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Performance Management

Published March 2007

Crossing the Cultural Divide with Emotional Intelligence

Joshua Freedman

The manager of a research and development department recently had to fire "Alice," one of her research analysts.

"Whenever I gave Alice an assignment, she always said she knew what to do,"  the manager explained. "Weeks later, I'd find out she really had no idea what she was supposed to be accomplishing."

Alice is Chinese, fluent in English and technically competent. Her culture provided different rules of appropriate behavior than her manager's culture. They each had unspoken assumptions about "the right way" to perform — and an overriding assumption that the other must operate from a similar perspective.

Although her boss knew there were cultural differences, the manager did not know how to overcome radically different norms for communication or how to access Alice's talent. If only there were a universal language or a cultural Rosetta Stone that would cut through this mess …

The Bridge of Emotional Intelligence

Culture is a body of shared knowledge — the knowledge of what is appropriate behavior. Geopolitical and organizational cultures tell people how to get by and how to get results. Culture shapes our values, language, customs and even the way we define success. So, it's no wonder culture has such a powerful effect on performance management.

It was hard enough managing performance with a more homogeneous workforce of employees from the same country, similar backgrounds, shared experiences and common language. But with greater globalization and more mobility, many cultural differences are emerging and converging in the workplace. The divide can be wide.

Even within a single country, norms and language can vary widely. Within the same organization, there can be dramatically different cultures, each providing different rules of appropriate behavior and unspoken assumptions about "the right way" to perform.

The only thing people seem to share universally is the assumption that everyone else sees the world from the same perspective they do. As a result, what seems like a simple request or interaction can become messy and convoluted.

Is there a way to cut across cultural difference and understand one another at a human level? If we access the intelligence of emotions, are we just using another cultural filter, or does universality exist? Are some aspects of emotional intelligence (EQ) more or less influenced by culture? And how do we use this concept to improve performance?

A Universal Human Experience

Recently in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the Sales University at Schlumberger Information Solutions (SIS) ran a series of Six Seconds' selling with EQ training courses. Schlumberger is a remarkable, truly multinational company that employs people of all backgrounds at every level from the frontline to the boardroom. It has a culture without borders — the profile of what is expected to become the face of 22nd-century business.