{"id":864,"date":"2012-05-04T12:57:25","date_gmt":"2012-05-04T11:57:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/expatriatus\/?p=864"},"modified":"2012-05-04T14:49:51","modified_gmt":"2012-05-04T13:49:51","slug":"why-cultural-differences-matter-and-how-they-can-be-managed-managing-people-across-cultures-at-iese-business-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/expatriatus\/2012\/05\/04\/why-cultural-differences-matter-and-how-they-can-be-managed-managing-people-across-cultures-at-iese-business-school\/","title":{"rendered":"Why cultural differences matter and how they can be managed: Managing People across Cultures at IESE Business School"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Dealing with cultural differences is an inevitable part of every cross-cultural encounter and one that simply cannot be overlooked. In the workplace, this becomes easily evident when your foreign colleagues misunderstand your gestures, have a different view towards time schedules, do not share your preferred patterns of teamwork, or express their emotions in an unfamiliar manner. If these everyday examples are not convincing enough, brain researchers provide further insights on this matter.<\/p>\n

For example, there is evidence that culture shapes the wiring of our brains. Behavioral research suggests that Westerners focus more on objects, whereas East Asians attend more to relationships and contexts. A study by Dr. Gutchess et al.<\/a>\u00a0of the University of Michigan evaluated the neural basis for these cultural differences through brain MRI scanning and found that cultural experiences subtly direct neural activity. However, there is also evidence<\/a>\u00a0that this wiring may change when moving between cultures \u2013 in fact, after having lived in the US for a few months, Chinese individuals showed no differences in brain activity compared to US Americans anymore. What do these results tell us? First, they imply that culture does matter, as there are very real differences in how people from different cultures process information. Second, although brain processing differs between cultures, it is not permanent, and cross-cultural experiences can change it. Therefore, we are in fact able to re-wire our brains for different cultural settings \u2013 and wire them back again.<\/p>\n

So what does this mean for managing people across cultures? It is important that managers and leaders develop intercultural competences that can help them be more aware of their own culturally-based perceptions, norms, and patterns of thinking, and consequently adapt their behaviors according to specific cultural contexts. To help individuals develop these competences, my colleagues Yih-teen Lee and Carlos S\u00e1nchez-Runde are organizing a Short Focused Program at IESE Business School on the topic of Managing People across Cultures, held from June 5-7 2012 at IESE\u2019s campus in Barcelona. Specifically, the program addresses various topics including:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Cross-cultural communication and understanding at both the interpersonal and inter-organizational levels<\/p>\n

\u2022 Leading multicultural and global virtual teams<\/p>\n

\u2022 Cross-cultural leadership<\/p>\n

\u2022 Managing cross-cultural joint ventures<\/p>\n

\u2022 Transferring managerial practices across cultures<\/p>\n

\u2022 Managing international assignments<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

For more details, please consult the following link to the program website:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.iese.edu\/en\/ad\/EnfocadosWEB\/1112\/sfp\/mpac\/ManagingPeopleAcrossCultures.asp<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dealing with cultural differences is an inevitable part of every cross-cultural encounter and one that simply cannot be overlooked. Scientific research implies that there are very real differences in how people from different cultures process information. However, the brain processing patterns are not permanent, as cross-cultural experiences can change them. So what does this mean for managing people across cultures?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":345,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18330],"tags":[44762,13860,44764,36569],"class_list":["post-864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-views-and-news-about-expatriates","tag-cross-cultural-management","tag-cultural-differences","tag-intercultural-competences","tag-multicultural-context"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t