Argentine history was developed with the contribution of different cultures. From the origins there were those here and outsiders. They and we. Our society was receiving the contribution of people from other parts of the world. From Europe at the end of the last century and the beginning and the middle of the current one, we have received almost without continuity since the 1950s a huge immigration from neighboring countries and on a smaller scale from other Latin Americans.
Currently the immigration of people from the East is very important. Argentina was established as the «melting pot of races». People did not come alone. She brought with her her memories, her habits, her languages, her slang, her ideas about family, work, companies, she brought her culture. Argentina has long been a stage in which different cultures exist. Nowadays there is no need for people to come to bring them, they come with satellite, TV, faxes, the Internet, magazines, videos, etc. The enormous mobility of the workforce, the restructuring of companies, the service economy, the globalization of markets, the development of Mercosur, the diversification of the workforce, will make most of us work by the year 2000 with people in the same position,subordinates and superiors who will have very varied goals, motivations and cultural backgrounds.
A couple of years ago, the president of the Argentine branch of a multinational company told me that one of the most serious problems they had was that of the difficult coexistence between those who made their careers in the company (he himself was a For example, he worked his twenty-five professional years only there) and those for which the company was a place of passage (working two, three, or four years and changing). His soccer metaphor was very clear: "we are in the same club, but we kicked for different goals".
A manager of a La Plata bank told me about the experiences they had with the merger issue. The bank, with headquarters in La Plata, had absorbed (bought) several branches of other small banks located in different cities in the interior of the province. Many difficulties arose in the "integration" of activities. People kept calling each other by name and by place of origin (another bank), So-and-so of "… name of the other bank." The difficult thing is not to handle the issue of the denomination, but the instructions are taken into account more or less quickly, with more or less dedication, with more or less interest depending on whether it comes from an equal (from the same bank) or a « foreigner ”(from another bank, either the one bought or the one sold). Although the entire operation was unified in a single denomination,With the same stationery for everyone, there is always a way to figure out where the instruction originated.
I had the opportunity to participate in some meetings with area managers in the early days of the privatization of one of the state-owned service companies. I could observe the beginning of a coexistence between two cultures: that of the "ex" and that of those who came from "the private". At that time everyone was happy; the new ones because of their development possibilities in a project that was just beginning, and the "ex" because they felt that they now had programs to work (they said "now there is someone who controls us"). They accessed a new culture of work.
Cultural differences also occur in other areas of work activity. In different conversations with managers or training directors of Argentine subsidiaries of multinational companies, they told me that training courses or programs "come from outside", "a package is coming, we untie it and we do it, without adding or taking anything from it" (sic).
The map is not the territory
Why do these things happen? Because each one has a unique vision, there is no other person in the world who can see with our eyes, listen with our ears, feel with our heart, think with our head, make our decisions, therefore our contact with the world is always from our own particular vision. We believe that we act on the same reality of the other and that the other has the same references as us. We all live in the same world, and we make different models of it (maps). Making different models of the same world (maps) makes us prone to conflict. The most important points on our maps are the beliefs and values that give meaning to our lives and can make us "collide" with others. Values define what is important to us;"shock" occurs when we believe that what is important to us should be important to others. Still, we can agree, reach consensus on different points on our maps. These consensuses are the ones that shape the different cultures and that allow more or less facility to resolve the disagreements that inevitably arise in the life of companies.
In this sense, Professor W. Barnett Pearce, Professor of the Department of Communication at Loyola University in Chicago, distinguishes and describes different types of conflicts depending on the worldview of the participants:
- Incompatible: When there are different opinions on the same topic. Worldviews are compatible, culture is shared (business, family, work, etc.), they recognize each other and respond to the same type of rules. The other is recognized as someone "equal to one", "people like one", he is treated as "native". Negotiation, mediation, and simple actions can help resolve this type of conflict if the participants want to make it incomparable.: When worldviews are incomparable; it is assumed that it is not important or that it is impossible to look for similarities in the ways of seeing of one and the other. "You don't understand me and you say that what I say is wrong"; »I think you are not of mine«. It is about imposing the vision of one over the other in any way, despite the efforts that the other makes to avoid it. He is treated as a "non-native." The example is Machiavelli. Negotiation, mediation, and simple actions do little to help in these kinds of conflicts.
- Immeasurable: When worldviews are incomparable, but can with some work be coordinated at some point. The agreement is not in the opinions, it is in the coordination of the action. Examples are Gandhi - Luther King, who led mass movements, who while retaining enormous differences came together for a higher goal, the independence of India and the conquest of civil rights for blacks in the United States respectively.
Pitfalls of Communication
Communication with others is the medium through which cultural shocks are expressed. Although communication can be a vehicle for clarification, according to Virginia Satir (specialist in human relations), there are also pitfalls to communication that result from the assumption that everyone else knows everything about you.
Another trap starts from the assumption that no matter how things are said, everyone has an obligation to understand what is said.
There is an assumption that the other always knows what I mean.
Due to these pitfalls, misunderstandings, misinterpretations, and misdirected conversations often arise in companies, with the consequent loss of energy, time and money.
The encounter
So far we have been talking about culture shock, shock is a friction, a mismatch, discomfort, injury, loss, ultimately as a problem to be solved. It is a legitimate and important way of looking at the issue… We can also see the cultural "clash" as an encounter, an opportunity for growth through empowerment or revaluation of oneself and the recognition of others, as others other than one. To think of cultural differences only as a problem to be solved, they are doors that close, to see them as an encounter, they are doors that open to the development of a multiplying human potential. This is the challenge for those of us on the subject. Each person is an individual being, a subject, who can be described by name, physical characteristics, interests,his tastes, his habits and talents, for all those qualities that define him as an individual. So far our map shows members of an organization as islands. The different members of a company are linked by a kind of bond that forms a network that unites them as an organization; there are organic ties (organizational charts) and other informal ones, these ties are invisible but they exist, solid and firm as if they were made of a very resistant material.solid and firm as if they were made of a very resistant material.solid and firm as if they were made of a very resistant material.
When communication is indirect, vague, and insincere; when the rules are rigid, inhuman, fixed and immutable, contacts with the "different", the "others", the "strangers", the "non-natives" are made with fear, in an accusatory or accusatory way. They are shocks. We are describing problematic organizations and companies based on mistrust, which close the door to the development and growth of its members.
When communication is direct, clear, specific and sincere; when norms are flexible, humane, appropriate and subject to change, contacts with the "different" are open. We are describing vital, trust-based organizations and companies that support and nurture their members with a different model, that open the door to their growth opportunity.
At this point is the importance of the people called to direct the change processes in companies.
That is the function of business leaders, to direct with strong conviction a clear and direct communication that is the center of innovation and the cultural challenge in today's companies.
In summary
Cultural differences (ideas and procedures about the company, business, staff, family, leisure, etc.), either within the same company or between different companies, can result in a negative aspect, a loss, if abandon the spirit of curiosity to meet the other. If, on the other hand, there is an openness towards the recognition of the other (it does not necessarily oblige to agree, but rather to respect him as someone else), multiple possibilities of benefits open up. This, if it is within the same company, allows an internal consistency that gives strength and power to people. All parts are in harmony and energy is generated. In an orchestra each instrument plays different melodies, and the resulting melody is a different one, richer than any instrument can play on its own.
