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Gary M. Wederspahn is a leading intercultural business trainer, consultant, speaker, and writer.  His book, Intercultural Services: A Worldwide Buyer's Guide and Sourcebook, is available from Butterworth Heinemann publishing company and from Amazon.com. Mr. Wederspahn has also served as the director of the US Peace Corp in Costa Rica. His website is located at www.intercultural-help.com. Additional Resources Destinations by Region  Living Overseas  Contact Wederspahn  Buy the Book

In addition to their household items and personal belongings, US expatriates also take with them invisible cultural baggage composed of values, beliefs, attitudes, assumptions and expectations.  How people in their host countries perceive them and respond to them depends largely on the contents of this intangible luggage.  It is very valuable for expatriates to have a clear understanding of their own cultural identities because it allows them to anticipate how others are likely to react to them. A self-aware expat has a head start in the adjustment process and is able to avoid many cross-cultural pitfalls and areas of friction and miscommunication. Unfortunately, cultural self-awareness is not easy to gain.  It is like asking a fish to explain the water in which it has always lived.  Being constantly surrounded by our culture and permeated by it, we lack the objectivity to see it clearly, much less to articulate it.  Therefore, the insights provided by anthropologists, sociologists, and intercultural specialists

However, before attempting to define key U.S. cultural values, it is necessary to acknowledge that the United States contains much cultural diversity.  In the first place, there are major regional cultures.  The Nine Nations of North America, a book by Joel Garreau, gives an excellent description of these regions and the differences between them.  New England, for example, preserves a spirit of Yankee industriousness and personal autonomy, whereas the Southwest is influenced by a strong Hispanic family and religious orientation and the deep south retains its traditional courtly social formalities.

On top of this mosaic of regional differences there is an overlay of ethnic diversity created by the influx of people from virtually every country on earth.  Nevertheless, it is possible to identify a set of core values that tend hold us together and identify us as a nation. These are the official values enshrined in our major political documents and the unofficial ones that characterize the “great American dream” and shape our way of life.  The media and our public figures promote them. Frequently they are held as ideals rather than experienced as practical realities.  Yet they do have impact on our self-concepts, influence our behavior and determine how the rest of the world views us.  A good way to gain insights regarding our core values is to analyze the meaning of popular sayings:

Time Consciousness

“Time is money.” This expression, coined by Benjamin Franklin in 1748, illustrates two of the most fundamental U.S. values:  time consciousness and productivity.  We have become one of the world’s fastest paced cultures.  Even as early as the 1830s, Micheal Chevalier, a French economist, wrote that the “American has an exaggerated estimate of the value of time and is always in a terrible hurry.”  The tempo of life, and work in the United States has increased exponentially since then due to invention of such time “saving” devices as microwave ovens, cellular phones, fax machines, and computers.  Our addiction to speed has made us out of sync with most other cultures.  We tend to be perceived as impatient, rushed and, perhaps, pushy by others.
 

Individualism “You have to blow your own horn,” and “If you want a job done right, do it yourself.”  These sayings reflect our strong sense of individualism.  According to a study of 40 countries by Dutch sociologist Geert Hofstede, we are the most individualistic culture in the world.  This value can be seen in our emphasis on individual accountability and singling out a specific person for recognition and reward.

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Many other countries, to varied degrees, place more value on group identity and effort.  They frequently view us as self-centered and poor team players.

Task Orientation

“Keep your eye on the ball,” and “Work before pleasure.”  These expressions highlight our high level of task orientation.  We prefer to focus on the job at hand, avoiding interruptions and distractions.  Socializing and irrelevant discussions are discouraged.  Some other cultures place more value on building and nurturing relationships as a way to get the job done.  An intense task focus may be taken for unfriendliness and lack of interest in other people. 

Self-reliance

“God helps those who help themselves,” and “Pull yourself up by your own boot straps.”  During the frontier era and westward expansion period of US history people were widely scattered and isolated by distance.  We had to rely on ourselves and gradually turned this necessity into a virtue.  Those who can take care of themselves, make or repair things and improve their circumstances are respected.  In contrast, many other cultures promote interdependence as a value and have difficulty understanding our general expectation that children and elderly family members for example, should “stand on their own two feet.”
 

Directness “Don’t beat around the bush,” and “Tell it like it is!”  Our society values simple direct verbal and written communications.   We tend to view with suspicion people in cultures where indirectness is the norm.  Our impression often is that they seem to have something to hide or are lacking in self-confidence.  However, in those cultures our directness may be perceived as being blunt to the point of rudeness.  Another common impression is that we lack subtlety and sophistication.

Egalitarianism

“All men are created equal...” this statement from our Declaration of Independence enshrines our belief that all people are of equal value according to some philosophical or spiritual standard.  We reject the notion that there exists a class of “betters” who have an innate right to high status, privilege and power.  Hofstede’s study ranked the United States among the countries with very low acceptance of power distance, a measurement of comfort with having an elite controlling a hierarchy.  Our tendencies to use our boss’s first name, to challenge authority easily, and to expect equal treatment reveal a low power distance value.  Cultures with high power distance frequently take our egalitarianism as an unwillingness to show proper deference and respect to those who deserve it.

Consumerism

“Life is a game and whoever ends with the most toys wins,” and “Who says you can’t have it all?”  The American dream is largely defined in terms of material possessions (the house, the cars, and the labor saving and entertainment devices).  The level of consumer confidence is carefully monitored and we are constantly urged to buy and consume more.

Historically, we had what was considered a limitless resource base; the land, the forests and the water were so abundant that waste was not a concern and conservation was not necessary.  According to a report by the World Resources Institute, the American standard of living requires 18 metric tons of natural resources per person per year (many times the world average).  The reaction of others seems to be a mixture of disapproval and envy.  On the one hand, they are concerned about the worldwide impact of what they consider our unsustainable level of consumption and are disturbed by the unfairness of the unequal distribution of the planet’s resources.  On the other hand, people, especially in the less developed countries, aspire to our high level of material prosperity.

Content Focus

“Where’s the beef?” and “Get to the point!”  Edward T. Hall, a leading intercultural specialist, has characterized the U.S. style of communications as being very strongly oriented toward content (facts, numbers, dates and precise, explicit meanings).  Our relatively high ratio of lawyers per capita, in part, reflects the high value we place on words and the need for clarity. Countless other “wordsmiths” are required by our content focus.  Our focus may be compared to a spotlight intensely illuminating a narrow band of the communications spectrum.

In contrast, the communication style in Asia, the Middle East and Latin America is more like a floodlight that takes in the context in which the communications occur.  The situation, the nonverbal dimension, and the relationships of the people involved plus the time and place all carry a large part of the meaning.  The actual words and data tend to be less important and need to be understood in terms of the contextual factors.

This context vs. content focus causes many misunderstandings.  We may be perceived as impersonal, naive or narrow-minded, whereas we might experience non-U.S. counterparts as being inscrutable, evasive or insincere, when, in fact, we are merely sending and receiving messages on different channels.
 

Know Thyself It isn’t accurate or fair to exaggerate the negative image of US people abroad.  Many of our traits such as optimism, industriousness, inventiveness, decisiveness, enthusiasm, and friendliness are mentioned in positive ways.  Nevertheless, it is worthwhile to be aware of the negative perceptions of foreign counterparts and to make sure you know how you are coming across. Perhaps the most important lesson for the cross-cultural sojourner is to understand one’s own cultural baggage.  The advice inscribed on the ancient temple of Apollo at Delphi to “Know thyself” is as valid in today’s era of globalization as it was when Socrates first quoted it over thousand years

ago. You can’t avoid taking your US cultural baggage abroad with you.  But at least you can be aware of it and be careful to not unconsciously impose it on others.

This informative book on intercultural awareness has received rave editorial and reader reviews. One reviewer called Gary Wederspahn's Intercultural Services: A Worldwide Buyer's Guide and Sourcebook "a new tool for international corporations and organizations. This book will be a useful tool for human resource managers, international business travelers and expatriates, professors and students of international relations and global business, cross-cultural and diversity consultants and trainers, plus anyone who works in a multicultural environment. It will enable readers to gain a quick, but sound, overview of the intercultural services field, its history, lore, theories and methods - understand the many different intercultural services and products available - determine if their organizations or companies need intercultural services or products - locate potential providers from comprehensive contact lists in the book - effectively select and manage service providers and/or purchase products wisely - meet a broad range of personal and organizational cross-cultural challenges - research virtually any topic in the intercultural field by using a wide set of bibliographies and online resources." Other reviewers say Mr. Wederspahn's book is the most thorough survey of the entire field they've ever read. The book is an excellent resource for international sojourners and expats, alike. To order this book directly from Amazon.com - Click Here -