Quote:
Originally Posted by pjorourke
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Americans have long relied on activities like sports, theater, marching band etc to teach that one critical American cultural skill. ...
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but they default to hierarchical, top-down organization. Absent leadership or a predefined structure, both Germans and Japanese have a relatively hard time organizing themselves.?
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On the latter point, based only on my personal experiences/observations with various organizations I tend to agree (partially), but wonder if it is less cultural and more a function of geography/distance.
That is in US-based/led organizations, I could draw that conclusion if I looked at the behavior of the foreign team members based across the pond, say the European Sales Manager based in Frankfurt. If he's going to spend 10 hours a week working on some initiative coming out of corporate he sure as heck wants to know "on who's authority..."
That said, I've been that guy's equilivent with a European-based/owned company where I had responsibility for the US. I've also been the field-based guy for U.S./same culture firms(e.g. the Southern Region Manager). In all cases I had an "on who's authority" attitude when some kind of "team" came up. I observed the same of the field guys when I was at corporate. When you are remote, you have to manage priorities/expectations etc. differently so I'm suggesting it may be more geography than culture.
As for the "teaching" point...I'll suggest "teams" are taught in class as well. "Group Projects" dominate & it isn't just Business School. I'm not as familiar with educational systems in other countries, but I wonder if they do as much as far as group projects?
I'll pick up the bar tab and get you a pair of eyeglasses to boot, hell the tab alone outta set me back a grand!
Look up and read the title of my prior post!
The items you drink are not cheap.
