subject: Guanxi-a Cultural Example Of The Relationship Dimension [print this page] In ancient Thailand, white elephants were considered sacred. All the white elephants in the kingdom belonged to the king who would bestow them on his favored nobleman as a sign of honor. White elephants were considered sacred and could not be worked. Since the noblemen had enough money and didnt have to worry about the cost of caring for the animal, they were greatly honored.
Thailand is a very hierarchical society, one in which people know their place and respect authority and powerand had many practices to reinforce the hierarchical structure of the society.
The fable goes that when a person reached beyond their station and pretended wealth and power they didn't have, the king would bestow on them a white elephant, a gift they couldn't reject. But, they couldn't afford to own it either. The white elephant would eat them out of house and home.
Thus, the white elephanta symbol of status and powerwas also a way of maintaining the hierarchical cultural value of the country. It was used to recognize status and to keep people in their place lest they attempted to exceed their rightful status. (Of course, since that time, a white elephant has become a symbol of something that squanders energy and resources while producing nothing.)
The cultural value of hierarchy and knowing one's place in society that impacted the entire quality of life in Siam still exists in Thailand today. While there are no princes distributing white elephants, there are many signals of culturally appropriate behaviors. Those signals are flashed to everyone, but are only read by those who are alert to them.
Similar fables exist in every society, and you face similar symbolism whenever you interact with people from other cultures because they understand the meaning, and you don't. You must learn the meaning of these metaphors, too. The journey begins when you recognize how deeply pervasive cultural values are.
Learned and absorbed during the earliest stages of childhood, reinforced by literature, history, and religion, embodied by heroes, and expressed in instinctive values and views, culture is a powerful force that shapes thoughts and perceptions. At the core is a nation's geography, its climate, its mythologyelements that have fashioned its history and religious choices. Rising up out of these fundamentals is a complex web of values and beliefs, multilayered and intersecting, possibly woven with issues of race and class, shaped by personality. Finally, on the surface, the product of these influences: the way people actually behave. It affects the way you perceive and judge events, how you respond and interpret them, and how you communicate to one another -- in both spoken and unspoken language. Culture, with all of its implications, differs in each society and it takes a significant amount of cross cultural interaction and training to be able to understand these differences. These differences might be profound or subtle; they might be obvious or invisible. Ever-present yet constantly changing, culture permeates the world and molds the way you construct reality.
Businesses can't be separated from people and their cultural milieu. Understanding culture--being sensitive to nuances and differences in people from country to country--is fundamental for success in the international marketplace. As important as any other aspects of the business experience, understanding culture affects to develop credibility, nurture goodwill, inspire a workforce, or develop marketable products. It impacts the way you develop and maintain relationships; plays a significant role in determining the characteristics to look for in selecting people, how to develop global talent, how to conduct meetings, how to manage employees and work with teams. Understanding culture fundamentally affects how you run your business, and that directly translates to bottom-line results.
