Consulting and culture

To be culture-sensitive, a management consultant does not have to be a sociologist or an anthropologist. Some knowledge of culture can be gained by reading about and discussing cultural issues with other people. Genuine interest in the meaning of culture and in different cultures provides a good background for understanding and correctly interpreting a particular cultural context.

However, this is only the first step. Like any other person, a consultant who has never lived and operated in a culture different from his own will find it difficult to perceive and understand the full meaning and power of another culture, and the role of various factors that may be unknown in his own culture. Only people who have been in contact with a different culture for some time can understand not only that culture but also their own. Social and working contacts with other cultures provide us with a mirror in which we see our own culture.

Being culture-tolerant

Culture is very important to people. Their preference for fundamental cultural values is emotional, not rational. They may even regard certain social norms and traditions as eternal and sacrosanct. In contrast, a management consultant may regard the same norms as anachronistic and irrational. There may be a grain of truth in the consultant’s view, since cultures may well include values that, for instance, perpetuate social inequalities or inhibit development. Nevertheless, cultures reflect centuries of society’s experience and help people to cope with life. Respect for different cultures and tolerance of their values and beliefs are therefore essential qualities of a good consultant.

In their attitude to other cultures, consultants are inevitably strongly influenced by their own culture. Tolerance towards other cultures, religions and ethnic groups is a cultural characteristic, too: some cultures are highly tolerant of different cultural values, while others are less so. A consultant who has been moulded by a relatively intolerant cultural environment should be particularly cautious when working in other cultures.

5.2Levels of culture

National culture

The term “national culture” is used to define the values, beliefs, behavioural norms, habits and traditions that characterize human society in a particular country. In an ethnically and linguistically homogeneous country, there may be one national culture, but in many countries there are several distinct cultures. The question is, do these cultures mix with each other, cohabit peacefully and tolerate each other, or do they make coexistence within one country and the functioning of the economy difficult?

115

Management consulting

Box 5.2 Cultural factors affecting management

The following aspects of national cultures tend to be reflected in management structures and practices:

●the distribution of social roles and the status assigned to them;

●the criteria of success and achievement in economic and social life;

●respect for age and seniority;

●the role of traditional authorities and community leaders;

●democratic versus autocratic traditions;

●individualism versus collectivism;

●spiritual versus material values;

●responsibility and loyalty to family, community and ethnic group;

●socialization and communication patterns;

●the acceptability and the form of feedback, appraisal and criticism;

●religion, its importance in social life and its impact on economic activity;

●attitudes to other cultures, religions, ethnic groups, minorities;

●attitudes to social, technological and other changes;

●the conception of time.

An important cultural phenomenon is the existence of minorities and their relationship to other ethnic groups within society. Often minorities make a special effort to preserve their particular culture in order to protect their identity and ensure survival within an environment where a majority culture dominates and tends to alter or even oppress minority cultures. Certain minorities possess attitudes, skills, historical experience and material means that have helped them to be extremely successful in business. The implications of this are well known in many countries. Thus, while sensitivity to cultural differences is essential in international consulting, a consultant operating within his or her own country also needs to be aware of cultural differences.

Another increasingly important factor is the growing mobility of people between countries and cultures. In many countries the workforce is international and so may be the management team in the client company. People coming from other cultures bring their cultural values and habits with them. They are also influenced by the culture of their country of residence, and the result is an interesting and sometimes peculiar mix.

We would be hard pressed to review here all the factors embraced by the concept of national (or local) culture. It would be even more difficult to point to all the differences between cultures of which a consultant needs to be aware because they may be related to the work assignment. The spectrum of cultural values, norms and rituals can be extremely wide and can concern any aspect of human, economic and social life. Some cultural factors affecting management are listed in box 5.2.

116

Consulting and culture

Language plays a prominent role in culture. Cultural concepts are described in words, the meaning of many words is culture-bound and language is a vehicle for the functioning and interaction of cultures. Non-verbal expressions and gestures are also culture-bound and may be very important. Non-verbal communication is more difficult to control consciously than verbal communication and tends therefore to be more trustworthy. Some cultures (e.g. North American) attach more importance to what is said, while in other cultures (e.g. Asian) it is essential to understand non-verbal messages.

National cultures are unique, but they are not totally different and closed systems. There are similarities between cultures for reasons such as common language or religion. Long-term interaction of cultures (e.g. between neighbouring countries or during domination of one country by another) also influences culture. In some developing countries, the social groups most exposed to the culture of the former colonial power (e.g. administrators, intellectuals and the business community) tended to adopt some of its values and behavioural patterns. Thus, strong influences of French culture can be observed in French-speaking Africa, while influences of Dutch culture are still present in Indonesia. Cultural changes occur in many countries under the influence of growing material wealth, better general education, expansion of contacts with different cultures and other factors.

There is a growing interest in exploring the role played by national culture in the economic performance and development of particular countries. For many decades, North American culture has been widely regarded as a major factor in the dynamism, competitiveness and achievement of American businesses. At the present time, managers all over the world are keen to get a deeper insight into Japanese national culture (box 5.3).

Professional culture

Professional culture is one shared by individuals who belong to the same profession, e.g. lawyers, medical doctors, civil engineers or accountants. It is very much related to job content and to the role that the members of the profession play in society. It is influenced by professional education and training and tends to exhibit common characteristics across organizational and national boundaries. One of the objectives of professional associations and societies is to preserve and develop professional culture. Ethical values promoted by professional associations tend to become a part of this culture.

The understanding of professional culture may help a management consultant to establish constructive relations with clients and other professionals in foreign countries. It is useful to be informed about the background of managers and staff in a client organization and know, for example, from which universities they graduated. Some members of a client organization (e.g. accountants, internal consultants, training managers) may share common professional values with the consultant: this may be of particular help in penetrating the problems of local culture.

117

Management consulting

Box 5.3 Japanese culture and management consulting

Japanese culture, which is a historical growth of indigenous culture with the medieval influence of Chinese culture and the modern influence of Western culture, notably of Western European nations after the Meiji Restoration and American culture after the Second World War, has created a unique approach to management. Two of its key characteristics have strongly influenced business management in Japan.

Group orientation. The values, attitudes and behaviour of managers and workers are oriented towards the interest of the group to which they belong. The basic principle is that the collective interest of the group must be served best. In the Japanese context, the nation and the company are the two groups with which both managers and employees identify most closely.

Long-term orientation. Japanese managers and workers view their work, as well as their life in general, from a long-term perspective and act accordingly. Time is money to them, too, primarily in the sense that the more time is spent on a plan for an activity, the greater the result of its implementation is likely to be. Typically, a Japanese employee makes work decisions in the expectation of a lifetime career with the organization where he or she is employed.

Only those management techniques – be they for decision-making, problemsolving, leadership, motivation, communication, negotiation or change – that match these two characteristics of Japanese culture have been successfully transferred from Western culture. It was these two characteristics that acted as especially strong obstacles to the change that Japanese managers and employees needed to espouse to meet the challenges of the new world order which emerged in the 1990s.

The enormous changes generated by the new economy, characterized by globalization, the telecommunications revolution and deregulation, demand new qualities that have not previously been prominent in Japanese values and practices, specifically flexibility, speed, creativity and individual initiative. This is requiring fundamental cultural change, going far beyond mere cultural adaptation. The development has generated serious problems, collectively called “the lost decade”, which could not be addressed by Japanese managers and workers in the traditional way. Going outside their own companies, they are increasingly calling for assistance from consultants, who as outsiders have conventionally been retained primarily for their operational expertise such as production control and sales management. In the current situation, they are being retained to help clients solve critical structural and strategic issues, enabling them to accomplish transformation to the new economy.

A universal challenge for management consultants across Japan now is to facilitate and accelerate the transformation not only technically but also culturally. They must do this by fostering the development of those values, attitudes and behaviour that, while still rooted in the history of the nation, assimilate the relevant elements of the best-practice models of today’s world.

Author: Eiji Mizutani.

118

Consulting and culture

Organizational culture

Organizations, too, tend to have their specific culture: a mix of values, attitudes, norms, habits, traditions, behaviours and rituals that, in their totality, are unique to the given organization (box 5.4). Some organizations are well aware of their culture and regard it as a powerful strategic tool, used to orient all units and individuals towards common goals, mobilize employee initiative, ensure loyalty and facilitate communication. They aim at creating a culture of their own and making sure that all employees understand it and adhere to it.2

Organizational cultures, or micro-cultures, reflect national culture first of all. But they also include other values and norms. Research has provided some insight into the organizational cultures of leading corporations in various countries. It has shown that many companies that have been outstanding performers over a long time exhibit a strong corporate culture. In many multinational corporations, the parent company’s culture has considerable bearing on the cultural norms and behaviour of subsidiaries in other countries. This leads to an interesting mix of cultures in the case of foreign subsidiaries, where the influence of local national culture is combined with that of the parent company’s culture. The strong personalities of the founders and of certain top managers also influence organizational culture even in very large and complex corporations.

The hidden dimensions of organizational culture tend to surface during company mergers and takeovers, which in many cases fail to produce expected results often because management is unable to harmonize the different cultures.

Many organizations develop a specialized vocabulary and a wide range of symbols and rituals that staff members have to use and respect to avoid being regarded as outsiders by their colleagues.

A management consultant needs to learn about the organizational culture as early as possible in the assignment if he or she does not want to be perceived as a stranger who does not know how things are normally done in the client organization and whose presence is therefore an irritation. But there is another much more important reason for this: the client organization’s culture may be one of the causes, or even the principal cause, of the problems for which the consultant was brought in. Even if changes in organizational culture are not explicitly stated among the objectives of the assignment, the consultant may have to deal with them and recommend changes.

Changing organizational culture may be a difficult and painful exercise, especially if it is necessary to change the values of the founders and leaders, and habits and practices that have become collective and have been widely established. Changes in leadership and management styles, and re-education, may be required. However, it has been pointed out that “organizational cultures reside at a more superficial level of programming than the things learned previously in the family and at school”.3 Changing organizational culture is a task of top management, but the consultant’s catalytic input can be essential.

119