It’s not all about culture, or is it?

Recently a psychologist posted on a discussion board that I belong to asking How does culture affect positive psychology interventions, especially at work? 

It’s a great question and one that we can think of more broadly by asking – How does culture affect people at work?

You may be tempted to think that we leave our culture behind when we go to work.  Or that culture impacts on some isolated aspects at work – perhaps our communication preferences. 

As a coachee recently said to me – “this issue isn’t about culture Trisha, it’s about performance”. 

The reality is our culture influences everything.

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Gifts across cultures

From a cultural perspective gifts can be a challenging issue. I was laughing with some colleagues recently about my embarrassing faux pas, years ago in China, asking the shop assistant to wrap a wedding gift in white paper. Very appropriate in Australia, but very inappropriate in China where the colour white is traditionally associated more with death and mourning. My colleagues had similar stories about their experiences in China of almost giving inappropriate gifts such as a clock and a set of knives.

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When a house is a doorway to a culture

How important is the house you live in to your satisfaction with an overseas assignment?

Intuitively we would say of course it’s important!  Just how important was shown in research conducted by Dr Anne P Copeland of the Interchange Institute last year which found feeling settled in their homes was consistently related, not just to the expatriates’ positive perceptions of the assignment but also to their mental health, their happiness levels, their loyalty to their employers and their intention to accept future overseas assignments. 

This research raised a number of interesting issues around homes, highlighting the importance of making the right choice of home, settling in quickly, and the style of house which influence assignment satisfaction.  Many of these factors impact on organisational aspects such as housing policies, or strategies expats and those assisting them can adopt to encourage a more positive overseas assignment experience. 

But one factor leapt out at me. 

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