Being a leading global university, NUS is a good place where one can observe intercultural behaviour. Other than the various local ethnic cultures of Singapore, there are many more types of cultures easily noticeable. In this blog post, I will focus on the core values of cultures, especially on power-distances.
For example, the sandwich artist at Subway
is a Filipino. She addressed and greeted customers with “Hello Sir (/Ma’am)”. Going
deeper and understanding why she spoke this way instead of a simple “Hello”,
has led me to realise that probably the formality of addressing a customer, who
is considered more superior, demonstrates the high power-distance culture. In
addition, in the Philippines, the words used when speaking to the elders are
more respectful. Similar to the Koreans, hierarchy matters very much in
Asia. The high power-distance culture and masculinity of society of Asian countries can be clearly observed in our daily lives.
In my opinion, due to globalisation, many societies (including Singapore) are adopting values of the western culture. Individualism and low power-distances are creeping into many companies for higher efficiency and higher productivity rates. However, in Asia, it is still relatively difficult to move away from the core values associated to our culture. Take for instance the manner in which students are used to greeting their teachers in Singapore. It is often by Miss/Mr/Mrs/Dr/Prof Jones. I, too, am used to formally greeting teachers. Even after having put in effort to tell myself that at the tertiary education level ongoing to the workforce, I have to try to get used to it, the uneasy feeling remains. The main reason I feel is that the hierarchy system that I am used to and the identity of me does not change even with the prevalence of western culture being continually infused into society today.
Therefore, it is always important to strike a good balance between everything. In this case of intercultural behaviour, moderating things would help. What I meant was that in every communication with someone who is of different culture, always be understanding and give concessions to how the person you are speaking with may behave. Certainly, this will definitely reduce conflicts.
If you are interested to know more about the Philippines' culture that was briefly mentioned above, you may want to visit the webpage below.
(http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/resources/global-etiquette/philippines-country-profile.html)
That's an interesting post Shu Wen but perhaps you could have delved a little deeper into the Philippine concept of power distance and explored whether it's related to just certain types of jobs.
ReplyDeleteHi Shu Wen:) I though this was a really interesting post and tied everyday observations of Asian cultures to the definition and core values of culture itself (in this case, you focused more on power-distance).
ReplyDeleteYou mentioned how Western ideals of individualism and low-power-distance are slowly being infused into the Asian work-place culture for greater efficiency and productivity. In your opinion, would individualism and a low power-distance culture really contribute to improving productivity? Or can Asian hierarchical systems prove to be just as effective or even better when it comes to raising productivity and efficiency?
Hello Ankita
DeleteThank you for your comment. It took me a while to think through the question that you posed to me.
I believe different companies or sectors would perform differently with different culture. For designing or creative works, in my opinion, individualism and low-power-distance would help to boost productivity as compared to government related matters such as policy and decision making for the state. Thus I believe it is not so much that we are an Asian country but the type of work concerned.
Cheers,
Shu Wen