Cultural ignorance destroys trust: 4 really bad examples

Companies with international activities need to choose well who they send abroad, and who represents them in meetings with their international workforce. Otherwise, things can quickly go totally wrong, creating lasting distrust, sardonic reactions and disengagement towards top management.

Today, let us present you 4 of the most frequent failure scenarios. Enjoy!

1. the ratchet effect,
2. the rejected transplant effect,
3. the seagull manager effect, and
4. the unprepared foreign teacher effect

1 - The ratchet effect

The “ratchet effect” is about our inability to reverse once we have achieved a certain level of quality. It is pertinent in a society where information is more transparent and company leaders' reputation impact the company’s brand.

When a new leader comes in, staff will make a comparison between the new leader and the predecessor. What if the previous leader was "culture smart" and the new one is "culture stupid"? Expectations have been created, but are not met and staff is disappointed with the appointment (sic!).

Cultural Ignorance is therefore measured in relative terms, as a contrast between leaders: if the new leader is less able to handle cross-cultural diversity (local must-haves and habits for instance), she/he will be seen not only as culturally ignorant, but more holistically as not capable of doing her/his job.

Going from positive to negative would be seen as unfair by local staff: "What are they doing in central HR?" "What kind of managers do they promote in our company?". Lower quality hence reduces the reputation of company leadership.

2 - The rejected transplant effect

Using a metaphor, we can liken some situations to the transplant of an organ into a new body: the organ needs to be accompanied by a set of procedures in order to be effective, and to be accepted by the new body. If this support is not provided, the issue can be rejection of the transplanted organ, with dire consequences both for the organ and for the organism which rejects it.

This is what happens when leaders from abroad are parachuted into leading positions in a totally new cultural context, without sufficient preparation.

Does the newly appointed leader have cultural savvy, personal adaptability, a leadership style which is compatible with the local culture, a good integration program with measurable objectives? If not, we have a bad combo: failure to create followership, loss of integration (professionally and often also socially), lack of results achievement, team disengagement, frictions and misunderstandings.

The result is obvious: either the key staff members start leaving, or the unsuccessfully transplanted leader has to move on.

3 - The seagull manager effect

Another frequent situation in international settings is the visiting leader, acting like a “seagull manager”, who flies in, drops his s**t and flies off. These are turbo-demotivators because they display lack of respect, lack of preparation for the host culture, ignorance, a “dominant HQ culture” attitude, and scarce listening skills.

To make things even worse, some visiting leaders only interact with local staff when there is a problem or a major issue, and rarely offer praise or encouragement when things are going well. They will often seek to place the blame on other people, and to draw attention to themselves in order to appear important.

Teams impacted by these situations may lose both corporate alignment and personal engagement, become counterproductive or just leave.

4 - The unprepared foreign teacher effect

Finally another negative situation – with a similar effect to the seagull effect - is still all too frequent in international companies: unprepared international trainers.

These are "experts" from other cultures who are partly or totally unaware of local or regional situations, history, conditions, and learning preferences. By not preparing sufficiently, not adapting well, not understanding the critical situation, such trainers from abroad quite simply fail in transmitting knowledge.

Which is your favourite... and which are your "stereotype cultural ignorants"?

After this un-appetizing list, some situations may come to the reader's mind, being it either one of these 4 failing leadership stereotypes, or other examples. Please share and comment as fit - I am sure there are many bad examples we can learn from, and try to avoid!

#strategy #leadership #culture #talent #assess #adapt #AreYouReady ?

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Frode Hvaring is Managing Director at Novelia SA, a leading Executive Assessment boutique active across Switzerland. He has some decades of executive experience in Swiss and international companies (for profit) and organizations (not for profit), in global COO and CHRO roles.

Frode is visiting professor in Global Leadership, Business Strategy and Human Capital for MBA and EMBA students at EHL and HEG. He is also active in various Boards and professional networks.