The Modern-Day Workplace Culture

Abstract 

Culture is a big part of the human beings lives as it determines their worries and fears, loyalties, hopes, values, behavior and thoughts. One needs to recognize that people from various cultures have different viewpoints. When working with people, understanding their cultures will help in boosting the growth and development of long-term relationships. People have diverse views about what constitutes a multicultural community, workplace or society. The modern work environment is diverse, and people must live and work together as teams.

Analysis of a Culture 

The modern-day workplace has changed as employers continue to support diversity and inclusion efforts. The modern workforce represents people from across diverse races, religions, ethnicities and backgrounds, and this brings about many cultures forced to work together and attain common goals. An individual’s culture is what determine his/her viewpoints and worldviews. People might have different points of view about a particular matter. A leader needs to be aware of the cultural differences so that one can lay down plans that will eliminate the emergence of conflicts. This essay will highlight the leadership style, motivation techniques, cultural stereotypes, and the use of gestures, words and ideas that can positively or negatively affect a Chinese-Singapore employee.

Leadership Style 

The most appropriate leadership style for a Chinese-Singapore employee would be moral leadership. A moral leader is one who aims at serving the people and uses motivation, persuasion, and self-awareness (Guo, 2002). The main difference between a moral leader and other leaders is that he/she prioritizes the needs of the followers first. Through moral leadership, one must possess a pleasant personality and effective communication skills. By prioritizing the needs of others rather, than using power to control them is what makes the moral leadership style different from ordinary styles. The essential factor in moral leadership is having ethics while making decisions and in leadership ( III Burton, 2010) . Ethical traits and judgments enable a leader to have dignity and respect for others. In a high Confucian society, it emphasizes on the leader’s ethical and behavioral character. A leader must be one who bears virtuous attitudes and characteristics, and thus one must observe positive moral values and higher-order needs of the followers.

Similarly, the high power distance score is an indication that there are inequalities amongst people. In China-Singapore, the notion of “ guanxi ” offers a platform for carrying out business and social activities (Geigenmüller, Gao, Knight, & Ballantyne, 2012). The concept of guanxi exists on the principles of building mutual obligations and trust, and if someone does not trust you, it is unlikely he/she will follow you or do business with you. According to Lau (2012), through moral leadership style, one will be able to trust and mutual relationships with the follower as one puts the needs of the employee first.

Motivational Techniques 

Recognition is the most effective motivational technique for a Chinese-Singapore employee. Recognition will offer the employee a clear means to receive and give mianzi (face). The Chinese-Singapore culture is highly collectivist, and this indicates that the employees must have an awareness of their work’s context within a broader picture of shared team objectives for them to be engaged ( III Burton, 2010) . The Chinese-Singapore society is one that sees its members taking a lot of time to build trust, co-operation and relationships. The people from China-Singapore prioritize building relationships over schedules, as they do not view time as being restrictive. In China, mianzi, “face logic” is all about inviting other people to share common goals and thus builds and strengthens relationships (Teon, 2017). Therefore, recognition is the best motivational technique, as it will help in giving mianzi to the employee. Recognition is supported by making it a social phenomenon within an organization as it will enable the other employees to see the recognition, and this gives one mianzi and boosts their image in front of other employees. The Chinese-Singapore society is highly collective; therefore, the recognition should also be one that will show the link between the recipient’s hard work and overall organizational goals.

Stereotypes 

I consider the people from the Chinese-Singapore culture as being very corrupt due to their guanxi nature, which states, “you scratch my back I will scratch yours”. The institutional and structural frameworks allow corruption to spread in the country ( “Perception,” n.d) . It indicates that in case an individual from the society assists me, I will have to repay the favor, and one cannot assist you in case you are not willing to assist back. The people from the culture are rude and very arrogant as they lack politeness and manners.

However, Chinese-Singapore people are hardworking. The people from the culture try very hard to ensure that they support their families and friends. The people from the culture are also brilliant and highly educated. It indicates that the Chinese-Singapore employees will have an awareness of what she is doing when given any project or assigned any work to handle.

Use of Words, Gestures and Ideas 

Nonverbal communication is an integral part of the language, and in most cases; there are very many cultural differences arising from the use of gestures. In the Chinese-Singapore culture, one is not required to make excessive hand movements, as the people tend to be more conservative. Physical affection and touchiness are also not common in this culture ( O'Hare, 2010) . Likewise, the people consider hugs, kisses and handshakes as being too touchy. Similarly, in case one wants to call or gesture someone, pointing them using the finger is not appropriate as one considers it rude. Winking and whistling at an individual from the culture is also considered as being rude. The Chinese-Singapore people consider chopsticks as essential elements of their culture. The chopsticks are used when eating, and they should not be played with, left standing in the plate or used in pointing people.

Low/High Context Culture 

The Chinese-Singapore culture is high-context. The Confucian values lay a foundation for the existence, growth and development of the culture. These values make the people hold high esteem blood connections and family ties that lay a foundation for the growth of relationships (Gove & Huang, 2012). The culture pushes for the formation and observance of good relations with one’s family, business and society. The culture also believes in providing justice to all, and thus the people put the needs of others before their own. Being a high-context culture one must provide a great deal of background information while communication and therefore, relationships are built slowly and depend on trust (Yama & Zakaria, 2012). The dignity of an individual is profoundly rooted in one’s culture, work or family. The use of non-verbal communication is essential, and space is regarded as being communal ( O'Hare, 2010) . It is an indication that as a team leader, I must build a good relationship with an employee from this culture and during communication; my non-verbal cues such as facial expressions, eye movements, tones and gestures should not be offensive.

Summary and Conclusion 

Understanding one’s culture is crucial, as it will determine the values, beliefs, thoughts and behavior of an individual. The modern-day work environment is highly diverse ( “Perception,” n.d) . It is imperative for one to understand other people’s culture to avoid conflicts and reduced work productivity. Different leadership styles allow for the creation of leader-follower relations and from the case of a Chinese-Singapore employee, using the moral leadership style is the best. Recognition is the best motivational technique for an individual from this culture as it leads to mianzi . The people from the culture are stereotyped as being corrupt, rude and arrogant. However, they are also hardworking, smart and highly educated. Rude actions include non-verbal cues such as excessive hand movements, physical affection and touchiness, pointing at someone, winking, and whistling. Lastly, Chinese-Singapore culture is high-context nature.

References

“Perception.” (n.d). Retrieved form https://saylordotorg.github.io/text_organizational-behavior-v1.1/s07-04-perception.html

Geigenmüller, A., Gao, H., Knight, J. G., & Ballantyne, D. (2012). Guanxi as a gateway in Chinese‐Western business relationships.  Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing , 27 (6), 456-467.

Gove, M., & Huang, C. (2012). Confucianism and Chinese families: values and practices in education.  International Journal of Humanities and Social Science ,  2 (3), 10-14.

Guo, X. (2002).  The ideal Chinese political leader: A historical and cultural perspective . Westport, Conn: Praeger.

III Burton, V. L. (2010). Cross-Cultural/International Communication. In Encyclopedia of Small Business (Vol. 1. 3rd ed). Michigan: Gale/Cengage Learning. 

Lau, W. K. E. (2012). A study of effective leadership in the Chinese context. Boston, MA: Academy of Management 2012 Annual Meeting

O'Hare, J. (2010). Nonverbal Communication. In Encyclopedia of Management (6th ed.) (623-628). Michigan: Gale/Cengage Learning 

Teon, A. (2017). The Concept of Face in Chinese Culture and the Difference between Mianzi and Lian. The Greater China Journal, 1(3). 

Yama, H., & Zakaria, N. (2012). Inference and culture: The distinction between low context culture and high context culture as a possible explanation for cultural differences in cognition. In  Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society , 34(34).

Appendix 1: Table 

	Power Distance	Individual/ Collective	Uncertainty Avoidance	Career/Life	Confucian Dynamism
Egyptian (21) female	High	Collective	High	Career	low
Chinese-Singapore (51) female	High	collective	low	life	High
S. Korea (27) male	Intermediate	Collective	High	Life	High
Iranian (32) male	Intermediate	Collective	high	life	Low
Indian (30) female	High	Intermediate	Medium-low	career	Intermediate
Irish (33) male	Low	Individual	low	career	Low
Japanese (25) male	intermediate	intermediate	high	life	High
Mexican (28) female	High	collective	high	life	Low
French (33) male	Fairly high	individual	high	career	High
Russian (40) female	High	collective	high	career	High