I try to understand and respect the differences among cultures, what they mean for how I should behave, and the implications for how well — or badly — management practices from one culture apply to another. But trying to understand them does not mean that I quite know how to deal with differences as I encounter them in the moment, or even if what I THINK are cultural differences really are differences — or just reflect the usual variation in organizational cultures and human personality that are always present. But I might have learned something in Singapore last week that is a cultural difference — and I would appreciate any comments about if I am right or wrong, and that add nuances that I no doubt mixed.
I had the privilege of spending three days in Singapore last week working with leaders in industry and the government on leadership and innovation issues. In one of the workshops I helped lead, I reviewed various studies and examples showing that constructive conflict is linked to group performance and, especially, creativity and innovation. If you read this blog, you will see this theme pretty often, as I write about having strong opinions weakly held, fighting if you are right and listening as if you are wrong, fast fights at the Stanford d.school, and this was big theme in the interview we did a couple years ago with Brad Bird of Pixar. All these studies, however, are (I believe) conducted in western countries. One of the folks I was working with in Singapore commented that open — even if constructive — conflict is something that westerners do, but Asians tend not to do (and indeed although I engaged in some open disagreement, especially with a fellow American academic, there was not much other open disagreement in any of the workshops).
BUT I am talking about in open — if small — public forums. In contrast, I spent a lot of time in one on one conversations engaging in quite active debate and (polite) two-way constructive criticism. Indeed, I would say that I engaged in more argument in one-on-one conversations than I would with a typical American business crowd. I would also add that these backstage conversations — for the most part — helped improve the workshops and sharpen my thinking. So here is my hypothesis, that as the famous sociologist Erving Goffman emphasized, there is always a huge difference between front stage and back stage behavior in organizational life… and in this case, the amount and quality of constructive conflict I experienced was similar to what I would expect from a U.S. organization, but the difference is that it all happened backstage.
My tentative hypothesis here is that there is just as much constructive conflict in Singapore and perhaps other Asian countries as in western countries, but more of it happens in one-on-ones and otherwise behind the scenes. I suspect that a lot of you out there will say "duh" in response, but I am curious to hear if this seemingly obvious truth is, well, true. And if it is wrong or partly wrong, why — and any other related insights. Thanks.
Leave a Reply