Linking Values to Behavior

 

To understand where behavior comes from—to understand why people behave the way they do—means learning about values and beliefs. While the behavior of people from another culture may seem strange to you, it probably makes sense to them. The reason any behavior makes sense is simply because it is consistent with what a person believes or holds dear. Conversely, when we say that what someone has done "makes no sense," what we mean is that the action contradicts what we think that person feels or wants.

 

 

	Behavior		Value/Belief
1.	Use of understatement	a.	Directness
2.	Asking people to call you by your first name	b.	Centrality of family
3.	Taking off from work to attend the funeral of an aunt	c.	External control
4.	Not helping the person next to you on an exam	d.	Saving Face
5.	Disagreeing openly with someone at a meeting	e.	Respect for age
6.	Not laying off an older worker whose performance is weak	f.	Informality
7.	At a meeting, agreeing with a suggestion you think is wrong	g.	Deference to authority
8.	Inviting the teaboy to eat lunch with you in your office	h.	Indirectness
9.	Asking the headmaster's opinion of something you're the expert on	i.	Self-reliance
10.	Accepting, without question, that something cannot be changed	j.	Egalitarianism

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DISCUSSION Going abroad without understanding the likely points of contention across cultures, and why they tend to occur, is a sure recipe for problems. The bad news is that crossing cultural boundaries often produces its share of stress and anxiety. The good news is that overcoming such obstacles makes one wiser and more knowledgeable. Making mistakes is inevitable. Things are not always what you think they are and the most ordinary interactions may occasionally take on a surreal quality. Why? Because the simplest things matter. Errors might arise from language mistakes in which your word choice in French or Swahili sends your audience into gales of laughter or shocked silence! Or you use the wrong hand (who knew there was a “right hand”?) to pass food at a meal in India and your host looks at you like you just did something really gross. Or you ask an older male acquaintance in Jordan what you think is an innocent question, “How is your wife?” and are surprised by his cold and abrupt response. A good start towards figuring this all out begins by acknowledging that:     a. they have a culture     b. you have a culture (more on this in Section 1.3)     c. some things in their culture will be similar (or may seem familiar) to yours     d. some things will be different (maybe in ways you can’t even imagine!)     e. one of your main jobs while abroad is to figure out for the new culture: what those differences are… where they come from… what they mean… and how you are going to respond when conflict or misunderstandings arise.