{"id":180,"date":"2021-04-28T16:55:31","date_gmt":"2021-04-28T21:55:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/weswong.com\/WongoTech\/?p=180"},"modified":"2021-04-28T17:05:30","modified_gmt":"2021-04-28T22:05:30","slug":"social-distancing-in-the-cultural-context","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/weswong.com\/WongoTech\/social-distancing-in-the-cultural-context\/","title":{"rendered":"Social Distancing in the Cultural Context"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Thanks for your comments to my previous message re: \u201csocial distancing.\u201d Accordingly, I have updated my blog <a href=\"http:\/\/weswong.com\/WongoTech\/phygital-distancing-not-social-distancing\/\">post<\/a>, \u201c<strong><em>Phygital<\/em> Distancing, not Social Distancing<\/strong>.\u201d In that <a href=\"http:\/\/weswong.com\/WongoTech\/phygital-distancing-not-social-distancing\/\">post<\/a>, I asserted that \u201csocial distance\u201d is the degree of acceptance or rejection of social interaction between people belonging to different social groups such as ethnicity, language and culture. I also promised to address social distance in the context of <strong><em>cultural<\/em><\/strong> diversity and fluency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Culture researchers (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.ca\/Hidden-Dimension-Edward-T-Hall\/dp\/0385084765\/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&amp;keywords=edward+t+hall&amp;qid=1618267386&amp;sr=8-1\">Hall<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.ca\/Cultures-Organizations-Software-Mind-Third\/dp\/0071664181\/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&amp;keywords=hofstede&amp;qid=1618267466&amp;sr=8-2\">Hofstede<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.ca\/Cultural-Intelligence-Youth-Family-Culture-ebook\/dp\/B0090OHAEQ\/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&amp;keywords=livermore+culture&amp;qid=1618267499&amp;sr=8-1\">Livermore<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.ca\/Culture-Map-Breaking-Invisible-Boundaries\/dp\/1610392507\/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&amp;keywords=livermore+culture&amp;qid=1618267499&amp;sr=8-4\">Meyer<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.ca\/Leading-Across-Cultures-Effective-Ministry-ebook\/dp\/B00AQAHV24\/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&amp;keywords=plueddemann&amp;qid=1618267555&amp;sr=8-1\">Plueddemann<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.ca\/Riding-Waves-Culture-Fourth-Understanding\/dp\/126046864X\/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&amp;keywords=trompenaars&amp;qid=1618267630&amp;sr=8-5\">Trompenaars<\/a>, et al.) have identified various facets which characterize cultural diversity. Typically, each of these lies on a continuum. For example:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Communicating: <strong>high<\/strong> context vs. <em>low<\/em> context<\/li><li>Evaluating: <strong>direct<\/strong> or <em>indirect<\/em><\/li><li>Leading: <strong>hierarchical<\/strong> vs. <em>egalitarian<\/em><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Refer to Erin Meyer\u2019s articles, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/hbr.org\/2014\/05\/navigating-the-cultural-minefield\">Navigating the Cultural Minefield<\/a>\u201d and \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/hbr.org\/2017\/07\/being-the-boss-in-brussels-boston-and-beijing\">Being the Boss in Brussels, Boston, and Beijing<\/a>,\u201d in the <a href=\"https:\/\/hbr.org\/topic\/cross-cultural-management\"><em>Harvard Business Review<\/em><\/a>. In <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.ca\/Culture-Map-Breaking-Invisible-Boundaries\/dp\/1610392507\/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&amp;keywords=livermore+culture&amp;qid=1618267499&amp;sr=8-4\"><em>the Culture Map<\/em><\/a>, Meyer summarizes eight facets by country. For example:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"624\" height=\"371\" src=\"http:\/\/weswong.com\/WongoTech\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Culture-Map.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-181\" srcset=\"http:\/\/weswong.com\/WongoTech\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Culture-Map.jpg 624w, http:\/\/weswong.com\/WongoTech\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Culture-Map-300x178.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 624px) 100vw, 624px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In particular, in their <strong><em>communication<\/em><\/strong>, Canada, the US and the UK are on the <em>low<\/em> context end of the continuum whereas the PRC is on the other end. This is exemplified by the need for <em>explicitness<\/em> in the West by asking for clarification and verification, but <em>implicitness<\/em> in the East where it is necessary to read between the lines. Regarding <strong><em>giving<\/em><\/strong> <strong><em>feedback<\/em><\/strong>, the typical approach by people from the West is <strong>assertion<\/strong> whereas it has been construed as <em>passive aggressive<\/em> behaviour of those from the East.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The <strong><em>leading<\/em><\/strong> scale indicates the degree of respect and deference given to people in authority. This is akin to the concept of <strong>power distance<\/strong> advanced by Geert Hofstede. It is derived from research by social psychologist Mauk Mulder re: the emotional distance that separates subordinates from their superiors. Hofstede defines <strong><em>power distance<\/em><\/strong> as \u201cthe extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organizations expect and accept that power is distributed unequally,\u201d and clarifies that institutions are the basic elements of society (family, school, community) and organizations are where people work. David Livermore distills <strong><em>power distance<\/em><\/strong> as the amount of distance that is expected between leaders and followers. <strong>High<\/strong> power distance is characterized by authoritative, hierarchical, and top-down. Attributes of <em>low<\/em> power distance include democratic, egalitarian, and peer. In <em>low<\/em> power distance cultures, power is delegated; those at the lower-ranking levels of society (children, students, employees) have a say. At the other pole where both the leaders and followers accept that the leader has <strong>higher<\/strong> authority, the followers defer to the leaders with respect and without question. In particular, Canada, the US and the UK lean toward being egalitarian and the PRC being more hierarchical. Watch this short video, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/hbr.org\/video\/embed\/5476393165001\">How Cultures Across the World Approach Leadership<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In their book, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.ca\/Flex-Playbook-Managing-Across-Differences-ebook\/dp\/B00BATKYXI\/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&amp;keywords=jane+hyun&amp;qid=1618864948&amp;sr=8-2\"><em>Flex: The New Playbook for Managing Across Differences<\/em><\/a>, Jane Huyn and Audrey Lee define <strong><em>culture<\/em><\/strong> as the \u201cunique combination of attitudes, knowledge, behaviours, and strategies of a social group that are reinforced by the community.\u201d Also, they define <strong><em>power gap<\/em><\/strong> as the \u201csocial distance that separates individuals from those in positions of authority, whether in a formal or more informal structure, defined by gender, age, or cultural differences.\u201d Therefore, within a social context, social distance could be misconstrued as <strong>power<\/strong> distance. Thus, social distancing could suggest widening the gap between people in our society with differences, be it age, gender, ethnicity, social status. For example, leaders are elevated to the pinnacle of their pedestals, and followers are relegated to the footstools. Alas, this notion of social separation is worse than the simplistic notion of extending the chronological distance (time, duration, frequency) between social interactions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>FWIW<\/em>, the bottomline, IMHO, is that we need to stop promoting \u201csocial distancing\u201d as it encourages the wrong behavioural response which could be harmful <em>psychologically<\/em> and <em>physically<\/em>. We need to mitigate the risk of social disconnect and social dissonance. We need to intentionally bridge the physical divide by purposefully strengthening our social network. Using <strong>hi-tech<\/strong> to supplement <strong>hi-touch<\/strong> can help us gain, retain and sustain social engagements with one another (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=hebrews+10%3A24-25&amp;version=NIV\">Hebrews 10:24\u201425<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thanks for your comments to my previous message re: \u201csocial distancing.\u201d Accordingly, I have updated my blog post, \u201cPhygital Distancing, not Social Distancing.\u201d In that post, I asserted that \u201csocial distance\u201d is the degree of acceptance or rejection of social interaction between people belonging to different social groups such as ethnicity, language and culture. I&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/weswong.com\/WongoTech\/social-distancing-in-the-cultural-context\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Social Distancing in the Cultural Context<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-post","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/weswong.com\/WongoTech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/weswong.com\/WongoTech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/weswong.com\/WongoTech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weswong.com\/WongoTech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weswong.com\/WongoTech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/weswong.com\/WongoTech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":185,"href":"http:\/\/weswong.com\/WongoTech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180\/revisions\/185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/weswong.com\/WongoTech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weswong.com\/WongoTech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weswong.com\/WongoTech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}