9.1. CHANGE AND HOW DIFFERENT CULTURES REACT TO IT

Whether one lives in Nepal, Peru, New Zealand, or Turkey, change is a fact of life. The speed of change and people's openness or resistance to it may vary considerably depending on cultural attitudes toward change. Regardless of the attitudes shaped by where one is reared or resides, there are a number of realities about the process of change that need to be acknowledged before they can be applied to moving global organizations forward.

9.1.1. 1. Change Is the Most Basic Dynamic of Life

Change is a neutral phenomenon that is given meaning by human beings as we experience the process. The most fundamental and universal demonstration of change is the cycle of life and death, both for humans and in the natural world as well. The changing of the seasons in some parts of the world means the dropping of leaves, the falling of snow, or rebirth and growth of buds in the spring. Accepting change as a given in the physical world is sometimes easier for people than accepting changes that take place in organizations because these natural changes are inevitable, impersonal, and beyond our control.

The manager's challenge and opportunity lie in helping employees throughout the world who are reared with different cultural attitudes toward change accept, welcome, and learn to leverage change in ways that are positive for the organization and the people who work there. At the most extreme ends of the change continuum there is the United States, a culture that is set upon fixing and tinkering with everything. Discarding the old for a better, newer version is the norm. On the other end of the continuum, Southeast Asian countries are tradition-rich. While Singapore and Shanghai, for example, continue to change and grow in dramatic fashion, their cultures still revere tradition. Regardless of one's cultural influences that shape attitudes, change is a constant presence.

9.1.2. 2. It Is Not Uncommon for People to Have an Ambivalent Relationship with Change

Sometimes people welcome the stimulation that change brings. At other times, it is just an acceptable reality and, depending on the situation and place, loss from change can be met with deep sadness and devastation. This emotional kaleidoscope exists because human beings have conflicting needs and conflicting attitudes toward change and the gains and losses it brings. Life events rarely dole out only the gains without exacting some price. The couple who has a chance to relocate will undoubtedly relish the new opportunity to learn about a different culture and have a new experience. On the other hand, friends, family, and a sense of place that indicates home will change, at least for a while.

The co-existence of gains and losses, and the attempt to control more of the former and minimize the latter, are part of the reason people in the Western world often have a strong reaction to the change process. Energy is invested in shaping one's life toward improvement. Eastern philosophy, which is consistent with detachment and greater acceptance of life events, may have a more accepting reaction to change in general. But in Southeast Asia the importance of tradition is a certainty. Maintaining cherished customs and honoring history can make employees more wary of dealing with change in today's fast-paced world.

Managers can help employees by having conversations that shed light on the complexity inherent in change and the gains from working through it. The exercise in this chapter entitled "Actual vs. Expected Gains and Losses from Change" will help people deal with this reality and, ultimately, move forward in a healthier way.

9.1.3. 3. Change Serves as Both an Energizer and a Stressor

Change is primarily about physiological and psychological adaptation for all human beings, no matter their culture. When people have to adapt, they expend their physical, psychological, and emotional resources, all of which increases stress. Even positive, desired changes take energy and adaptation. The job promotion that takes a person from Hong Kong to London can be a wonderful opportunity and a thrilling, rejuvenating experience, but it will still be stressful to adapt to new surroundings, people, time zones, accents, languages, and a host of other realities day in and day out.

9.1.4. 4. Change Is Often Viewed as a Threat to Security

Whether people like their jobs and their lives or not, most have adapted to their existing reality. They know the figurative landscape. Whether that reality is glorious and fulfilling, defeating and frustrating, or a combination of experiences both positive and negative, the familiar is a known commodity and therefore comfortable. Change requires losing the comfort of the status quo and making a conscious effort to create a different reality. Creating a good balance between change and homeostasis can make the process a struggle. A major part of a manager's job is helping people deal with changes that are viewed as a threat to security, a disruption of the comfortable.

Sometimes the issues are in fact a threat. Maybe someone will lose a job and her livelihood through the proposed merger between Detroit and Stuttgart. Sometimes, just the fear of job loss produces unnecessary anxiety. In either case, a sensitive manager can help employees see the difference between perception and reality and support them to shore up their sense of security in order to accommodate to whatever ongoing change will inevitably come.

9.1.5. 5. Change Presents Opportunity for Growth and Learning

If one can get beyond the fear of loss, the stress of disruption, and the chaos and loss of equilibrium from uncertainty, there are tremendous opportunities for development and learning at both an organizational and an individual level. The ability to move beyond fear and to develop confidence and skills is one of the biggest benefits of change.

Global entities are live organisms that also deal with loss and gain, stimulation and chaos, frustration and satisfaction from accomplishment. Change becomes more complicated for these organizations when working with different cultural orientations toward change in locations around the world.

To obtain a clearer sense of the gains and losses from change for you individually and for your work group, identify a specific change in your organization related to its global strategy. Assess both gains and losses using the "Actual and Expected Gains and Losses from Change" sheet.

Actual and Expected Gains and Losses from Change Directions: Consider a specific change related to your organization's global strategy. Then list the gains and losses for you and for your work group.

9.1.6. Suggestions for Using "Actual and Expected Gains and Losses from Change"

Objectives

• To help participants identify the positives from change and anticipate the challenges

• To identify the role of attitude in determining how one sees any change

• To enable people to move forward more effectively with change

Intended Audience

• Any manager or change agent helping a team or part of an organization go through change

• Members of any team or any part of the organization going through change

Time

• 30 to 40 minutes

Materials

• Copies of "Actual and Expected Gains and Losses from Change"

• Easel, flip chart, markers, and masking tape if using small groups

Directions

• If done as a group activity, ask members to suggest recent changes and decide on one specific change for all to focus on.

• Have each person fill out his or her own response first, then pair up and share responses with someone.

• Make a copy of the worksheet on flip-chart paper as shown below and collect feedback and examples from the group as a whole.

  	Gains	Losses
  Me
  My Work Group

  
  

• Lead a discussion on the benefits or any concerns from change.

Questions for Discussion/Consideration

• When you saw the gains and losses data suggested by the group, what was your reaction?

• What information did this give you about the range of views toward change?

• What was your biggest surprise? Insight?

• What other attitudes toward change did you hear from co-workers? How can these beliefs be helpful to you?

• What will you do to help yourself, the team, and the organization through this process?

Cultural Considerations

• Pay particular attention to attitudes toward change shaped by national culture.

Caveats, Considerations, and Variations

• If done onsite, count people off in small groups and use 18″ × 24″ wall charts of "Actual and Expected Gains and Losses from Change." Put information up; share in small groups first and then with the whole group.

• As a facilitator, make certain that gains and losses receive equal time. You don't want to create a negative, hopeless spiral.

The process of having employees at all levels of the organization assess their gains and losses on the emotional playing field is important. What is never level are the attitudes toward change that we inherit in part because of where we were born and reared. Fons Trompenaars,^[] in Riding the Waves of Culture, helps us understand these different responses to change.