With
the globalisation of the world economy and the increased contact of personnel
from different cultural backgrounds, cross-cultural services are in expanding
demand. Cross-cultural consultancy is a large inter-disciplinary field concerned
with facilitating communication and interaction of people of different cultures,
where the differences of these cultures impose additional factors or difficulties
in communication or interaction than would otherwise be the case, if culture
played no role. 'Culture'
here is understood not in its philosophical or metaphysical interpretation
of the high arts (literature, theatre, opera, high education etc.),
but in its 'applied anthropological' or sociological sense of life styles,
values, customs and world views of, normally, ethnic or national groupings
of people.
As
used here, cross-cultural consultancy is restricted to the interaction and
communication of corporations (and governments in so far as it relates to
business) involved in running businesses in the world economy, and hence
faced with different national or ethnic backgrounds. So it excludes such
areas as pre-adult education, e.g. foreign student advising, inter-governmental
communications etc., as well as 'inter-cultural' issues concerned more with
domestic ethnic, social, generational etc. conflicts and differences. We
are also not concerned with diversity programs which are largely about ethnic
issues within a country. In other words we are concerned here primarily
with corporate communication and interaction difficulties that arise across
cultures in the 'global' business world, where that business takes place
in at least more than one country.
While
language plays a large role in the above, research shows that language differences
represent only one aspect of cross-cultural communication. The corporate
players in the international arena do not necessarily speak each culture's
specific language, and while language acquisition is highly recommended
in the players' internationalisation process, businesses often cannot wait
until all parties have mastered their respective languages. Consequently,
they often have to function in their native-languages and operate through
linguistic interpreters. Cross-cultural consultancy services must therefore
also make itself available especially to those who do not possess multi-lingual
abilities. In the following description of cross-cultural consultancy services,
therefore, the whole service area concerned with language (language learning
and training, translation, interpreting etc.) is excluded from this discussion
for the sake of defining the less well known non-linguistic factors of cross-cultural
interaction better, and in order not to regard cross-cultural consultancy
as a function of individual corporations' linguistic competencies.
Cross-cultural
consultancy is thus concerned with assisting, in one form or another (described
below), businesses who are dealing in the global market-place with issues
which arise due to the differences of cultures. It is interdisciplinary,
because it tackles problems concerned not only with general differences
of cultures (their differing values, beliefs, world views, implicit philosophies
etc.) and how those general aspects are expressed in different forms of
behaviour, perception, expression, group mechanisms, non-verbal patterns,
customs and etiquette, but also with how those aspects are reflected in
various facets of business life: law (e.g. comparative law), politics, economics,
marketing, PR, industrial relations, manufacturing, finance, management
and so on.
In
most market-places there are specialist consultants for each of these areas
(legal consultants, marketing consultants, financial consultants, management
consultants etc.) who can give in-depth advice in their respective fields
for corporations to solve specific problems. These tend, however, to be
locally oriented and too narrowly defined for the general businessperson
who seeks global solutions (e.g. in a multi-cultural work team) to common
situations not restricted to nor requiring profound assistance in any one
particular field alone, but rather an overall understanding of and an ability
to function in all fields and the way they relate to each other across different
cultures. Cross-cultural consultancy thus takes these fields into consideration
in how they relate to cultural differences and multi-cultural business operations,
but it does not claim to be specialist in any one of those fields - where
detailed advice in a particular area is required, local specialist consultants
must be consulted.
Cross-cultural
consultancy is concerned with helping corporations solve business problems
of cross-cultural communication and interaction in those areas in as far
as they affect differences of values, perception and behaviour. Where the
core competency of a legal advisor is law, a financial advisor economics
and the financial world, an accountant accounting, a management consultant
management theory and practice etc., so the core competency of cross-cultural
consultancy is group psychology, humans and their values in an international
setting. Such values often have a great impact, though not always tangible,
on international business operations. These can cause communication breakdowns,
misperceptions, lack of trust when things go wrong, or positively it can
create synergy, increased productivity, creativity and enlightened morale.
The
purpose of cross-cultural consultancy, then, is to help international business
players who cannot effectively manage pan-cultural human relations by themselves,
usually due to lack of exposure, experience and understanding of cultures,
and sometimes linguistic inadequacies. While it can take novices two to
five years of international experience before they can handle multi-cultural
situations effectively and autonomously, cross-cultural consultancy can
assist in dealing with problems on the spot before that stage is achieved.
At the same time it can arrange and execute training programs designed to
expedite the players' acquisitions of such international skills.
Any
given cross-cultural consultancy agency should further be defined by the
very cultures it is operating in and which it is advising on. At the very
least there must be a minimum of two different cultures. Ideally, however,
a cross-cultural consultant should have a broader experience of more cultures
or culture groups (e.g. North American including native Indian, European,
East Asian etc.) in order to have a wider perspective and be able to accommodate
corporate clients who already have some international experience, but not
necessarily in the specific cultures(s) they are seeking assistance on.
Cross-cultural consultants should also have liaison offices and facilities
in all the cultures they are dealing with, so that work with multi-culturally
mixed groups can be followed up at any stage in the geographic locations
of the cultures concerned.
A
corporate cross-cultural consultant's expertise is derived from a combination
of factors:
1)
Intercultural Studies: A solid academic background in the field of
intercultural studies, communication studies and applied anthropology, with
a thorough knowledge of approaches and techniques used in process consulting,
counselling, needs assessment, research, appraising, analysis of group dynamics,
interpersonal communication, testing, curriculum design and training skills.
2)
Trainer Qualification: Working experience in the above, especially
practical experience in a large variety of counselling and training techniques.
3)
General Business Knowledge: A good overall (generalist) knowledge
and understanding of the basic principles and axioms of various academic,
but practice-oriented fields: jurisprudence, finance, engineering, management
etc..
4)
Working/Business Experience: Extensive business working experience,
in order to be able to comprehend and empathise with the pressures and circumstances
business people, engineers, managers etc. are operating under, but at the
same time view from a distance.
5)
Personal Cross-cultural Experience: Most importantly, actual long-term
experience working and living in different cultures, with extended experience
in the cultures the consultant is advising on. This experience must be 'unsheltered',
i.e. totally integrated in the target culture bearing the same 'hardships'
as the locals, and not protected by the 'foreign community' and all its
institutions established within that culture (e.g. as experienced by most
diplomats or high level expatriates living on special compensation schemes
from head-quarters); and finally:
6)
Multi-lingualism: Because so many values and beliefs are inbedded
in language, and because language is also a way of defining what we perceive
as reality, it is important for a cross-cultural consultant to be able to
'see' and experience more than one world through the ability to think and
dream in more than one language. Cross-culturalism without multi-lingualism
is a contradiction of terms and hypocritical at its best.
In
other words, while most specialist consultants are distinguished by their
in-depth knowledge and experience in their particular fields, cross-cultural
consultants are marked by their broad experience and knowledge in multi-cultural
settings. It is important to note that not some, but all elements mentioned
are required. There are many multi-lingual or multi-cultural people
(especially bilingual or bicultural by upbringing in childhood) who can
operate very effectively in different cultures, but who do not necessarily
understand, without further academic and practical training, the actual
mechanics by which they operate, and who are thus poorly equipped to actually
assist mono-lingual or mono-cultural people effectively, largely because
the learning process is different as an adult than when acquired naturally
as a child.
The
same is true of the internationally well-accomplished and successful businessman,
who in principle has all the qualities mentioned above except for the first
(and second?), and who consequently, without further education, can often
only offer 'old-hand' advice. This is in practice sometimes felt to be not
very useful or limited in practical terms by mono-cultural novices, partly
because it is often anecdotal and inconsistent rather than didactic and
systematic, i.e. based on proven counselling, coaching and training approaches
and techniques, and on solid scientific or psychological research. Conversely,
however, an academic background and good skills in consultancy and training
are in themselves totally inadequate without the multi-lingual and multi-cultural
experience to make up a cross-cultural consultant - multi-cultural experience
precedes.
So
what are corporate cross-cultural consultancy services? The following is
a sampling of the services which a cross-cultural consultancy can offer
(these are grouped in terms of activities rather than the usual target audience
service approach):
Cross-cultural
Negotiations: