There are many aspects to culture shock that can directly affect your experience in a new culture. Let’s take a look at some and explore possible ways to alleviate them.
Cultural Stress:
For most people, going to another culture, especially with the mindset of working and living there, is stressful. Imagine all the emotions you go through when going on a trip to a different culture: the excitement, anticipation, and concerns. Now imagine going to the same place, but for an extended period of time on business. What other emotions would you feel? Along with the initial excitement, there are so many other factors that you have to consider now. Accommodation, commuting, food, climate, customs, and language are just a few of the concerns you would have. Thinking and worrying about all of this, of course, leads to stress. Stress is a part of everyone’s life no matter where they live, but it become much more acute and potentially damaging when we are removed from our normal zones of support and comfort. How we deal with this stress is different with all of us. People who want to adapt to a new culture need to make sure that they deal with their stress in healthy, productive ways and avoid unhealthy methods of coping. Eating right, exercising, doing activities you enjoy, and reaching out for help are all excellent ways to make sure your stress doesn’t overwhelm you.
Group Discussion:
- How do you deal with stress?
- What are some healthy ways to deal with stress? What are some unhealthy ways?
- If you were living in another country away from your family and friends, how would you reach out to for help?
Social Class
Social class is one of the most powerful aspects of any culture. In some cultures, the distinctions between social classes are obvious. There are clear behaviors, mannerisms, ways of speaking, and nonverbal communication patterns that are dictated by cultural expectations of social class. In other cultures, the distinctions between social classes are less obvious and might be very subtle. Social class can be based on power, income, wealth, prestige, education, experience, or heritage depending on the culture. People that come from high-context cultures usually have clear distinctions of their social classes and find it confusing when trying to interact in low-context cultures where these distinctions are less apparent. Remember, not all countries, societies, or cultures that are low-context cultures or high-context cultures will be the same. Learning about the unique role that social class plays in the culture you are trying to acculturate to can help you to understand and navigate it
Finances
Every economy and culture has differences when it comes to finances. Different banking procedures, housing expectations, payment methods, and expenses. This is a cause of stress for many employees in new cultures. Even something as simple as buying groceries may be really challenging in a different culture. It is important to note that when accepting overseas assignments, one should always take into consideration the purchasing power of the offer in the new culture.
For example; In the mid-2000s, many employees from countries like India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and the Philipines were offered working contracts ranging around 3500 to 4000 Dirhams, which is the currency of the United Arab Emirates. From the employee’s point of view, 4000 Dirhams was a lot of money, so they accepted the jobs without fully understanding the consequences. Once they arrived in the U.A.E., they quickly discovered that 4000 Dirhams was not enough to even cover their rent. All of them were forced to stay in rooms with up to 15 other people to be able to also afford basic living expenses. Some of them were stuck there, slowly saving up to buy an airplane ticket home, since they had living expenses to pay for first.
As discussed in Lesson 2, preparation is the key to making sure your finances work when you are living abroad.
Alleviating cultural shock
Choosing the right Candidates
As we said in Lesson 2-2, a common and costly mistake that many organizations make is choosing candidates for foreign assignments based purely on their technical abilities. Having the best skills is important, but it does not guarantee success in a different culture. So what should “the right candidates” have? According to research, adaptability, tolerance for uncertainty, patience, empathy, flexibility, and a sense of humor are all important qualities that have been shown as being vital for the success of expats.
Harvey (1985) suggests checking for adaptability by asking the following questions:
- Is the person cooperative, agreeable, and sensitive to others?
- Is the candidate open to the opinions of others?
- How does the person react to new situations, and what effort does he or she make to understand and appreciate differences?
- Does the candidate understand his or her own culturally derived values?
- Is the candidate sensitive and aware of the values of other cultures?
- How does the person react to criticism?
- Will the candidate be able to make and develop contacts with counterparts in the foreign culture?
- Is the candidate patient when dealing with problem situations?
- Is the candidate resilient when faced with adverse situations?
Group Discussion: With your partner(s) discuss the questions above. Do each of you have the right personality to be successful expats?
Choosing the right candidate is only the first step. Providing training is also an essential part of alleviating or mitigating the stress and anxiety of culture shock.
Training
Pre-departure training has shown to significantly reduce culture shock and cultural stress and increase the success of expats in their foreign assignments. We will not go into the details of this kind of training as that is beyond the scope of this course; however, these are some of the aspects that would typically be covered during such training:
- Language training
- Host culture’s history
- Host culture’s norms, rules, roles
- Healthcare and other government services and how to use and apply for them
- Daily living knowledge (shopping, transportation, etc.)
The main focus of the training is to prepare the trainees for the new culture, set expectations about it, and lessen the effects of culture shock.