The Pros and Cons of Informality in the Workplace

Informality in the United States is a common phenomenon especially in the workplace. The workplace culture of the U.S. can vary from informal to extremely professional. The level of formality, however, varies depending on the nature of work. For example, in Wall Street, New York, there is extreme formality. On the contrary, Google offices tend to have a lower level of formality which they relate to enhanced work performance. Some office desks at Google even tend to have desk treadmills owing to the perception that walking while working could be beneficial to an individual`s health (Kanbur, 2011). In this case, one can observe that informality fosters independency and flexibility at work. In some other countries such as those in the Asian world, decision making tends to be hierarchical implying that junior employees tend to rely on their superiors decisions. Informality in the U.S also extends to an extent that employees in some entities can refer to their employer using their personal names yet this is disregarded in the Asian world. 

People from different cultures act and behave differently. For instance, in terms of communication misunderstandings are likely to occur. The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis theory was for instance established indicating that people belonging to different cultures think differently (Kanbur, 2011). For instance, in the American culture maintaining eye contact in the American business culture is likely to be beneficial for the parties to the contract. On the contrary, the same situation is interpreted as disrespect in the Asian culture and hence one is not expected to maintain eye contact when partaking in business dealings since this may discredit their work (Kanbur, 2011). In order to avoid being faced with such misunderstandings, it is important for someone to familiarize themselves with others cultures. Also, some cultures such as those in the Asian world require that one pauses in the cause of their speech in order to offer the listener an opportunity to grasp what they are talking about, this can, nevertheless, be misunderstood to mean lack of content in the western world. 

Reference 

Kanbur, R. (2011). Avoiding informality traps.  Reshaping tomorrow: Is South Asia ready for the big leap , 260-278.