Written by Irina Yashkova.
During the most recent session of our Cross Cultural Encounters, I had the pleasure of interviewing Tsengelmaa Boldbaatar, an expat from Mongolia who lived for many years in China and who shared her struggles and triumphs as she began her new life in Chile. What an amazing adventure!
Those of us who have not had the chance to travel to Mongolia and other “exotic” countries and experience the culture firsthand often resort to stereotypes. This frequently results in a negative bias. Generalizing, which is based on facts, and allows for flexibility, is more useful for understanding how to interact and what not to do!
When we remove our national cultural “lenses”, our vision may be initially blurred and out of focus. Generalizing can fail miserably with individuals but can be very useful when considering, for example, organizations or teams
During our conversation Tsengelmaa agreed, partially agreed, or disagreed with some of the more common stereotypes when considering Mongolian culture. Click here to listen to a brief extract: ( Minute 23:25 Irina: “Speaking about Stereotypes….” to minute 35:44 Tsengel:” … talking about business” )
Initially, when actual familiarity is lacking, stereotypes can be helpful in cultural understanding as they provide:
Quick Reference: Stereotypes can offer a quick framework or starting point for understanding different cultural behaviors and attitudes.
Initial Guidance: In the absence of detailed knowledge, cultural stereotypes might help individuals navigate interactions more effectively by providing general expectations about communication styles, attitudes toward time, or decision-making processes.
Minimizes Uncertainty: Stereotypes can reduce uncertainty in new situations by providing a rough guide on how to behave or what to expect.
Facilitates Preparation: They can help in preparing for initial engagements (meetings, social gatherings) by giving some assumptions to work with, even if they’re later modified.
Naturally, as we learn more about the national and business culture of a particular region, we replace the stereotypes with a deeper understanding, first-hand experiences and insights.
Have you resorted to cultural stereotypes in your work and/or travel to a particular country before you had a first-hand knowledge? How (un)true did they turn out to be?