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4 How Much Respect Do You Want? leadership, hierarchy, and power W hat does a good boss look like? Try to answer the question quickly without giving it much thought. When you picture the perfect leader, is he wearing a navy Armani suit and a pair of highly polished wingtips, or khaki trousers, a...

4 How Much Respect Do You Want? leadership, hierarchy, and power W hat does a good boss look like? Try to answer the question quickly without giving it much thought. When you picture the perfect leader, is he wearing a navy Armani suit and a pair of highly polished wingtips, or khaki trousers, a sweater, and comfy jogging shoes? Does she travel to work on a mountain bike or driving a black Ferrari? Is the ideal leader someone that you would naturally call “Mr. Director,” or would you prefer to address him as “Sam”? Copyright © 2014. PublicAffairs. All rights reserved. For Ulrich Jepsen, a Danish executive in his early thirties who has spent the past ten years on the management fast track working for Maersk, a Copenhagen-based multinational container-shipping company, the answer is clear: In Denmark, it is understood that the managing director is one of the guys, just two small steps up from the janitor. I worked hard to be the type of leader who is a facilitator among equals rather than a director giving orders from on high. I felt it was important to dress just as casually as every other member of my 115 Meyer, E. (2014). The culture map : Breaking through the invisible boundaries of global business. PublicAffairs. Created from eastcarolina on 2023-08-05 02:42:48. 9781610392501-text.indd 115 3/11/14 9:26 AM 116 erin Meyer team, so they didn’t feel I was arrogant or consider myself to be above them. Danes call everyone by their first name and I wouldn’t feel comfortable being called anything but Ulrich. In my staff meetings, the voices of the interns and administrative assistants count as much as mine or any of the directors. This is quite common in Denmark. Jepsen does not have an open-door policy—but only because he doesn’t have a door. In fact, he chose to not have an office (they are rare in his company’s headquarters). Instead, he works in an open space among his staff. If any team members need a quiet place to talk, they can slip into a nearby conference room. Jepsen continues: Managing Danes, I have learned that the best way to get things done is to push power down in the organization and step out of the way. That really motivates people here. I am a big fan of tools like management by objectives and 360-degree feedback, which Copyright © 2014. PublicAffairs. All rights reserved. allow me to manage the team from more or less the same level as them. The belief that individuals should be considered equal and that individual achievement should be downplayed has been a part of Scandinavian society for centuries, but it was codified in the so-called “Law of Jante” by Danish author Aksel Sandemose in his 1933 novel En flyktning krysser sitt spor (A Fugitive Crosses His Tracks). Sandemose’s writing was intended as a critique of Scandinavian culture as reflected in the homogeneity and repression characteristic of the fictional small town of Jante. Nonetheless, Meyer, E. (2014). The culture map : Breaking through the invisible boundaries of global business. PublicAffairs. Created from eastcarolina on 2023-08-05 02:42:48. 9781610392501-text.indd 116 3/11/14 9:26 AM The CulTure Map 117 the rules of equality Sandemose described seem to be deeply etched into the Danish psyche. Jepsen observes: Although a lot of Danes would like to change this, we have been bathed since childhood in extreme egalitarian principles: Do not think you are better than others. Do not think you are smarter than others. Do not think you are more important than others. Do not think you are someone special. These and the other Jante rules are a very deep part of the way we live and the way we prefer to be managed. Jepsen’s egalitarian leadership style was so appreciated in Denmark that he was promoted four times in four years. But the fifth promotion put Jepsen in charge of the company’s recently acquired Russian operation, his first international leadership position. Relocated to a small town outside of Saint Petersburg, Jepsen was surprised by the difficulties he encountered in managing his team. After four months in his new job, he e-mailed me this list of Copyright © 2014. PublicAffairs. All rights reserved. complaints about his Russian staff: 1. They call me Mr. President 2. They defer to my opinions 3. They are reluctant to take initiative 4. They ask for my constant approval 5. They treat me like I am king When Jepsen and I met to discuss his cross-cultural challenges, he provided a concrete example: “Week two into the job, our IT director e-mailed me to outline in detail a problem we were having with the e-mail process and describing various solutions. He Meyer, E. (2014). The culture map : Breaking through the invisible boundaries of global business. PublicAffairs. Created from eastcarolina on 2023-08-05 02:42:48. 9781610392501-text.indd 117 3/11/14 9:26 AM 118 erin Meyer ended his e-mail, ‘Mr. President, kindly explain how you would like me to handle this.’ This was the first of many such e-mails from various directors to fill my inbox. All problems are pushed up, up, up, and I do my best to nudge them way back down.” After all, as Jepsen told the IT manager, “You know the situation better than I do. You are the expert, not me.” Meanwhile, the members of Jepsen’s Russian management team were equally annoyed at Jepsen’s apparent lack of competence as a leader. Here are some of the complaints they offered during focus group interviews: 1. He is a weak, ineffective leader 2. He doesn’t know how to manage 3. He gave up his corner office on the top floor, suggesting to the company that our team is of no importance 4. He is incompetent While Jepsen was groaning that his team members took no initiative, they were wringing their hands about Jepsen’s lack of leadership: “We are just waiting for a little bit of direction!” Copyright © 2014. PublicAffairs. All rights reserved. How about you? Do you prefer an egalitarian or a hierarchical management approach? No matter what your nationality, the answer is probably the same. Most people throughout the world claim to prefer an egalitarian style, and a large majority of managers say that they use an egalitarian approach themselves. But evidence from the cross-cultural trenches shows another story. When people begin managing internationally, their day-today work reveals quite different preferences—and these unexpected, unconscious differences can make leading across cultures surprisingly difficult, as a Mexican manager named Carlos Gomez Meyer, E. (2014). The culture map : Breaking through the invisible boundaries of global business. PublicAffairs. Created from eastcarolina on 2023-08-05 02:42:48. 9781610392501-text.indd 118 3/11/14 9:26 AM The CulTure Map 119 discovered when his work for the Heineken brewing company brought him a continent away, to Amsterdam. Teaching a group of Heineken managers feels at first a little like entering a sports bar. The classroom walls are covered with advertisements for various beer brands and there are life-size cardboard cutouts of cocktail waitresses serving up a cold one as you enter the room. Given the overall spirit of relaxed friendliness, I was half expecting the participants to lurch into a round of the Dutch drinking song “In de Hemel is Geen Bier” (In Heaven There Is No Beer) as I started my session. Heineken, of course, is a Dutch brewing company with a market presence in seventy countries. If you like beer, it’s likely you know one of the international Heineken brands, not only the eponymous Heineken but also Amstel, Moretti, or Kingfisher. When you visit Heineken’s headquarters in Amsterdam, in addition to finding a beer-tasting museum around the corner, you will find a lot of tall blond Dutch people and also a lot of . . . Mexicans. In 2010, Heineken purchased a big operation in Monterrey, Mexico, and now a large number of Heineken employees come from northeastern Mexico. One is Carlos Gomez, and as our session began, he described to Copyright © 2014. PublicAffairs. All rights reserved. the class his experiences since moving to Amsterdam a year earlier. “It is absolutely incredible to manage Dutch people and nothing like my experience leading Mexican teams,” Gomez said, “because the Dutch do not care at all who is the boss in the room.” At this, Gomez’s Dutch colleagues began breaking into knowing laughter. But Gomez protested: Don’t laugh! It’s not funny. I struggle with this every day. I will schedule a meeting in order to roll out a new process, and during the meeting my team starts challenging the process, taking the Meyer, E. (2014). The culture map : Breaking through the invisible boundaries of global business. PublicAffairs. Created from eastcarolina on 2023-08-05 02:42:48. 9781610392501-text.indd 119 3/11/14 9:26 AM 120 erin Meyer meeting in various unexpected directions, ignoring my process altogether, and paying no attention to the fact that they work for me. Sometimes I just watch them astounded. Where is the respect? You guys know me. You know I am not a tyrant or a dictator, and I believe as deeply in the importance of leveraging creativity from every member of the team as any Dutch person in this room. But in the culture where I was born and raised and have spent my entire life, we give more respect to someone who is senior to us. We show a little more deference to the person in charge. Yes, you can say we are more hierarchical. And I don’t know how to lead a team if my team does not treat me as their boss, but simply one of them. It is confusing for me, because the way they treat me makes me want to assert my authority more vigorously than I would ever want or need to do in Mexico. But I know that is exactly the wrong approach. I know this treating everyone as pure equals is the Dutch way, so I keep quiet and try to be patient. But often I just feel like getting down on my knees and pleading with them, “Dear col- Copyright © 2014. PublicAffairs. All rights reserved. leagues, in case you have forgotten—I . . . am . . . the boss.” geerT hofsTede and The concepT of poWer dIsTance Carlos Gomez finds managing a team of workers from Holland terribly frustrating because of the enormous gap between Mexican and Dutch cultures when it comes to power distance. This concept grew out of an ocean journey taken at the age of eighteen by Geert Hofstede, who would eventually become the most famous cross-cultural researcher in history. Meyer, E. (2014). The culture map : Breaking through the invisible boundaries of global business. PublicAffairs. Created from eastcarolina on 2023-08-05 02:42:48. 9781610392501-text.indd 120 3/11/14 9:26 AM The CulTure Map 121 Hofstede traveled to Indonesia as an assistant engineer on a ship and was struck by the cultural differences between the people of Indonesia and his fellow Dutchmen. Later, when he got to know an English woman on a different voyage, he realized that strong cultural differences can exist even between countries that are geographically close. These differences fascinated Hofstede. Eventually, as a professor of social psychology, Hofstede was the first person to use significant research data to map world cultures on scales. Hofstede developed the term “power distance” while analyzing 100,000 management surveys at IBM in the 1970s. He defined power distance as “the extent to which the less powerful members of organizations accept and expect that power is distributed unequally.” Hofstede also looked at power distance in families and in various other social structures, such as tribes or communities.1 In a more recent study, a group of academic scholars from around the world led by Professor Robert House conducted thousands of interviews across sixty-two countries during which they tested and calibrated Hofstede’s data on the power distance scales again.2 This project is often referred to as the Globe Project. Copyright © 2014. PublicAffairs. All rights reserved. House and his colleagues looked at the degree to which inequality in a society is both supported and desired and considered the impact on egalitarian versus hierarchical leadership preferences in various countries. The Leading scale takes Hofstede’s idea of power distance and applies it specifically to business. Power distance relates to questions like: • How much respect or deference is shown to an authority figure? • How god-like is the boss? Meyer, E. (2014). The culture map : Breaking through the invisible boundaries of global business. PublicAffairs. Created from eastcarolina on 2023-08-05 02:42:48. 9781610392501-text.indd 121 3/11/14 9:26 AM 122 erin Meyer • Is it acceptable to skip layers in your company? If you want to communicate a message to someone two levels above or below you, should you go through the hierarchical chain? • When you are the boss, what gives you an aura of authority? As the last question in this list suggests, power distance is related, in part, to the signals that are used to mark power within an organization or other social group. Such signals, of course, may be interpreted very differently in different parts of the world. Behavior that shouts “This man has the leadership skills to move mountains and motivate armies” in one society may squeak “This man has the leadership skills of a three-footed mouse” in another. In an egalitarian culture, for example, an aura of authority is more likely to come from acting like one of the team, while in a hierarchical culture, an aura of authority tends to come from setting yourself clearly apart. I met Anne-Hélène Gutierres when she was the teaching assistant in my advanced French course at the University of Minnesota. Copyright © 2014. PublicAffairs. All rights reserved. I sat behind her in class, admired her long smooth brown hair and her lightly accented English, and tried to imagine what it would be like to leave the Parisian City of Lights for the long, cold winters of midwestern America. As luck would have it, I bumped into Gutierres again years later, when we had both moved to Paris. She told me about some of the surprising things she had encountered while working at a small Minneapolis-based consulting firm—her first job outside of France. One morning Gutierres arrived at work to find her computer wasn’t working. As she had an important presentation to finish, Meyer, E. (2014). The culture map : Breaking through the invisible boundaries of global business. PublicAffairs. Created from eastcarolina on 2023-08-05 02:42:48. 9781610392501-text.indd 122 3/11/14 9:26 AM The CulTure Map 123 she turned to her American colleagues for advice. She recalls: “Imagine my surprise when they responded, ‘Pam isn’t here today, why don’t you use her computer? She won’t mind. She has an open door policy.’ Pam was the president of the company!” Gutierres still remembers the feeling of opening up the big glass door to Pam’s office, approaching her desk, and touching the keyboard. “Even though Pam was out of the country, I could feel the power of her position hovering over that space. Later, when I told my French friends about the experience, we all laughed trying to imagine how our French bosses might react if they knew we had made ourselves comfortable sitting in their chairs and using their things.” Gutierres’s story suggests the aura of authority that surrounds the material possessions of a boss in French culture. More broadly, it suggests the important role symbols play in defining power distance. Thus, if you are the boss, your behavior may be speaking volumes without your even recognizing it. Take a simple action like riding a bike to work. In countries like Jepsen’s Denmark, when the boss rides a bike to work (which is common), it may symbolize to the egalitarian Danes a strong lead- Copyright © 2014. PublicAffairs. All rights reserved. ership voice: “Look, I’m one of you.” Something similar applies in Australia, as explained by Steve Henning, an executive in the textile industry: One of my most proud lifestyle choices back in Australia was the fact that I was a near-full-time bicycle commuter. My Surly Long Haul Trucker bike wasn’t just a toy; it was a fully equipped workhorse that was used for shopping, getting around, traveling to and from work, weekend leisure rides, and anything else I needed. I’m a senior vice president in our company, and my Australian staff thought it was great that I rode a bike to work. If anything, Meyer, E. (2014). The culture map : Breaking through the invisible boundaries of global business. PublicAffairs. Created from eastcarolina on 2023-08-05 02:42:48. 9781610392501-text.indd 123 3/11/14 9:26 AM 124 erin Meyer they liked that their boss showed up to work in a bike helmet. So I decided to bring my bicycle with me when I was assigned to a new job in China. Henning had been using his bike during his daily commute in Beijing for a while when he discovered that the tactic had certainly attracted attention from his team members. “Just not the type of attention I was hoping for,” Henning sighs. While sharing a dinner and drinks with a Chinese colleague and friend, Henning learned what his staff was saying about him: My team was humiliated that their boss rode a bike to work like a common person. While Chinese bike to work infinitely more than Australians, among the wealthier Chinese, bikes are not an option. There are plenty of bikes on the road, but biking is for the lower classes only. So my team felt it was an embarrassment that their boss rode a bike to the office. They felt it suggested to the entire company that their boss was unimportant, and that by association, they were unimportant, too. Copyright © 2014. PublicAffairs. All rights reserved. Well, I love my bike, but I was in China to get my team motivated and on track. I certainly didn’t want to sabotage my success just to arrive sweaty at the office every morning. I gave up the bike and started taking public transportation, just like every other Chinese boss. Once you understand the power distance messages your actions are sending, you can make an informed choice about what behaviors to change. But if you don’t know what your behaviors signify, you’ll have no control over the signals you send—and the results can be disastrous. Meyer, E. (2014). The culture map : Breaking through the invisible boundaries of global business. PublicAffairs. Created from eastcarolina on 2023-08-05 02:42:48. 9781610392501-text.indd 124 3/11/14 9:26 AM The CulTure Map 125 hIsTorIcal and culTural facTors ThaT affecT The leadIng scale Our placement of cultures on the Leading scale, which positions cultures from highly egalitarian to strongly hierarchical (Figure 4.1), draws heavily on Hofstede’s work and the Globe Project research. It also incorporates data from my own work with hundreds of international executives. On the scale and from now on we’ll use the word egalitarian instead of low power distance and hierarchical instead of high power distance. A glance at the Leading scale reveals a number of interesting and important anomalies. One relates to the placement of European cultures on the scale. Once, while doing some work for an Ohio-based food producer, I worked with a group of executives who frequently sold products and services via telephone to clients from many countries. When I spoke to the participants on the phone during my planning for our Copyright © 2014. PublicAffairs. All rights reserved. FIGURE 4.1. Denmark Israel Canada Netherlands Finland Sweden Australia US UK LEADING France Poland Saudi Arabia Japan Germany Italy Russia India Korea Brazil Spain Mexico Peru China Nigeria Egalitarian Hierarchical Egalitarian The ideal distance between a boss and a subordinate is low. The best boss is a facilitator among equals. Organizational structures are flat. Communication often skips hierarchical lines. Hierarchical The ideal distance between a boss and a subordinate is high. The best boss is a strong director who leads from the front. Status is important. Organizational structures are multilayered and fixed. Communication follows set hierarchical lines. Meyer, E. (2014). The culture map : Breaking through the invisible boundaries of global business. PublicAffairs. Created from eastcarolina on 2023-08-05 02:42:48. 9781610392501-text.indd 125 3/11/14 9:26 AM 126 erin Meyer session, several told me that they would like to learn more about the “European culture.” Take a good look at the Leading scale and see if you can identify the location of “European culture.” As your eye scans from Denmark and Sweden on the extreme left of the scale all the way down to Italy and Spain in the middle-right, you’ll realize that what it means to be “culturally European” on this scale is not very evident. Although Europe is a small geographical area, it embraces large differences in opinion about what it means to be a good boss. These variations within Europe have been examined by a number of different researchers. For example, in the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s, my colleague Professor André Laurent polled hundreds of European managers about a number of leadership issues.3 One of the questions he asked was, “Is it important for a manager to have at hand precise answers to most of the questions subordinates may raise about their work?” Take a look (Figure 4.2) at the percentages of respondents from each country who responded “yes” to this question: As you can see, the answers varied dramatically from one nationality to the next. While 55 percent of Italians polled claimed Copyright © 2014. PublicAffairs. All rights reserved. that it is important for the boss to have most of the answers, only 7 percent of Swedes thought the same way. In recent follow-up interviews, Swedish managers explained that a conscious approach to leadership underlies this attitude. One commented, “Even if I know the answer, I probably won’t give it to my staff . . . because I want them to figure it out for themselves.” An Italian manager would be more likely to say, “If I don’t provide my people with the answers they need, how can they move ahead?” Intrigued by these results, Professor Laurent puzzled over the historic factors that might have pushed these various European cultures to have such different identities when it comes to the role Meyer, E. (2014). The culture map : Breaking through the invisible boundaries of global business. PublicAffairs. Created from eastcarolina on 2023-08-05 02:42:48. 9781610392501-text.indd 126 3/11/14 9:26 AM 127 The CulTure Map FIGURE 4.2. “It is important for a manager to have at hand precise answers to most of the questions that subordinates may raise about their work” 60 Percent who agree 50 40 30 20 10 n ai Sp y al It l ce ga tu Po r Fr an m iu lg Be an y rm Ge UK nd la er th Ne Sw ed en s 0 of the boss. Here are three clues you might recall from your high school history classes. The first clue is one I recall from my tenth-grade teacher, Mr. Copyright © 2014. PublicAffairs. All rights reserved. Duncan, who told our class about how the Roman Empire swept across southern Europe. He recounted in hushed tones how the Romans built hierarchical social and political structures and heavily centralized systems for managing their vast empire. The boundaries between the different classes were strict and legally enforced. Members of different classes even dressed differently. Only the emperor was allowed to wear a purple toga, while senators could wear a white toga with a broad purple stripe along the edge, and equestrians, who ranked just below the senators, wore togas with a narrow purple stripe. The class of the person was therefore noticeable at first glimpse. Meyer, E. (2014). The culture map : Breaking through the invisible boundaries of global business. PublicAffairs. Created from eastcarolina on 2023-08-05 02:42:48. 9781610392501-text.indd 127 3/11/14 9:26 AM 128 erin Meyer So a first historical point is that the countries that fell under the influence of the Roman Empire (including Spain, Italy, and, to a lesser degree, France) tend to be more hierarchical than the rest of Western Europe. Although your Italian boss is unlikely to wear a purple toga, invisible and subtle remnants of these attitudes still remain today. The second clue relates to a much later European empire, one that dominated the northern part of the continent to almost as great an extent as the Roman Empire dominated the south. When you think of the Vikings, you may think of hulking muscular men with long walrus mustaches and hats with horns, riding big ships and waging bloody wars. What you may not know is that the Vikings were surprisingly egalitarian. When settling in Iceland, they founded one of the world’s early democracies. The entire community was invited to the debating hall to thrash out the hot topics of the day, followed by a vote, with each person’s opinion carrying equal weight. Legend has it that, when the Prince of Franks sent an envoy from southern Europe to negotiate with the Vikings, the puzzled envoy returned confused and disheartened, complaining, “I couldn’t figure out who to talk with. They said they were all the chiefs.” Copyright © 2014. PublicAffairs. All rights reserved. The countries most influenced by the Vikings consistently rank as some of the most egalitarian and consensus-oriented cultures in the world today. So it is no surprise that, even today, when you walk into a meeting room in Copenhagen or Stockholm, it is often impossible to spot the boss. Our third historical clue relates to the distance between the people and God in particular religions. Countries with Protestant cultures tend to fall further to the egalitarian side of the scale than those with a more Catholic tradition. One interpretation of this pattern is that the Protestant Reformation largely removed the traditional hierarchy from the church. In many strains of Protestantism, Meyer, E. (2014). The culture map : Breaking through the invisible boundaries of global business. PublicAffairs. Created from eastcarolina on 2023-08-05 02:42:48. 9781610392501-text.indd 128 3/11/14 9:26 AM The CulTure Map 129 the individual speaks directly to God instead of speaking to God through the priest, the bishop, and the pope. Thus, it’s natural that societies in which Protestant religions predominate tend to be more egalitarian than those dominated by Catholicism. Of course, all three of these historical observations are dramatic oversimplifications, as each country has a rich and complex history that helps shape its leadership beliefs. But even in this day of text messaging and video calls, where cross-cultural interactions are commonplace, events that took place thousands of years ago continue to influence the cultures in which individuals are raised and formed—and these historical forces help to explain why European countries appear in such widely different locations on the Leading scale. Meanwhile, a glance to the right-hand side of the scale, where hierarchical countries are clustered, reveals a large number of Asian cultures. Here, again, we can point to a significant historical influence that helps to explain this pattern—the ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius. When I was in my teens, my family had a Chinese doctoral student named Ronan living with us one winter in Minneapolis. My Copyright © 2014. PublicAffairs. All rights reserved. older brother and I were often fighting, and after one of our disagreements, Ronan told me the story of Kong Rong, who was a Han Dynasty scholar, politician, and warlord. According to Ronan, when Kong Rong was four years old, he was given the opportunity to choose a pear from among several. Instead of taking the largest pear, he took the smallest pear, saying that the larger pears should be eaten by his older brothers. Although the story did nothing to change my feelings toward my brother, the oddity of the message stuck in my mind. I didn’t much like pears, but I certainly wouldn’t give the nicest one to my brother just because he happened to be born two years before me. Meyer, E. (2014). The culture map : Breaking through the invisible boundaries of global business. PublicAffairs. Created from eastcarolina on 2023-08-05 02:42:48. 9781610392501-text.indd 129 3/11/14 9:26 AM 130 erin Meyer Obviously, I wasn’t raised with Confucian principles. But in Confucian Asia, the older sibling is clearly positioned above the younger one. Thus, in Chinese families, children are generally not spoken to in the family by their personal names but rather by their kinship titles (“Older sister,” “2nd brother,” “4th sister,” and so on). In this way, they are constantly reminded of their position in the family relative to everyone else’s. Confucius was mainly interested in how to bring about societal order and harmony. He believed that mankind would be in harmony with the universe if everyone understood their rank in society and observed the behaviors proper to that rank. Accordingly, he believed that the social order was threatened whenever people failed to act according to their prescribed roles. Confucius devised a system of interdependent relationships, a sort of structure in which the lower level gives obedience to the higher, while those who are higher protect and mentor the lower. The structure, which he called wu lun, outlined five principal relationships: Emperor (kindness) over Subject (loyalty) Father (protection) over Son (respect and obedience) Copyright © 2014. PublicAffairs. All rights reserved. Husband (obligation) over Wife (submission) Older Brother (care) over Younger Brother (model subject) Senior Friends (trust) over Junior Friends (trust) If Confucius were alive today and updated his model for today’s business leaders, he would likely add a sixth human relationship to his structure: Boss (kindness, protection, care) over Subordinate (loyalty, respect, obedience). To this day, perhaps because of their Confucian heritage, East Asian societies, from China to South Korea to Japan, have a paternalistic view of leadership that is puzzling to Westerners. In Meyer, E. (2014). The culture map : Breaking through the invisible boundaries of global business. PublicAffairs. Created from eastcarolina on 2023-08-05 02:42:48. 9781610392501-text.indd 130 3/11/14 9:26 AM The CulTure Map 131 this kind of “father knows best” society, the patriarch sitting at the top of the pyramid rarely has his views or ideas challenged. And though Asian countries have begun to move past these narrowly defined roles in politics, business, and daily life, due in part to growing influence from the West, most Asians today are still used to thinking in terms of hierarchy. They tend to respect hierarchy and differences in status much more than Westerners. In egalitarian cultures, the down-to-earth CEO who chats with the janitor every morning on a first-name basis is often singled out for praise. You won’t see this in China or Korea. Some of the main points to remember about egalitarian versus hierarchical cultures are summarized in Figure 4.3. FIGURE 4.3. Copyright © 2014. PublicAffairs. All rights reserved. General traits of egalitarian cultures: General traits of hierarchical cultures: It’s okay to disagree with the boss openly even in front of others. An effort is made to defer to the boss’s opinion especially in public. People are more likely to move to action without getting the boss’s okay. People are more likely to get the boss’s approval before moving to action. If meeting with a client or supplier, there is less focus on matching hierarchical levels. If you send your boss, they will send their boss. If your boss cancels, their boss also may not come. It’s okay to e-mail or call people several levels below or above you. Communication follows the hierarchical chain. With clients or partners you will be seated and spoken to in no specific order. With clients or partners you may be seated and spoken to in order of position. Meyer, E. (2014). The culture map : Breaking through the invisible boundaries of global business. PublicAffairs. Created from eastcarolina on 2023-08-05 02:42:48. 9781610392501-text.indd 131 3/11/14 9:26 AM 132 erin Meyer learnIng To Manage In a hIerarchIcal culTure Like any good American, I was raised to be quite uncomfortable with the idea of a fixed social hierarchy. When I thought of hierarchy, I thought of the lowest person’s responsibility to obey, which I felt suggested an inhumane situation, like a relationship between slave and owner. I saw this as being in direct contrast to individual freedom. However, in order to understand the Confucian concept of hierarchy, it is important to think not just about the lower level person’s responsibility to obey, but also about the heavy responsibility of the higher person to protect and care for those under him. The leader’s responsibility for caring and teaching is just as strong as the follower’s responsibility to defer and follow directions. Those from Confucian societies have believed for centuries that this type of dual responsibility is the backbone of a virtuous society. Recognizing and respecting this system of reciprocal obligations is important for the manager from an egalitarian society who finds himself working with a team from a hierarchical society, particularly one from Asia. Like a good Confucian, you Copyright © 2014. PublicAffairs. All rights reserved. must remember your obligations. Your team may follow your instructions to the letter, but in return, you must show a consistent paternalistic kindness. Protect your subordinates, mentor and coach them, behave as a kind father would to his children, and always look out for their interests. Play your role well, and you may find that leading a team in a hierarchical culture brings many rewards. After several years in China, Steve Henning, the Australian bike rider we met earlier in the chapter, summarized his own experience: Meyer, E. (2014). The culture map : Breaking through the invisible boundaries of global business. PublicAffairs. Created from eastcarolina on 2023-08-05 02:42:48. 9781610392501-text.indd 132 3/11/14 9:26 AM The CulTure Map 133 What a pleasure to lead a Chinese team! When I was managing in Europe, every idea I tried to implement had to be hashed out at each level of the department. Hours and hours were lost trying to create buy-in. When I first started working here in China, I felt frustrated that my staff wouldn’t push back or challenge my ideas in the way I was used to. But I have developed a very close relationship with my team members over the past six years—almost a father-son connection. And I have come to love managing in China. There is great beauty in giving a clear instruction and watching your competent and enthusiastic team willingly attack the project without pushing back or challenging. As we’ve noted, symbolic gestures can send important signals about the style of leadership you practice. This is why the use of names is significant. Many Western managers, who tend to prefer informal, egalitarian relationships, try to get their Asian subordinates to call them by their first names. However, if the age and status gap is wide, most will be uncomfortable doing so. You’ll have better luck suggesting they call you by a hybrid name/title— Copyright © 2014. PublicAffairs. All rights reserved. something like “Mr. Mike.” Similarly, details of etiquette may prove critical to your success in China, Korea, or Japan. When you enter a room, you should know whose hand to shake first (the boss’s) and with whom to exchange pleasantries before sitting down to serious business (everyone in descending hierarchical order). When hosting a dinner, you should make seating arrangements according to the rankings of your guests, lest you offend someone. Get any of these details wrong, and you risk not making it to the next meeting, let alone closing the deal. Meyer, E. (2014). The culture map : Breaking through the invisible boundaries of global business. PublicAffairs. Created from eastcarolina on 2023-08-05 02:42:48. 9781610392501-text.indd 133 3/11/14 9:26 AM 134 erin Meyer level-hoppIng: look before you JuMp No matter which country you work in, there is a PowerPoint slide buried somewhere in the human resources department that shows the organizational structure of your company. Your own name is located somewhere on the chart in a neat box, and if you follow the lines up from that box you will see the name of your boss, above that the name of your boss’s boss, and eventually the name of the chairman of the company. If you follow the lines down, you will see those who report to you listed in a neat line, and those who report to those people in neat lines below that one. This kind of on-paper hierarchy is common to every business culture—but the appropriate ways to navigate it in the real world differ widely, depending on how hierarchical or egalitarian that culture is. For example, what if you would like to speak to someone who is not just one level above you (your direct boss) but someone who is several levels above you? Can you simply pick up the phone and dial that person’s number, or drop in to the corner office for a quick meeting and a cup of coffee? If you do this, how will the boss of bosses respond—and what will your direct boss think? Copyright © 2014. PublicAffairs. All rights reserved. The answer may depend in part on the type of company you work for and the specific personalities involved. But cultural differences may play an even greater role. In more egalitarian cultures, it is often acceptable for communication to skip organizational levels. Carlos Gomez, the Mexican manager working in the Netherlands for Heineken, had this to say: I had two educational experiences shortly after my move. First, my new administrative assistant, Karl de Groot, was grabbing his coat to head out for lunch. I asked him if he wanted to get a Meyer, E. (2014). The culture map : Breaking through the invisible boundaries of global business. PublicAffairs. Created from eastcarolina on 2023-08-05 02:42:48. 9781610392501-text.indd 134 3/11/14 9:26 AM The CulTure Map 135 sandwich with me, and he casually mentioned that he couldn’t because he was having lunch with Jan, who is incidentally the general manager of our operation and my boss’s boss. Apparently they had met in the elevator and Karl had suggested they have lunch. I was a little dumbfounded that an administrative assistant would set up a meeting with his boss’s boss’s boss without asking anyone’s okay or even informing his direct supervisor—me! Gomez asked his Dutch colleagues what they thought about this incident, and everyone seemed to think it was perfectly normal, so he shrugged it off. Then, during a staff meeting a couple of weeks later, a second incident occurred: One of my direct reports, a smart, ambitious manager who has really good people skills, mentioned casually that he had just e-mailed the CEO of the company with some criticism about a new initiative. He announced it to the entire team like it was the most normal thing in the world that he would e-mail someone who has over 64,000 employees and is five levels above him, Copyright © 2014. PublicAffairs. All rights reserved. without even telling me—his direct boss—or anyone else. Sometimes when I’m uncomfortable, I feel my smile spread and freeze across my face, and this was one of those times. I actively worked on keeping my lips firmly closed because I understood that, in a Dutch cultural environment, this was acceptable, but I wanted to say, “You did what?!” I felt my pulse racing just thinking about what kind of scolding I would be getting from the big boss the next time I was in a meeting with him about this loose cannon on my team. Of course, that never happened, as he is also . . . well, Dutch. Meyer, E. (2014). The culture map : Breaking through the invisible boundaries of global business. PublicAffairs. Created from eastcarolina on 2023-08-05 02:42:48. 9781610392501-text.indd 135 3/11/14 9:26 AM 136 erin Meyer The fact that all the people involved in these two stories lived and worked in the same environment made it a little easier for Gomez to process the cultural challenge involved. Over time, Gomez had become increasingly aware of what was appropriate in a Dutch cultural environment, so he was able to wrestle with his reactions in order to respond appropriately. The challenge of level-hopping can be even more complicated when the individuals involved are living and working in different countries, as may happen when long-distance communication via phone, e-mail, or another electronic medium is used. I was once asked to help improve the collaboration between two teams, one in Vancouver and one in Bangalore. Sarah Peterson, the manager of the Vancouver team, had eight Canadians working for her. “We develop the specifications for the software our clients need, and we send it to Bangalore where Rishi Rangan’s team of about twenty-five programmers complete the work,” she explained. “The problem began a few months ago when I needed information from one of the programmers on Rishi’s staff, and I e-mailed that person asking for information. No response. Three follow-up Copyright © 2014. PublicAffairs. All rights reserved. e-mails. Still no answer. Later, I needed something from another person on Rishi’s team, but again when I e-mailed her, no reply.” Peterson was fed up. “We pay these guys good money to do this work for us. So I called Rishi to complain about the lack of communication from his team.” But the situation did not improve. “It’s an incredible waste of time!” In hopes of diagnosing the cause of the problem, I phoned Rangan. “I honestly don’t know what I have done to break trust with Sarah,” he sighed. “But things have become so bad between us now that she is unwilling to work with me.” Meyer, E. (2014). The culture map : Breaking through the invisible boundaries of global business. PublicAffairs. Created from eastcarolina on 2023-08-05 02:42:48. 9781610392501-text.indd 136 3/11/14 9:26 AM The CulTure Map 137 I asked the soft-spoken Rangan to explain what had happened. And what I heard was a very different interpretation of the situation than the one I had heard from Sarah Peterson: Sarah e-mails my staff directly. She seems to purposefully circumnavigate me. I am the manager: she should e-mail me, not my staff. Of course, when my team members receive these e-mails, they are paralyzed by the fact that someone at her level would e-mail them directly. They certainly don’t want to be brought into this issue between her and me. And then she complains that we are poor communicators! As this story illustrates, although e-mail is a relatively recent technological tool, different societies have already developed radically different patterns for using it. Because the two software teams in this case had misunderstood one another so badly, it was necessary to convene an in-person meeting between the groups to iron out their differences. “The trip was expensive. It’s not cheap to fly nine people from Vancouver to Bangalore for a three-day meeting,” Peterson later reflected. “But while together, Copyright © 2014. PublicAffairs. All rights reserved. we discussed our perceptions, cultural differences, and expectations, and we were able to improve the situation—to get back to page one.” When all is said and done, humans are flexible. Most of the time, if managers take extra pains up front to discuss how they are going to communicate, many painful and costly faux pas can be avoided entirely. The problem comes when both parties proceed, as Rangan and Peterson did, as if their style was normal and the other party was wrong. Once they understood the other’s behavior, things moved along well. Peterson readily agreed to copy Meyer, E. (2014). The culture map : Breaking through the invisible boundaries of global business. PublicAffairs. Created from eastcarolina on 2023-08-05 02:42:48. 9781610392501-text.indd 137 3/11/14 9:26 AM 138 erin Meyer Rangan on all her e-mails in the future. And Rangan agreed that it would be fine for her to go straight to his staff with urgent requests: He would let them know the new protocol immediately. Here are some simple strategies for cross-cultural level-skipping that can help you avoid the kinds of problems that Rangan and Peterson encountered. If you are working with people from a hierarchical society: • Communicate with the person at your level. If you are the boss, go through the boss with equivalent status, or get explicit permission to hop from one level to another. • If you do e-mail someone at a lower hierarchical level than your own, copy the boss. • If you need to approach your boss’s boss or your subordinate’s subordinate, get permission from the person at the level in between first. • When e-mailing, address the recipient by the last name unless they have indicated otherwise—for example, by signing their e-mail to you with their first name only. Copyright © 2014. PublicAffairs. All rights reserved. If you are working with people from an egalitarian society: • Go directly to the source. No need to bother the boss. • Think twice before copying the boss. Doing so could suggest to the recipient that you don’t trust them or are trying to get them in trouble. • Skipping hierarchical levels probably won’t be a problem. • In Scandinavia, the Netherlands, and Australia, use first names when writing e-mails. This is also largely true for the United States and the United Kingdom, although regional and circumstantial differences may arise. Meyer, E. (2014). The culture map : Breaking through the invisible boundaries of global business. PublicAffairs. Created from eastcarolina on 2023-08-05 02:42:48. 9781610392501-text.indd 138 3/11/14 9:26 AM The CulTure Map 139 If you aren’t sure about where the culture you’re working with falls on this scale, follow the hierarchical recommendations, which are generally safer and unlikely to get you into trouble accidentally. And if you are leading a global team, with members of various cultures with different positions on the Leading scale, define team protocols up front. When do we skip levels? Whom do we copy and when? Most misunderstandings can be avoided by defining a clear team culture that everyone agrees to apply. When InTernaTIonal sTaffers shoW Too Much respecT—or Too lITTle “In China, the boss is always right,” says Steve Henning, reflecting on his years of managing in Beijing. “And even when the boss is very wrong, he is still right.” If, like Henning, you find yourself managing staff in a culture that is more hierarchical than your own, you may be surprised and uncomfortable to see how much importance is placed on what you say and how difficult it is to hear the opinions of those Copyright © 2014. PublicAffairs. All rights reserved. in positions below you. “When I would ask my staff members for their thoughts, advice, or opinions, they would sit quietly staring at their shoelaces,” Henning remembers. “I later learned that this type of questioning suggested to them that I was trying to test them to see whether they knew what I wanted them to say. And since they didn’t know, they felt it was safer to remain quiet.” For Henning this situation was initially perplexing. “How can I make good decisions if I don’t know what my group really thinks about an issue?” he used to wonder. If you are managing a group that respects your authority so much that you are unable to get the Meyer, E. (2014). The culture map : Breaking through the invisible boundaries of global business. PublicAffairs. Created from eastcarolina on 2023-08-05 02:42:48. 9781610392501-text.indd 139 3/11/14 9:26 AM 140 erin Meyer input you need to make informed decisions, there are a few steps you can take without completely compromising the authority of your position. These strategies include: • Ask your team to meet without you in order to brainstorm as a group—and then to report the group’s ideas back to you. Removing “the boss” from the meeting removes their need to defer, allowing people to feel more comfortable sharing ideas. • When you call a meeting, give clear instructions a few days beforehand about how you would like the meeting to work and what questions you plan to ask. Tell your team members explicitly that you will call on them for their input. In this way, they can show you respect by preparing and sharing their ideas. It also gives the team members time to organize their thoughts carefully and to check with one another before the meeting. • If you are the boss, remember that your role is to chair the meeting. Don’t expect people to jump in randomly without an invitation. Instead, invite people to speak up. Copyright © 2014. PublicAffairs. All rights reserved. Even if team members have prepared well and are ready to share their ideas, they may not volunteer unless you call on them individually. When you do so, you may be surprised to see how much they have to contribute. On the other hand, you may find yourself in the same situation as Carlos Gomez, managing a group from a culture that is more egalitarian than your own. As Gomez explains, “I sometimes feel as if I have no idea what my staff is doing, because they rarely ask for feedback. For me, it has been a short step from feeling ‘hands off’ to feeling ‘out of control.’” Meyer, E. (2014). The culture map : Breaking through the invisible boundaries of global business. PublicAffairs. Created from eastcarolina on 2023-08-05 02:42:48. 9781610392501-text.indd 140 3/11/14 9:26 AM The CulTure Map 141 Gomez began poring over management books recommended by his Dutch colleagues to learn their preferred leadership systems. He found that the management-by-objective system he had used in Mexico could easily be adapted to the egalitarian Dutch environment. His suggestions include the following: • Introduce management by objectives, starting by speaking with each employee about the department’s vision for the coming year and then asking them to propose their best personal annual objectives subject to negotiation and final agreement with you. In this way, you become a facilitator rather than a supervisor while still keeping a handle on what is being accomplished. • Make sure the objectives are concrete and specific and consider linking them to bonuses or other rewards. • Set objectives for a twelve-month period and check on progress periodically—perhaps once a month. If progress is satisfactory, you can give your subordinate more space for self-management; if progress lags, you can get more Copyright © 2014. PublicAffairs. All rights reserved. involved. In addition, consider taking some simple symbolic steps to send appropriate signals about the leadership style you plan to employ. Dress as your team members dress—if they go without ties, do the same (except, of course, when a client visit or a presentation to the board of directors calls for a special “dress-up” protocol). Minimize the use of titles, addressing your team members by their first names—and encouraging them to do the same with you. And consider rotating the leadership role during staff meetings rather than retaining personal control of the discussion. Meyer, E. (2014). The culture map : Breaking through the invisible boundaries of global business. PublicAffairs. Created from eastcarolina on 2023-08-05 02:42:48. 9781610392501-text.indd 141 3/11/14 9:26 AM 142 erin Meyer Actions like these will demonstrate your flexibility and allow your team members to feel comfortable working with you. After all, you are the one in the cultural minority, so it’s up to you to adapt—if you are the boss. *** After three years in the hierarchical, high-power-distance culture of Russia, Ulrich Jepsen had this to say: I’ve finally learned to lead well in this different environment, although it’s taken a major shift in the way I look at my role as the boss. I can be friendly, as friendly as I would be in Denmark, but I have to maintain a greater distance with my staff and fulfill a type of paternalistic role that was new to me. Otherwise, my staff simply would not respect me or, worse, be embarrassed by me. And, as I quickly learned, without respect it is difficult to get anything done. In today’s global business environment it is not enough to be either an egalitarian leader or a hierarchical leader. You need to be Copyright © 2014. PublicAffairs. All rights reserved. both—to develop the flexibility to manage up and down the cultural scales. Often this means going back to square one. It means watching what makes local leaders successful. It means explaining your own style frequently. It may even mean learning to laugh at yourself when the right moment arises. But ultimately it means learning to lead in different ways in order to motivate and mobilize groups who follow in different ways from the folks back home. Meyer, E. (2014). The culture map : Breaking through the invisible boundaries of global business. PublicAffairs. Created from eastcarolina on 2023-08-05 02:42:48. 9781610392501-text.indd 142 3/11/14 9:26 AM