I have a question on UK/European/US Workplace cultural differences in communication: how things are perceived differently, and what is considered positive in one can be negative in another.
(I don't mean superficial stuff, language or buzzword differences. No cheap insults please or generalities. And it helps if you've worked in several of these.)
Originally I was only going to ask what you think of the following observation on apologizing:
- in US work culture, apologizing is generally considered a sign of weakness or incompetence
- whereas in UK work culture, it's generally rude not to do it (when the circumstances are appropriate)
- do you agree?
I would say this is tempered by the relative power between you and the other person (boss/peer/subordinate), the severity of the issue and their trustworthiness to accept or exploit an apology.
But then I thought, might as well ask the question in the broadest context.
true – and there are many other cultural differences that manifest in the workplace, for example – the opinion of some Americans who I have worked with is that a lot of office banter/mindless flirting goes on in UK offices that would be considered inappropriate/ borderline sexual harassment in an American workplace environment,so that is obviously a big difference in communication (though it would obviously potentially be a bigger problem for Brits going over there than Americans coming over here!) not really exactly what you were asking about I suppose but thought Id share.
but on your original point, I think your idea of how apologies are percieved differently in the two cultures is pretty much correct.
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I entirely agree. Not apologising is a sign of an inability to gloss over problems with the vision of just getting the work done; bearing grudges and in-fighting is seen as thoroughly counter productive and will earn disfavour, even from people not involved in the argument. Direct confrontation is frowned upon; it's generally a slow and messy way of getting things done (or not, as the case may be!).
The UK has a reputation for arrogance in continental Europe, and thus you may find even the British attitude to be considered somewhat barbaric, although cultures such as those in France, Spain, Italy and Greece often tend more toward the US school of thought.
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true – and there are many other cultural differences that manifest in the workplace, for example – the opinion of some Americans who I have worked with is that a lot of office banter/mindless flirting goes on in UK offices that would be considered inappropriate/ borderline sexual harassment in an American workplace environment,so that is obviously a big difference in communication (though it would obviously potentially be a bigger problem for Brits going over there than Americans coming over here!) not really exactly what you were asking about I suppose but thought Id share.
but on your original point, I think your idea of how apologies are percieved differently in the two cultures is pretty much correct.
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It never failed to amaze me that my Texan friend used to go to work in T-shirt, shorts and flip flops when he was a professional IT programmer at Dell!!
That's just waaaaaay too casual and informal for me (im english btw)
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