Cultural Differences in the Workplace

In the WSJ, Li Yuan writes:

Why are seemingly open and warm Americans so cautious about talking about personal life in work environment? And why are seemingly reserved Chinese so open about themselves to colleagues?

The first reason is that most Americans believe that their personal life is none of other people's business.

"Americans don't say things like, 'Here's my entire life,' " says Benjamin Gong, a financial-industry executive in Maryland whose parents came from China. "They don't like talking about themselves. They talk about things that are easy to talk about."

That brings up the second reason: Many topics are touchy and considered better left alone at workplaces. The U.S. is a very diverse country, with people coming from all kinds of backgrounds. In an office environment, people are careful when talking about religion, race, gender, sexual orientation and other issues.

To be honest, I'm ambivalent about this political correctness. When I first got here, I thought it was silly and hypocritical. But after a while, I had to admit it might be one of the reasons that this diverse country hasn't fallen into chaos. I still believe that an excess of political correctness has turned American social interactions bland and boring because people are often scared of speaking their minds. Yet at the same time, I can't imagine what this country would be like without it.

By contrast, China is a more-uniform society. The majority of Chinese are atheists, part of the Han Chinese ethnic group and not terribly passionate about politics. But even in China, with the emergence of interest groups in recent years there are cautions against making fun of poor migrant workers and unsophisticated-sounding dialects from less-developed provinces.

Fortunately, Americans do talk about things other than sports in the office. Like Chinese, they enjoy talking about their children -- the joy of parenthood is the same everywhere. And while Americans may not like talking about themselves in the office, like people everywhere they definitely enjoy talking about everybody else in the office.

Source:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120310063090471933.html?mod=hps_asia_inside_today