Cases in Critical Cross-Cultural Management

An Intersectional Approach to Culture

Jasmin Mahadevan, Henriett Primecz, Laurence Romani, Jasmin Mahadevan, Henriett Primecz, Laurence Romani

• Editorial: Routledge
• Año: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781351121040
• Edición: 1
• Categoría: Business
• Categoría: Human Resource Management

This book is a collection of 16 empirical cases in critical Cross-Cultural Management (CCM). All cases approach culture in CCM beyond national cultures, and all examine power as an integrative part of any cross-cultural situation. The cases also consider diversity in the sense of culturally or historically learned categorizations of difference (such as gender, race, ethnicity, religion and class), and acknowledge how diversity categories might differ across cultures. Furthermore, each case suggests a specific method or concept for improving upon the situation. Out of this approach, novel insights emerge: we can see how culture, power and diversity categories are inseparable, and we can understand how exactly this is the case. The uses and benefits of this book are thus both conceptual and methodological; they emerge at the intersections of Critical CCM and diversity studies. All cases also discuss implications for practitioners and are suitable for teaching.

Mainstream CCM often limits itself to comparative models or cultural dimensions. This approach is widely critiqued for its simplicity but is equally used for the exact same reason. Often, academics teach this approach whilst cautioning students against implementing it, and this might be simply due to a lack of alternatives. Through means of rich empirical cases, this book offers such an alternative.

Considering the intersections of culture, diversity and power enables students, researchers and practitioners alike to see 'more' or 'different' things in the situation, and then come up with novel approaches and solutions that do justice to the realities of culture and diversity in today's (and the future's) management and organizations. The chapters of this book thus offer concepts and methods to approach cross-cultural situations: the conceptual gain lies in bringing together CCM and (critical) diversity studies in an easily accessible manner. As a methodological contribution, the cases in this book offer the concise tools and methods for implementing an intersectional approach to culture.

1
The Paradoxical Consequences of ‘The Perfect Accent’!

A Critical Approach to Cross-Cultural Interactions

Jane Kassis-Henderson and Linda Cohen

Introduction

The simplistic, essentialist model of language and culture prevalent in mainstream cross-cultural management (CCM) has sidelined the complexity of interactions in today’s world. This case shows how coming to terms with the multiple markers of identity, together with a more subtle understanding of language and culture, can transform communication and power strategies in interpersonal relations and lead to paradoxical findings. This is the story of how an American lawyer in France breaks from the traditional rules of communication in multilingual intercultural settings by playing with her accent to suit her ends.

Methodology

A critical interpretive approach is applied to this case, highlighting the value of intersectionality and reflexivity to bring to the fore the complex interplay of language and identity and their resulting power effects (Mahadevan, 2017; Primecz et al., 2009; Primecz et al., 2016; Zanoni et al., 2010). In order to deconstruct cross-cultural interactions it is important to move beyond the static categories inherent in the cultural values dimensions literature. Interactions are necessarily dynamic due to the multiple facets of identity which become more or less salient as they are played out in ever-changing contexts. Depending on the desired outcome, an individual draws on different aspects of their identity, behind which lie a multiplicity of voices. These voices compose the varied language repertoires, or resources, derived from the experiences of each individual. We therefore adopt the negotiated, situated approach to cross-cultural communication as developed by social identity theorists and sociolinguists who focus on the way in which different aspects of personal background condition expectations and reactions within the context of specific encounters (Blommaert, 2010; Gumperz, 2003; Martin-Jones et al., 2012).

When interacting with others, individuals are constantly interpreting what they see and hear in order to make sense of what is happening. At the same time, they deploy their linguistic resources and send signals as to who they are which influence the perception the other has of them and the relationship between them. The negotiated, situated approach to the analysis of interactions allows us to demonstrate how changing voice according to context can have a positive impact on empowerment in a communication strategy (Steyaert and Janssens, 2015; Kramsch, 2012; Ozkazanç-Pan, 2015).

Case Presentation

In this section, we present a case narrative which illustrates the importance of being aware of the multiple identity markers embedded in each individual. Our analysis highlights the value of adopting an intersectional approach to make sense of the paradoxical situations which often arise in cross-cultural encounters because of accents and the way people speak.

Case Narrative

An American lawyer specializing in international mergers and acquisitions took a new position in the Paris headquarters of a French multinational firm. According to the Human Resources director, the fact that this lawyer not only had the requisite professional credentials and experience, but had studied French and was a true ‘Francophile’, was decisive in the recruitment process.

The authors interviewed this lawyer in the context of a study of multicultural/multilingual teams. The lawyer had been in this job for 24 months. The narrative that follows spontaneously emerged while discussing the experience of integration in France.

I arrived in Paris 2 years ago, very much looking forward to taking on this new position in a city I have always loved from my frequent but short visits. I speak French, have always tried to keep up with French culture and news coming from France, but this is the first time I’ve lived outside of the U.S. One of the first things that surprised me in dealing with the French on a daily basis, in day-to-day life, was that the first thing they would say is: ‘Oh! You’re American’! They immediately identified me—because of my accent—as being ‘American’. I was at first taken aback as it was the first time I could say—to others, as well as to myself!—‘Yes, I’m American’! Because in the U.S., I’m ‘African American’—and my belonging to the black community has always identified me first. People have always labelled me as such and I have always felt rooted in my community. ‘American’ for me was ‘mainstream’ America, ‘white’ America—I, on the other hand, have always felt, and been labelled, ‘African American’. So imagine my surprise—and, I must admit, in a certain way which surprises even me, a new-found pride—at being seen, identified, by my French peers and neighbors as ‘American’! In the U.S. I had to fight to become a lawyer, to build a professional reputation feeling an ‘outsider’ in mainstream America. And here I was in Paris: the American lawyer—not the ‘African American’ woman, the black woman lawyer who ‘made it’—with the undertones of the negative stigma of affirmative action never far away. I must admit I enjoyed this ‘new’ skin, this new identity!

Then something changed. My French became more proficient, more natural, I felt I was finally losing my American accent that French people quickly recognized. Personally, I was looking forward to better exchanges, communication with the French. But instead I realized I was getting certain looks, there was a certain hesitation in interactions, and certain kinds of questions started coming up more frequently. It wasn’t ‘oh, you’re American!’ but ‘where are you from, the Antilles—the French West Indies?’—And little by little I started connecting the dots—the strange reaction I was getting—or what I felt was a strange reaction—was due to my losing the ‘American’ status as I was losing the American accent and with it the privilege of being the ‘American in Paris.’ Instead I realized I was being seen—and treated—as ‘black’—I was living the French stigma attached to the people from the French West Indies when in the Métropole— or in Paris. So I started a survival experiment—I exaggerated my ‘U.S.’ accent and, indeed, I was again treated with the ‘respect’ I felt when I first arrived in Paris! I recovered my privileged status! I once again became the ‘American in Paris’!

Key Insights and Interpretations: Adopting an Intersectional Approach—The Paradoxical Consequences of Superior Language Skills

Mainstream research argues that individuals with ‘superior’ language skills, measured by the yardstick of native speaker fluency, are imbued with status and power by simple virtue of their language skills (regardless of other competencies—or lack thereof). This notion is based on two assumptions: first, there is a ‘one-size-fits-all’ evaluation of linguistic proficiency; and second, attaining this ‘objective’ level of proficiency will necessarily result in communicative efficacy. Our case debunks this equation and questions the relevance of a singular model of linguistic proficiency as defined by an ideal (or idealized) native speaker. By introducing the importance of taking into account the diverse identity markers of each individual when it comes to communication, we demonstrate how a proficient speaker, interacting within a given context, can in fact lose power. This important lesson on language and empowerment can only be understood by using an intersectional approach (Boogaard and Roggeband, 2010; Crenshaw, 1991; Frame, 2016; Zander et al., 2010) and adopting a critical reflexive stance to appropriately interpret aspects of identity that become more or less salient according to context (Ozkazanç-Pan, 2015; Yagi and Klein-berg, 2011). In this case, our protagonist has to deal with her multiple identity markers which, as the narrative shows, determine how her discourse and message is received by others, and therefore impact the quality of communication itself. Thanks to her cross-cultural sensitivity and reflexive stance, she has the counterintuitive realization that gaining superior language skills impacts her negatively in terms of status in her new environment of Paris, France. Her ability to contextualize interactions and her capacity to adopt a ‘self-reflexive move’ between self and larger contexts proves she has integrated what has been theorized as the ‘dialectical approach’ (Martin and Nakayama, 2015). This ability has been identified as an important intercultural competence.

The dialectical approach to intercultural interactions highlights the finding that competence does not reside solely in the individual, but emerges while negotiating interaction with the other(s). As this case shows, a standardized, universal measure of effective communication does not exist. Rather, it results from the interrelationship that is constructed in context and is therefore a fluid, dynamic and ongoing process that reflects both individual sociolinguistic competence and an awareness of the societal constraints and geopolitical context within which the interaction takes place. An individual must constantly adjust their mode of communication depending on the dialectical tensions that are at play in a given situation—individual/societal; privileged/disadvantaged; global/local; past/present—to achieve effective cross-cultural communication.

The present case reveals the multiple polarities that exist both within the individual—with which intersectionality allows us to come to terms—as well as between the individual and the context in which they evolve. Here, a black, female multilingual lawyer from the United States confronts, among other things, the heritage of French colonialism and the legacy of French–U.S. cultural and economic relations as they interweave in her everyday encounters. Thanks to her ability to take distance, both reflexively and in establishing rapport with others, she finds a way to deal with this constant dialectical interplay in order to successfully negotiate communication. Indeed, an individual can be both advantaged and disadvantaged according to the different social categories to which they belong and the changing contexts in which they interact. At any one time, and depending on context, an individual can be marginalized or empowered by virtue of the ‘cross-cutting’ aspects of identity (Boogaard and Roggeband, 2010). As seen in the narrative, she has internalized the fact that status hierarchies are ‘cross-cutting.’ She therefore silences her fluency by self-censoring her more French-sounding accent to recover her American voice, which carries more positive identifying markers in postcolonial France.

By consciously speaking with an American accent, she removes the identifying marker associating her to the French Antillais community, which still must contend with postcolonial bias, and recuperates the higher-status marker as ‘American.’ This understanding of the potential inequities that are at play in intercultural interactions enables her to consciously appropriate communication strategies, thereby empowering her to better negotiate interpersonal encounters.

Power and CCM: Power Relations and the Value of Reflexivity in Intercultural Contexts

When the protagonist first arrived in Paris, her accent immediately identified her to the French ear—from a cultural point of view particularly sensitive to accents—as ‘American’. Because of her ‘strong’ accent, the colour of her skin suddenly lost importance; a fundamental aspect of her identity was relegated to the background. In the United States, she never left her ‘black skin’. She was always African American, a group marked with a strong identity, as opposed to (both literally and figuratively) mainstream—meaning ‘white’—Americans.

When people in France referred to her as American—dropping the ‘African’—the multiple facets of her identity were reshuffled. Although in mainstream French culture, the image of the ‘American’ is far from being unequivocally positive, people from the United States nevertheless are often positively associated with power and prestige. As both political allies and economic rivals, the United States and France have long had a ‘love–hate’ relationship which has played out on different levels over the years.

One aspect of this ambivalent relationship resides in the language issue. The French pride themselves on having ‘enlightened’ the world over the centuries and are highly protective of their cultural heritage. One of the many ways in which this is manifested is their sensitivity to the place of the French language in the world today, in face of the increasing importance of American English. In France, the language is cherished as a national treasure, embodying the high ‘ideals’ of the French culture, a message which is conveyed as subtext to learners of French as a foreign language.

Another important aspect to remember in order to appropriately contextualize this case is the fact that in its national narrative, France has been a haven for the oppressed and, as such, has welcomed individuals who had been marginalized by mainstream America. Viewed as a beacon of tolerance, Paris became a creative hub for the many artists, writers, musicians, and others who were ostracized in the United States at different periods in recent history—most notably for being communist or simply because of the colour of their skin. Paris ‘adopted’ these intellectuals and artists, now able to pursue their careers in a more favorable environment, which gave rise to the favorable image of ‘the American in Paris.’

In her narrative, she admitted that being considered ‘the American in Paris’, with all the connotations that may bring to mind, provoked a feeling of unexpected pride. It is this self-awareness that would help her readjust to eventually successfully navigate through this complex intercultural situation.

As a black woman who was raised and educated in the United States, she was used to dealing with identity politics and confronting difference, especially while pursuing her studies and career. Her resulting self-awareness empowered her to consciously play with voice, as she adapted her behavior and way of speaking depending on with whom and where she was speaking (Kramsch, 2012). Here we see that mastering the ‘language/cultural specific’ elements—in this case the French language and ‘classical’ French culture—is not enough to (re)-act appropriately in context. This type of reflexive behavior has been identified as an important ‘language/culture general skill’ (Mughan, 2015), a skill most often found in bi- or multicultural individuals—those exposed to two (or more) national cultures from birth (Hong and Doz, 2013). In this particular case we see how an awareness of the multiple facets of identity, or intersectionality, is an alternative way for an individual to acquire this valuable competence. Intersectionality, therefore, when used strategically, becomes equally empowering.

Ironically, for a white person, speaking ‘perfect’ French would have elevated status in France. However, as a black person, her perfect French meant that her identity markers were once...