles
  The same cigarette as me
  Join a Tribe And Get Your Blog Connected
  The Unified Tribe-A Good Way to Jump Start Your Business
  Lead Your Tribe. Key Points from the book, Tribes, We Need You to Lead Us, by Seth Godin
  SMEs - entrepreneurship in a true democracy
  When Is It Time To Sell Your Franchised Business?
  The Multi-unit Movement benefits Franchisors and Franchisees
  A Look at Tribes, We Need You to Lead Us by Seth Godin
  God At Work Through Ordinary Men and Women at Work
  How To On Twitter: 3 Things No One Will Tell You
  Ingenious Concept of The Unified Tribe
  At The Risk Of Making Myself Extremely Unpopular!...
  Transfers vs. New First Time Franchisees
  Utilize the Online Apartment Search Service to Identify 5 to 20 Apartment Projects
  JPMorgan Launches Social Sector Finance Unit to Bring Financial Services to Microfinance and Social Enterprises
  Many Franchisors Prefer Multi-Site Operators These Days
  Exploring the Four Types of Franchises You Can Buy
  A Philosophy To Live By
  Master Franchisee vs. Franchisee?
  Reasons your business needs self storage

Article Tags: culture, leadership, selfleadership, strategic thinking



Related Forum Posts
My entry - 1. The Best Business Books Ever: The 100 Most Influential Business Books You'll Never Have Time to Read - this is a fascinating book about the history of Business theory, and I'd recommend it to anybody. 2. The Big Book of Small Business: You Don't Have to Run Your Business by the Seat of Your Pants, by Tom Gegax. Ditto. 3. PADI: The Business of Diving Book Okay, so this book won't be of use to anyone who doesn't want to start a scuba store, but I did, and this book was of course invaluable to me in reaching that goal.
Exclusive: Interview with Results - Hi Forum Members, I'm helping start up a Business Coaching and Consulting company here in Toronto, Ontario, Canada (a Subsidiary of RSC Business in Los Angeles). As a Research and Development Intern I am required to practice my listening and interview skills by surveying Small and Medium Businesses on thier Business. This Survey is designed by RSC Business to also assist the Business being interviewed more insight into their own business. I am looking to interview about 30 businesses across North America over the span of 3 months. At the end of these interviews I will be publishing a report of the results and they will be made available for free to the Interviewees. The Report data will include responses from a minimum of 100 interviews. I would like to extend this opportunity to members of the Forum. If you would like to have this short 20-30 minute interview conducted on your Business and you reside in North America please send me an email or PM. Please contact me at andy[at]jvprosperity[dot]com to arrange our interview and to get free access to the results when they are published.
Re: HOw to market a B2B consulting company - [quote="zohahunt77":428owzbi]Hi, I was wondering if anyone can tell me the difference between B2B and B2C. I don’t know about b2b marketing but I have done marketing so know things about it. I will suggest you to take online services which will spread your business all over web network. Online marketing is the best way to market any business.[/quote:428owzbi] B2B = Business to Business - You are marketing to other businesses. B2C = Business to Consumer - You are marketing to consumers.
English teachers learn Japanese as Interns - Yasunori, what about the many students that leave N. America to teach English in Japan. They may want to learn Japanese (maybe Business Japanese is a bit different) and the Japanese Business Culture.
New Study - Women prepare better business plans - I found an article in Business Week and I found this quite interesting. [quote:ka7lg35i]Who Prepares Better Business Plans, Men or Women? A new study based on four years of data from men and women in a training program for microenterprises finds that they come out the same in quality scores. "However, women scored significantly better on the presentation of their plan to judges," conclude the study's authors, Ronald G. Cook, Paul Belliveau, and Christine Lentz of Rider University, in a paper presented at a recent meeting of the Small Business Institute. [/quote:ka7lg35i] What do you guys think?


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Top Ten Home-Based Businesses

Promoting your company and self with verve

Ready for a Fresh Image?

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.