Cultures learning from each other

Two weeks prior to the seminar, I divided them into six groups. Each was then asked to select one nationality _ American, Australian, British, Japanese, Korean or Taiwanese _ and to interview a person representing each nation on the following questions:

1. What are the unique strengths of Thai staff?

2. What are the unique weaknesses of Thai staff?

3. What aspects of Thai staff do you least understand?

4. What aspects of your culture do you want Thai staff to understand the most?

On the seminar day, each group was given 15 minutes to present its results and analysis, and for follow-up Q&A and open discussion.

Below are some of the results common to the six groups. They are far from scientific, being based on just one person in each of six nationalities, but I believe they will provide some interesting talking points.

1. Thai staff strengths: Here are the frequently cited ones out of more than 20 points:

Jai Yen (calm) Thais are calm in most situations. This brings harmony to the workplace particularly when problems occur or clients have serious complaints.

Receptive to talking about different opinions.

Willing to accommodate differences after reasons are explained.

Politeness with staff, customers, peers and bosses.

Smiling and friendliness.

Nam-Jai (hospitality, big heart).

Humility.

2. Thai staff weaknesses:

Analytical skills.

Class orientation, seniority.

Lack of assertiveness.

Tendency not to participate in meetings.

Failure to ask when they don't understand.

3. What expats don't understand about Thai staff:

The idea of saving face/losing face.

The need to be kreng jai (considerate).

Accountability.

4. What do expats want Thai staff to understand?

Westerners are straightforward; they don't want to harm Thais. In return, they expect Thais to be more assertive and they tend to promote people who behave in such a way.

More accountability.

They value discipline and punctuality highly.

All six groups did well on the fact-finding but the analysis and Q&A were not as successful. I helped them by analysing the findings as follows:

1. Thai strengths: These come from Thai values: harmony, hospitality and collectivism.

2. Thai weaknesses come from various causes. Let's look at them one by one:

a) Analytical skills. Our educational system focuses more on memorising; we don't teach critical thinking skills. Cultural values related to seniority discourage differing opinions toward senior persons or authority figures.

b) Class orientation, seniority. See above.

c) Lack of assertiveness or participation in meetings. These come from the a combination of a and b.

d) Not asking questions when one doesn't understand: This is related to the value of ``face''.

3. Expats don't understand Thais when it comes to saving face, being kreng-jai and accountable. This answer reflects that even though most expats try to learn and adapt, they still hold their own values. Saying they don't understand is another way of saying, ``I don't accept these values and behaviours''. This is human nature, regardless of nationality. If you ask Thais who work with foreigners what things they don't understand about them, you will find that we say, ``I don't understand why they are not kreng-jai (considerate) when talking with poo-yai (senior persons).

4. Basically, the expats, in particular westerners, want Thais to learn more about their values, especially assertiveness. The rest of the answer implies that they want Thais to improve on a weakness.

I explained to the students that this exercise had two objectives: to practise analytical skills based on the facts they had gathered, and to learn from first-hand information what perceptions their expat bosses had.

I then encouraged the class to answer my question: what can we do to improve the perception of weakness among expats? Here are some of their suggestions:

Learn more about the values inherent in the countries where the expats originate from.

Learn more about corporate values of each organisation.

Educate Thai staff about these findings to create self-awareness.

Be role models in terms of assertiveness, participating more in meetings, being articulate, less kreng jai and more straightforward.

Kriengsak Niratpattanasai is the founder of TheCoach, specialising in executive coaching in leadership and cross-cultural skills. Copies of previous columns are available at www.thaicoach.com. He can be reached at 02-517-3126 or coachkriengsak@yahoo.com