Culture Shock: Beware the Hidden Differences When Working Across Borders

Nearly nine years ago, my husband Alex and I arrived in Singapore with our two young daughters, Olivia and Imogen. I vividly remember the day we arrived—I was excited and enthusiastic, and eager to settle in and explore the island city.

Leading up to the move, I had spent considerable time browsing expatriate websites looking for an apartment for us to rent. I read that Singapore was Asia-lite: an enviable blend of East and West that made it expat friendly. Indeed, I was attracted to Singapore’s lack of pollution, low crime rate, efficient public transport system, low levels of corruption, and world-class education system, as well as English being the official business language.

Seven years earlier I had worked in London for three years, and I was looking forward to living abroad again and making many new Singaporean friends, just as I had made many British friends while living in England.

My transition to the Little Red Dot, however, was not as positive as my move to London. I couldn’t pinpoint any particular problem, but rather a series of daily frustrations dented my enthusiasm for my new home.

Buying a Stamp

I remember, shortly after my arrival, I needed to send a letter to a government department. I visited my local stationery shop to stock up on envelopes and while there asked the sales assistant whether I could also purchase stamps from her. She explained that stamps were not sold through the stationery shop, but I could purchase them from the 7-eleven mini-mart downstairs.

After paying for the envelopes, I proceeded to the 7-eleven and asked at the counter for some stamps. “No, we don’t sell stamps here”, said the girl at the counter. “Really?” I asked, “They told me upstairs at the stationery shop that I could buy stamps here”. I was holding an envelope with the government letter inside in my hands. “No, we don’t sell stamps here”, she repeated. 

I was feeling a bit annoyed but retraced my steps back to the stationery shop. “Excuse me, you mentioned I could buy stamps at the 7-eleven, but when I asked I was told that they don’t sell stamps”. The shop assistant replied, “Well, that's incorrect, I am positive that 7-eleven sells stamps.”

Now confused and irritated, I returned to 7-eleven. “Excuse me, but I checked a second time at the stationery shop and they are quite certain that I can purchase stamps from you.” The same girl at the counter I had spoken to minutes earlier stared at me and replied, “We sell local stamps, but not international stamps.”

I was puzzled and frustrated—I wondered why she hadn't mentioned that she sold local stamps the first time I had asked. I hadn’t made a distinction between local and international stamps when I enquired as to whether she sold stamps, so why had she assumed that I wanted to buy international stamps?

Similar miscommunications occurred with such regularity during my first few months in Singapore that I concluded Singaporeans were not good communicators, at least not in English. 

I have since learned that the miscommunication I experienced was caused by cultural differences. As an Australian, I had been socialised to communicate in a low-context cultural environment. A low-context culture is one in which meaning is inferred from actual words used. If I had wanted to buy an international stamp, I would have expressly made the distinction.

Singapore, on the other hand, is a high-context culture. In high-context cultures, meaning is inferred from the context or setting instead of the words used. Because I was a foreigner holding an envelope and seeking to purchase a stamp, the shop assistant reasoned that I was looking to send a letter overseas and that I needed an international stamp.

Smiling at Strangers

But it wasn’t only communication barriers that concerned me in those early days. I remember telling Alex that I didn't feel welcomed in Singapore. Back home in Sydney, strangers acknowledge each other with a smile or a nod as they pass. When waiting in a queue, people engage in polite conversation with others in line. At your neighbourhood café, the barrista knows your name, asks how you are, and remembers your regular order.

But in Singapore, I could walk the entire length of Orchard Road without anyone acknowledging me, and certainly no smiles. If someone made eye-contact with me by accident, they appeared puzzled and perhaps a little startled by my smile beaming back at them. My family visited the same dim-sum restaurant nearly every Sunday for five years, yet every time we visited we had to repeat our names at the door—it was as if we had never been there before. Because I did not experience casual friendliness as I knew it back home, I concluded that Singaporeans were not very friendly. 

Again, I now know that my assumptions were wrong. Whether or not you smile at a stranger is cultural. In sparsely-populated Australia, I was socialised to acknowledge the company of others. In densely-populated nations like China, however, children are socialised to reserve displays of friendliness to close friends and family members. To acknowledge every person that you encounter in your daily travels would be too time-consuming.

In Chinese contexts, smiling and talking to people you don’t know can be perceived as superficial and is viewed with suspicion. A Chinese person might think that they are being made fun of when someone is smiling at them. Smiling can make a Chinese person feel very uncomfortable. Smiling at strangers is so countercultural that volunteers for the 2008 Olympics in China were required to take classes on how to smile to ensure they portrayed China as hospitable to international visitors.

This does not imply that personal relationships are not important to the Chinese. In fact, China is more relationship-orientated than Australia. In Australia, people have many non-intimate acquaintances that change over the course of one's life. In China, people prefer a smaller number of more intimate relationships that last a lifetime. 

The majority ethnic group in Singapore is Chinese, and Singaporeans are likewise uncomfortable smiling at strangers. Similar to the Olympic campaign in China, in 2006, the government of Singapore sponsored an advertising campaign "Four Million Smiles" to encourage its four million citizens to smile more in preparation for the 61st Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund, World Bank Group, and their 16,000 delegates. 

My lack of understanding of the cultural differences in smiling at strangers ultimately made it harder for me to settle into life in Singapore and to make friends because I mistakenly concluded that most Singaporeans had no interest in befriending me. 

Asia-lite had lured me into a false sense of cultural similarity. On the surface, Singapore looked much like home, but there remained significant differences beneath the surface. Studies show that although tangible cultural elements like dress, language, and business practices are increasingly global, relative differences between cultures, with regards to their less visible elements—like values, assumptions, and beliefs—have remained stable over many decades.

Culture Shock

Culture shock refers to the disorientation and distress that a person experiences when they are exposed to a new cultural environment and they fail to adjust their cultural framework. Colleen Ward, Stephen Bockner, & Adrian Furnham present an ABC model of culture shock:

A stands for Affect: This concerns the emotional stages one typically experiences when they encounter a new culture. A brief, initial honeymoon stage of excitement and curiosity is followed by negative emotions like confusion, anxiety, and helplessness, as well as anger, impatience, exhaustion, and hostility. The individual might experience an intense desire to flee and withdraw socially, experiencing isolation and loneliness. Sometimes physical health is affected, and a percentage suffer significant mental illness.

B stands for Behaviour: This involves an inability to respond and act appropriately in the new environment. A lack of understanding of the norms and assumptions for social interaction, and problems with communication and in the execution of gestures and rituals, mean the individual is unable to form effective social relationships. They might even unintentionally cause offence. Poor intercultural relations contribute to a failure to achieve both social and professional goals in the novel settings.

C stands for Cognition: As individuals come into contact with beliefs and norms that conflict with their own cultural codes, perceptions of differences drive distinctions of ‘us’ vs. ‘them’. Individuals become more ethnocentric—a belief in the superiority of their own culture—and form negative biases and stereotypes towards members of the novel cultural group as they judge them according to their own cultural ideals, and seek to maintain the validity of their own cultural truths.

The extent of culture shock is linked to the cultural distance between the home culture and the new culture. The more dissimilar the cultures are, the greater the culture shock. Irrespective of cultural distance, however, studies have shown that there are large variations in how individuals adapt to culture shock. Some people are better able to successfully adjust to new cultural environments compared to others.

Alex experienced few of the troublesome symptoms that I did when we transferred to Singapore. He was better able to cope with and accept the differences he encountered. He formed amicable and trusting relationships with a diverse team of colleagues and clients, both local Singaporeans and expatriates from across the globe. He was successful at work and socially. He maintained a positive mental state and was happy to be in Singapore.

Why are Some People More Effective Than Others in Novel Cultural Settings?

At the turn of this century, the question of why some people are more effective than others in situations of cultural diversity puzzled Professor Soon Ang from the Business School at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Soon Ang had been working with international teams of IT technicians to solve the ‘Millennium Bug’ problem that was threatening to disable IT systems across the globe on 1 Jan 2000. Despite high levels of technical expertise, there were notable problems in the collaborative and coordination efforts of some global teams(1).

Together with Professor Christopher Earley, Soon Ang began work on
a comprehensive literature review and a series of studies to solve the question of what makes some people more effective than others in culturally diverse settings. This work led to a new conceptualisation of intercultural competence that was to ultimately become Cultural Intelligence (CQ).

Individuals with high Cultural Intelligence (CQ) display four main competencies:

CQ Drive is your willingness to work with diverse others. This involves your ability to overcome explicit or unconscious bias and your capacity to persist in challenging interactions—even when confused, frustrated, or burnt out.

CQ Knowledge is your understanding of culture and cultural differences. This involves more than awareness of variations in language, customs, and appearance. Core cultural differences like values, assumptions, and beliefs are often invisible but cause the most problems—and are frequently overlooked.

CQ Strategy is your ability to flex mentally. With high CQ Strategy, you are not confined to a single worldview. You are open to new or integrative ideas.

CQ Action is your ability to flex verbal and non-verbal behaviour. This decreases the risk of miscommunication and helps you to respond to diverse others in a manner that conveys respect and builds trust and rapport.

Adjusting with Cultural Intelligence

Research shows that Cultural Intelligence has affective, behavioural, and cognitive benefits in culturally diverse settings that are the mirror opposite of culture shock.

Affect: Individuals with high Cultural Intelligence can avoid or overcome negative feelings and maintain a positive mental state and well-being in diverse cultural settings. They are better able to cope with and accept differences and enjoy engaging with diverse others. Plus individuals with high Cultural Intelligence are more resilient and experience less exhaustion and burnout in diverse settings.

Behaviour: Individuals with high Cultural Intelligence are better able to understand and perform work roles in a novel setting. Also, individuals with high Cultural Intelligence can modify their social responses appropriately, which helps them to build amicable and trusting relationships, form diverse networks, and exchange knowledge and ideas in diverse cultural settings. Individuals with high Cultural Intelligence are more effective collaborators and negotiators in diverse settings.

Cognitive: Individuals with high Cultural Intelligence avoid blind spots in their interpretations and judgements. They move beyond a mindless adherence to their own cultural frames, biases, and prejudgements and take the perspective of others. Those qualities improve judgement and decision-making in diverse settings.

I spent many of my early days in Singapore feeling confused, annoyed, and lonely, and I thought about returning home. But over time, through interacting with locals at work and socially, and with education and training, I developed Cultural Intelligence.

I am glad that I didn’t act on my initial negative feelings and leave Singapore prematurely. It has been the single biggest adventure and learning opportunity of my life. My only regret is that I didn’t start my CQ learning before I arrived. Don’t jump into the deep-end with a sink or swim approach like I did. Cultural Intelligence coaching or training offers an opportunity to acquire and practice the skills you need to avoid culture shock and self-learn from your intercultural experiences as soon as you touch down in any novel cultural setting.  

The original version of this article appeared my Cultural Intelligence blog. 

To learn more about how Culture Plus can help you to develop a culturally intelligent workforce in 2016, email [email protected], or download our CQ Workshop flyer here.

About the Author

Felicity Menzies is an authority on Cultural Intelligence and diversity and inclusion in the corporate environment. Felicity’s interest in the role of culture in business began during her tenure as the Head of Private Bank, Westpac, in Singapore. There she led a culturally diverse team of bankers serving a multinational client base and learned firsthand how Cultural Intelligence is a necessary component of business success. 

As Principal at Culture Plus Consulting, Felicity now applies her business acumen and intercultural expertise to help global organisations respond effectively to the opportunities and challenges presented by diverse workforces, unfamiliar markets, and rapid shifts in the global competitive landscape. 

CQ is a registered trademark of the Cultural Intelligence Centre LLC. 

(1) Livermore, D. (2011). The Cultural Intelligence Difference. New York, NJ: AMACOM.