About CultureWizard
RW3's CultureWizard is a leader in the intercultural and e-learning industries. He creates customized, co-branded CultureWizard websites that teach culture and foster cultural awareness through interactive e-learning tools and resources.
CultureWizard works with experienced interculturalists globally and tens of thousands of employees of global corporations turn to his insights daily. Country specific information on over 135 countries provides a wealth of cultural information and strategies for success when living and working around the world.
Recent Posts by CultureWizard
Travel Tales of Gastronomy
August 27, 2010 by CultureWizard
How do food and customs surrounding the acts of eating and drinking inform culture (and vice versa)? How is one’s awareness of culture developed through cooking, eating, buying and talking about food? Below is something my colleague, Grayson Leverenz, told me about how she likes to tie gastronomy into her travels:
Whenever I visit a new city, I search for an authentic eating experience. On a recent trip to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania I discovered a Philly Cheese Steak as the culinary choice of locals. Jim’s Steaks has been serving the classic cheese steak sandwiches since 1939, and with its prime location on South Street, I figured I couldn’t go wrong.
Cooks prepare sliced beef and onions on a grill, slather a hoagie roll with Cheese Whiz, and top it with the meat and onions. Hot and delicious, it goes well with Yuengling, a local PA beer. John Denver, an American folk singer popular in the 1970′s folk singer, said it best in his autograph on Jim’s wall (pictured below): ‘I’d be a vegetarian if it wasn’t for your cheese steak.’
An authentic Philly Cheese Steak
A cheese steak is a truly cultural representation of Philadelphia and of an American innovation: “cheese whiz”.
Personally, I like to visit grocery stores and food markets when I travel to new places, which reveal a lot about the area’s history, society and, of course, typical cuisine. When I’m in a new culture, I ask questions like: do you bargain for food? Do you bring with you to the market your own bags to take food home? Do people eat a lot of street food? Do people prefer to eat in their homes? With whom can you share food? Questions lead to more questions, all of which paint an appetizing cultural portrait.
How do you think about food when experiencing new peoples and cultures? How much can you learn about a culture from it’s food and drink? Please share your stories and tell us about your favorite gastronomical experiences!
Posted by Sean
Outsourcing Makes Its Way to Network TV This Fall
August 26, 2010 by CultureWizard
Outsourced is a new show on NBC, which will air on September 23 in the US. The show is a comedy based on the cross-cultural interaction between an American manager and his Indian staff in a Mumbai call center. If you haven’t heard of the show, watch the trailer below to get a sense for the humor, which amounts to serious yet hysterical intercultural disaster (you’ll have to wait for the obligatory ad to play first).
The cultural faux pas and critical misunderstandings laden throughout the show are unfortunately so common to most everyone who has experienced outsourcing in India, they’ve called the attention of the US mass media.
How do you see this show impacting viewers’ cultural awareness? Is comedy an effective way to disseminate new perspectives and values? Do you predict the show will be popular or offensive?
Posted by Sean
Panama Culture Tips
August 26, 2010 by CultureWizard
+ Panama City is the capital of Panama and is purported to be one of the most modern cities in Central America. The skyline is reminiscent of major cities in the US, while the old part of the city has narrow, cobblestone streets and colonial buildings.
+ If you were to think about the most important cultural attributes that you will see operating in business in Panama, they would be:
- A hierarchical structure
- Group-oriented interests
- The importance of interpersonal relationships
- An indirect form of communication
+ Panamanian society and business are highly stratified and vertically structured. People respect authority and look to those above them for guidance and decision making. Rank is important and those above you in rank must be treated with respect.
+ When greeting one another, women often pat each other on the right forearm or shoulder, rather than shake hands. If they are close friends, they may hug and kiss on the right cheek. Men shake hands until they know someone well, at which time they progress to the more traditional abrazo, a hug and back slapping.
+ Panamanians do not require a great deal of personal space when conversing. If you back away, you may give offense or the person may step forward to close the gap.
Women’s Economic Opportunities
August 25, 2010 by CultureWizard
The Economist intelligence Unit (EIU) released the Women’s Economic Opportunity Index in June, which measures women’s access or lack of access to a number of economic and other opportunities in 113 countries. Here are a few excerpts from the report, which is available by clicking on the link above.
At the start of the 21st century women are not just enfranchised and fully engaged in the workplace, but leading global corporations and countries of every size. Germany’s Angela Merkel, Liberia’s Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, and Pepsico’s Indra Nooyi are three among many.
…
Women, on average, earn 75% of their male co-workers’ wages, and the difference cannot be explained solely by schooling or experience. In many countries, women have fewer educational and employment opportunities than men, are more often denied credit, and endure social restrictions that limit their chances for advancement. In some developing countries women still cannot vote, own property or venture outside the home without a male family member.
While culture is mentioned only a few times throughout the report, it pervades the roles applied to women in any country. An understanding of the cultural context within which women exist seems important to an understanding of the immense challenge associated with developing gender equality in countries with severely restricted economic opportunity for women. See below for the way the report defines this and a summary of the countries on both ends of the spectrum.
Women’s economic opportunity is defined as a set of laws, regulations, practices, customs and attitudes that allow women to participate in the workforce under conditions roughly equal to those of men, whether as wage-earning employees or as owners of a business. The result is a new ranking of economic opportunity for women in 113 economies. Sweden, Belgium and Norway occupy the top spots in the Index. These countries have particularly open labour markets for women, high levels of educational achievement, and liberal legal and social regimes.
However, the index tells other stories as well. Hong Kong (China) performs best in the Asia region, ranking in the top 25% in most categories. Mauritius is Africa’s best finisher; its labour policies are among the most favourable to women in the region. Excluding Canada and the US, Brazil edges Chile and Mexico for the best score in the Americas. Eastern European countries, especially Bulgaria, have particularly balanced labour-law protections, although retirement ages for men and women are often different. Tunisia comes first in Northern Africa, and Sri Lanka in Southern Asia.
What part does culture play in this complex picture?
Growth in Outsourcing Legal Services to India
August 25, 2010 by CultureWizard
According to the New York Times, outsourcing legal services to India has grown in the past few years, and is poised to expand at an even faster rate in coming years.
Cash-conscious Wall Street banks, mining giants, insurance firms and industrial conglomerates are hiring lawyers in India for document review, due diligence, contract management and more.
Legal outsourcing firms are also hiring experienced lawyers from Western countries to handle more complicated projects, something many lawyers would not consider in prior years based on a general aversion to outsourcing legal work and because of relocation to India. The article does highlight the challenges of moving to India and working with Indians:
Moving to a legal outsourcing firm, especially in India, is not for everyone. About five percent of Western transplants cannot handle it and move back home, managers estimate.
Some find it hard to adapt to India. Other times, the job itself does not suit them — after spending years working nearly independently as a litigator, for example, it can be hard to transition to managing and inspiring a team of young foreign lawyers.
Cultural preparation is supremely important to living and working in a new culture. While many people are inherently suited to assignments in countries around the world, the vast majority of people won’t be equipped with the skills to succeed without sufficient intercultural training. How will this impact internal needs for cultural training? The article predicts this sector of outsourcing alone will climb to over $1 billion in revenue by 2014. What are organizations doing to support global initiatives like this? What are the challenges of virtual, global teams that span time zone differences of 10 hours or more and cultural, linguistic and religious barriers?
Sean
CLO Cites Virtual Teams Survey
August 23, 2010 by CultureWizard
With a title like “A Distressing Virtual Reality: 40 Percent of Dispersed Teams Underperform,” Chief Learning Officer raises awareness of an issue that potentially affects many of us. RW3 CultureWizard’s Virtual Teams Survey Report 2010 is the base of the argument targeting virtual work as something we must learn to be good at, and not something we can easily compare with face-to-face interaction.
Multinational Leadership Skills
August 23, 2010 by CultureWizard
The Harvard Business Review interviewed Mansour Javidian, dean of research at the Thunderbird School of Global Management, who also wrote an article for the same publication called “Managing Yourself: Making it Overseas.”
According to this article, employers frequently assume “that a good track record at home is a predictor of success in the global arena, and that exposing high performers to new cultures will set them on the path to becoming effective multinational leaders.” While international assignments are certainly an important developmental tool for potential leaders, an individual desire to learn and know about different cultural perspectives and people with a certain intellectual curiosity, among other qualities, are vital to success abroad.
This mind-set has three main components: intellectual capital, or knowledge of international business and the capacity to learn; psychological capital, or openness to different cultures and the capacity to change; and social capital, the ability to form connections, to bring people together, and to influence stakeholders—including colleagues, clients, suppliers, and regulatory agencies—who are unlike you in cultural heritage, professional background, or political outlook.
RW3 CultureWizard’s Global Leadership Development Tool, developed in collaboration with Dr. Paula Caligiuri, is an assessment which identifies a leader’s strengths and abilities in working with and managing people from other cultures. It enables leaders to examine their readiness for global leadership and the areas in which they may need to develop. Specifically, the tool can:
+ Assess the scope of your global leadership activities
+ Create an awareness of your intercultural behavioral style and experience
+ Suggest approaches for enhancing your global leadership skills
+ Direct you to learning resources to maximize your global leadership effectiveness
What do you think are the key skills global leaders need? What is your experience with leaders moving between domestic and international contexts?
Posted by Grayson
Advertising to Muslims
August 20, 2010 by CultureWizard
A commercial about shampoo sans hair. Unilever
A New York Times article details the novel, culturally-aware techniques Western companies are using to sell their brands to non-Western audiences, in this case Malaysian women who wear tudungs, a traditional head scarf used by Muslim women (the shampoo product in the ad specifically addresses the effects of the tudung on hair and scalp). In the past, many companies would enter new countries and offend consumers through advertisement and marketing that lacked sensitivity to societal and religious norms. Now, marketing experts know “rule No.1 is to avoid causing offense.” Furthermore, the global Muslim population is more than 1.5 billion, and John Goodman of Ogilvy & Mather says there is no excuse for not considering culture when building brands and marketing campaigns:
It’s like being in 1990 and telling people that China doesn’t matter. Twenty years ago you might have said that, but now you’re being foolish.
A lack of cultural knowledge is clearly unacceptable to consumers in any market, but how can we learn to sell to and interact effectively with people from around the world? How do we develop and sustain cultural competency in a world that is constantly changing?
Posted by Sean
