Means of Knowledge Acquisition: Active-Reflective
Which is valued more as a means of acquiring information and knowledge—action or reflection?
In societies near the Active pole, people value empirical data, facts, and practical experience. They are willing to experiment and solve problems by trial and error. Case studies, experiential learning, and fieldwork appeal to them. Overall, an experimental and data-based approach to identifying and solving problems feels natural to them.
People in the U.S. learn very early in life that effective people are active. Action is almost always preferred over inaction, and people routinely fill their days and weeks with activities.
Respect for manual and physical labor is also an expression of the value placed on doing, not thinking. Unlike many other parts of the world, even socioeconomically well-placed individuals attend to their own household tasks and errands, such as yard work, exterior and interior painting, cooking, and other chores. There seems to be such an aversion to “just sitting around and doing nothing” that even vacations are planned to be activity-oriented and busy.
In societies near the Reflective pole, people value conceptual models and general principles as guides for action. They prefer to think things through or develop an intuitive feel for a problem before attempting a solution. They admire intellectual brilliance and deductive reasoning. Overall, they favor great thinkers over doers and respect theoretical and intuitive approaches to solving problems.
In France and Germany, for example, people seem to feel a greater need to be reflective, avoid the possibility of impetuous action, and refrain from quick answers to questions or issues. They tend to approach problems more deliberately, seeking first to decide on an overall conceptual scheme and build a situational theory and then to proceed to problem solving.
Managers in several other countries, especially those of the Far East, use the passage of time to create a reflective perspective; delaying and waiting gives time a chance to disclose more of the relevant factors affecting a situation and allows those involved to become less emotional. In the U.S., executives tend to believe they must respond to problematic situations quickly.
As another example, in China it is important to be a patient listener, and young people are expected to learn this. The Chinese do not hurry their conversations along as people from the U.S. do. It is not uncommon for long pauses to occur and for people to be quiet and wait for their turn (Leong, 1994).
These values lead to the following preferences.
Axiomatic versus pragmatic thinking. Asians with a Confucian heritage are much more likely to believe that all knowledge is a part of some universal natural order. In coping with a specific problem or issue, they seek to discover universal principles, not the factors governing a specific situation. The views and experiences of someone in the situation may be of far less importance than the wisdom of sages, who may have no interest in or experience with the practical world. In fact, there is an emphasis on ignoring individual views and experiences.
In contrast, people in the U.S. take great pride in being pragmatic. They are suspicious of too much theory, too many concepts, and certainly of ideas that have not been tested in the real world. They strongly believe that each individual has to learn what is important at a specific time in order to apply it to a specific situation. They presume that the learner, particularly if he or she is an adult, can contribute a good deal to problem solving.
Analytic approach to solving problems. U.S. managers also like to approach problems analytically. They assume that most of the problems they confront have straightforward cause-and-effect relationships. They are inclined to deal with problems in a highly linear way. For example, poor employee performance is seen as being caused by a lack of motivation or incentives; selling a new cereal is understood as depending on finding the right symbols for a specific market niche.
There is also a value placed on using the correct method for deriving answers to problems, and the preferred method is that of science. Managers like to rely on presumably objective, quantitative methods to find answers—for instance, by using market research, employee surveys, or operations research. Faith is placed in systematic, impersonal, and scientific inquiry to discover how many people are likely to buy a new gadget, how a product should be designed, or how to resolve other business issues.
In many other cultures, feelings and beliefs may be considered just as important in decision making as objective facts; intuitive, and even subjective, approaches may be preferred.
In most Asian countries, managers think in systems terms almost instinctively, in contrast to using a Western, compartmentalized and functional approach. Japanese companies are known for not publishing job descriptions, which build a box around the manager’s responsibilities. Rather than always breaking problems and responsibilities into smaller and smaller discrete units, the Eastern view stresses looking for larger wholes and harmonious interrelationships.
As is becoming apparent to U.S. business leaders, the emphasis on rational and analytic modes of problem solving leads to a kind of compartmentalization that can cause managers to lose sight of processes and systems. The complexities of operating in today’s business world can make insight, intuition, and even artistic and creative capabilities more useful than rationalistic, analytical skills. For example, instead of conceiving of human, technical, environmental, and political issues as distinct or in conflict, policymakers may need to find answers that preserve or enhance harmony in the total system.
Strategic and long-term decisions. In general, managers in most cultures tend to focus on short-term operational issues. Priority is given to putting out fires rather than clarifying long-term goals. The balance between short- and long-term focus, however, varies from culture to culture and may be related to preferences for doing versus thinking.
A comparison of the behaviors of U.S. managers and their European counterparts who participated in a six-hour business simulation showed that U.S. managers tended, on an average, to make twenty-five percent more decisions. The Europeans preferred to gather data and then to engage in long discussions about that data. They seemed to enjoy the intellectual exercise of problem solving, often prolonging the discussions. Though fewer decisions were made, the decisions that were made, in general, addressed the long-term well-being of the organization (Wall & McHenry, 1989).