Culture in Business

Recently I read something to the effect that the best way to understand a Chinese person is to be Chinese. The underlying idea was that a shared cultural background was critical in carrying out even the simplest of conversations.

As a consultant over the years, I have leveraged my interpersonal strengths to be adaptive and effective in many different types of organizational settings. Nevertheless, I still am surprised to find that some cultures exist in organizations are difficult for me to understand in the short term, and even mor difficult to like in the long term. My motivation in creating this post is my belief that this reality exists for many other people too, although it may not be as obvious if they aren't out consulting.

As a case in point, recently I was doing development work in a group that consists entirely of people working with the collection and reporting of business data. As such, the IT policies adopted by the IT manager do not include letting anyone install software on their computer, because most of the people in that group don't need that kind of access. Nevertheless, in my role it makes my job very difficult. What makes it even more of a challenge is that the online service for requesting software installation does not work. Every time I have mentioned this over the last 6 months, I get the response that "It works for other people". Nevertheless, I have tried it on many different comptuers and used many different browsers and you simply cannot submit it without getting a bunch of ASP.NET error messages.

Among the many examples of issues that I have run into are that I can't view critical information on the web because of missing or outdated plugins, with my browser sometimes crashing because of outdated installed software, and I can't install many different types of open source software for purposes such as testing or graphics manipulation. Eventually I started using my personal laptop at work to do a lot of development work because I just couldn't get anything done effectively.

In a recent exhange with an IT manager, I was able to understand a lot about their perspective, nevertheless, their perspective as an IT provider for clerical staff made it culturally improbable that they could understand and appreciate that other types of customers might exist for their services. I found that their concerns and perceptions related to IT were so foreign to me (in spite of the fact that I have held the same role as that IT manager), that I felt at a loss as to how to get us on the same page.

In other settings I have seen similar things. Philosophies about people and about business vary from manager to manager, and there is a tremendous amount of conflict that can arise from two people interacting (manager to manager or manager to employee) that share different backgrounds. In many cases, people can share the same goals and even knowledge but be approaching it from backgrounds that are so different that it makes it bewildering for both sides to carry on a conversation.

One thing that this brings to my attention is the importance of hiring in a cohesive manner as it relates to culture. This is a tricky thing. I am not suggesting that diversity is a bad thing, but it is a subjective decision for each manager and employee whether or not they feel that they can deal with a specific case of diversity. First hand experience in an educational environment has shown me that 3 or 4 people with different approaches to problems can lead to bad feelings and hundreds of thousands of dollars of wasted salaries as nothing gets produced for years at a time. I do not think it is wise to speak in absolutes, but as a general rule it is critical for organizations to hire and shape their culture carefully. As an example, if FedEx wants to provide fanatical dedication to ontime delivery, then hiring managers and employees who couldn't give a care about that because of other priorities is a combination of oil and water. Nevertheless, there are all too many IT managers out there that are the source of cultural disturbances that goes against the prevailing "common sense" that most others share.

Dell services have issues

Ironically, one of my first posts ever on a blog was "Disappointed in Dell". I have long forgotten why I was disappointed at this point, but I remember the title (and I would gladly still buy from Dell). That being said, I am again disappointed in Dell. Recently I have been researching self-service technologies, so I was very interested in watching my mother try to use Dell's website and then watching that situation blow up into a disaster.

The problem started with a coupon. My mom (a big spender by home use standards for Dell products) had a $50.00 coupon (a result of a recent large purchase from them) that was going to expire in the near future. The website would not let her apply the coupon and didn't give a reason why.

Then she spent about 30 minutes on the phone during which they took her order, transfered her around a few times, said they couldn't help her, then sent us to the operator and said to use some transfer code like 'TSA' or something, and then we never got off of hold. What a nightmare.

One problem with services like this, both on the phone and on the web, is that there isn't a good feedback loop that management can use to govern the process. If it were an assembly line, you'd see all the toys on the ground and know that all heck had broken loose. In this case, in me helping my mom you have a guy specializing in IT services for his PhD who can't even make an order on his mom's behalf. I suppose I should be angry, but instead I am just in awe.