Adjusting to a
Distant Space
Cultural adjustment and
interculturally fluent support
W. Baber, Kyoto University
SIEM 2010
Question 1
• What do individuals around foreign
managers add to the adjustment process
they experience working in Japan?
• Not clear, but becoming clearer
– Information, interpretation of culture, guidance
on the hybrid track
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Question 2
• Who are these individuals who impact the
adjustment of foreign managers?
o Cultural informants
o Interculturally fluent informants
o Mentors
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Definitions
• What Cultural Adjustment means (Berry,
1997)
– Integrated-Assimilated-Separated-Marginalized
Integrated: able to access home/host cultures
• Culture – the widely understood and
accepted ways of doing things (Hunt, 2007)
• Mentors
• Cultural informants
• Interculturally fluent informants
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Cultural Informants
• Who – potentially any individual around the
manager
• Boss, Co-worker, Spouse, Expat, Local,
In-laws, Children
• Generally drawn from the networks around
the foreign manager
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Cultural Informants
Flow of
Information
Foreign
Manager
Individuals
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Cultural Informants - Descriptors
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Partially or very proficient in target language and culture;
Not necessarily related to work world;
Need not be established in work or society;
Need not be technically proficient;
Advises in situational incidents in business and other areas;
Expatriates may have more than one cultural informant;
Need not be a deep personal relationship;
Provide ad hoc advice;
Accessible, even giving instant feedback;
Socially embedded in the target culture, or even in both
cultures;
• Advise on social cues;
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Cultural Informants – Examples
– A: significant other, co-worker
– C: acquaintance with relevant business and life
experience
– D: superior with extensive business and cultural
experience in both home and target cultures
– E: spouse and business partner
– F: familiar with Japan and the home country,
but low accessibility
– G: acquaintance with extensive business and
cultural experience in both home and target
cultures
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Cultural Informants
• Not defined by quality!
• Not defined by ability to transmit or
interpret knowledge!
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Cultural Informants – Examples
–
other,
co-worker
– A:
D: significant
superior with
extensive
business and cultural
in both
home
and target
cultures
– experience
C: acquaintance
with
relevant
business
and life
experience
– G:
extensive
business
and
D: acquaintance
superior with with
extensive
business
and cultural
cultural
experience
in both
home
andcultures
target
experience
in both home
and
target
– cultures
E: spouse and business partner
– F: familiar with Japan and the home country,
but low accessibility
– G: acquaintance with extensive business and
cultural experience in both home and target
cultures
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Interculturally Fluent Informants
• Highly fluent in home and host languages,
work and life culture;
• Aware of subtle variations among groups and
regions in home and host cultures;
• Embedded in social networks of home and
host cultures, for example:
– Professional associations; Alumni networks;
Social organizations;
• Readily available and in frequent contact;
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Interculturally Fluent Informants
Very likely to accurately transmit
deep understanding of host culture
to the foreign manager
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Hybrid Manager
• Notion from Schlunze and Plattner
• A manager with one foot in each of two (or
more) worlds
– Not a manager with abstract knowledge
– Real cultural, professional, personal knowledge
– Local network, local language, cultural skills
• Hybrid managers develop over time if the
conditions are right
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Elements of Cultural Adjustment
• 12 elements identified in interviews for
managers who are or are becoming hybrids
• Other aspects of cultural adjustment:
– cultural distance, language proficiency,
expatriate type, and personality traits such as
emotional stability and cultural empathy
(Peltokorpi, 2008)
– psychic distance
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Next Questions
•
•
•
•
Is there a Hybrid Track?
Where is a person in the process?
How can we compare managers?
How can we know what should be
developed in order to generate well
rounded hybrids?
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Hybrid Track
• Language skills
• Networks
– foreigner/Japanese, professional/personal
• Involvement
•
•
•
•
•
– Decision making
– Day-to-day work participation
Ambition/Strategic Intent
Informants (Business/Life)
Personal relationship(s)
Cultural skills
Capacity for synergy: globalizer, localizer, local/global
networker (Schlunze)
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Language Skills
Personal
Relationships
5
4.5
Cultural Skills
4
3.5
Network,
Professional, Jp
3
2.5
Day to Day Work
2
A
1.5
Network,
Professional,
Foreign
1
C
0.5
0
Ambition
D
E
Network, Personal,
Jp
Decision Making
F
G
Network, Personal,
Foreign
Informant, Cultural
Informant,
Business
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Mentor Functions and Attributes
• Guide into management;
• Established person in their field, but not necessarily socially
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
embedded;
Technically proficient in their field;
Offers work related network access;
Offers some behavioral guidance;
Advises in situational incidents related to business and
management;
May support specific career goals with mentee;
Because of high status, may offer only low or moderate
accessibility, but is committed;
Mentee usually has only one mentor;
Trusting relationship;
On-site or home country;
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