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East vs. West: Culture and Distributed Development
CowboyRobot writes "ACM's Queue has an article entitled, Culture Surprises in Remote Software Development Teams
that reviews differences in cultures and explores the impact they have on distributed software development teams. From the article: "In Western societies, decisions are made on the basis of input from those involved. In cultures with greater hierarchies, group members assume an authority will decide and they are only to enact the decision." Some stereotypes and some common sense, but I recognized myself in the descriptions of the 'typical American'."
It's amusing to see everyone assume 'American' when mentioning the West. Has Europe moved into another ideological sphere that separates them from the rest of the world, and if so what is it?
-- You see, there would be these conclusions that you could jump to
The difference between east and west culture and the ramifications for the world have been in the news for a long time. For instance, the traditional religions in Asia have absolutely no problems with cloning or experimentation on embryos (which is basically verboten in western countries), so the majority of work in that field is in China or other countries which accept the future for what it is. The global marketplace is shrinking, and as we become more and more interconnected cultural differences will no doubt become more and more of an issue.
In cultures with greater hierarchies, group members assume an authority will decide and they are only to enact the decision." Some stereotypes and some common sense, but I recognized myself in the descriptions of the 'typical American'."
Agreed. This is consistent the projection that not-so mind/cognative-intensive software work will continue to go overseas while the R&D/high-cognative software related work stays here.
I personally don't feel much pity for the M$ visual basic ppl (ie, mega-corp software cogs) who whine about their job going overseas (let alone the gov't interfereing legistation to support that ideal).
G-Force music visualization
Maybe you should be offended that it implies that "Western" cultures are full of people who are argumentitive, subversive and prone to waste time questioning decisions.
I'd imagine you'd take offense at this, even though it fits your post to a tee.
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Open Source Sysadmin
is when the pompous-ass American programmer 100K-er turns up to direct 20 outsourced indian programmer 7K-ers and discovers that they don't tell him what is going on.
I wonder why?
The correlation between culture (as defined in the article) and nationality is very, ver often exagerated. At least that is my experience, after having worked/studied in plenty of multinational environments and with people of multiple nationalities.
/.ers, for example, have a cultural outlook more similar to one another than to the average of his/her national peer. Same applies to many other online communities.
Stereotypes do apply, but anti-stereotypes are plenty, as well. You will find the organized Greek, the warm German, the shy Italian, the Brazilian who does not like soccer and the American who knows world geography.
I have experienced much more consistent cultural environments going from ony company (corporate culture) to another, than crossing national borders. I have seen corporate environments absorb various nationalities, even operating in different countries, and retaining its own (original) corporate culture. And I have seen, as well, plenty of cultural clashes and disagreement over world view within more than one country.
The internet makes the dissociation between nationality/geography and culture even starker.
Quem a paca cara compra, paca cara pagará.
And similarly, there is a great difference between Northern and Southern, West Coast and East Coast cultures: In the South, "Yankees" are viewed as pushy, rude, and cold, while Northerners view Southerners as ignorant, slow, and too informal. This comes down to Southern preference of wanting to take time to get to know the person they are working with- his viewpoints, his family, his work habits, while Northerners want to get the job done quickly and in the most efficient manner with the least amount of wasted energy. I come from the South, and my drawl has elicited a ton of stereotypes about Southerners- the most prevalent is that I am not knowledgable. My 2 cents
Republican leadership = Idiocracy
I think this comes from decision making.
In my experience there are two ways.
Western (Canada/US), get an idea, get some information, quicikly make a decision. Hopefully if it is wrong, someone points out the mistake before it gets too big.
Eastern (Japan), get a lot of information, make a good well documented decision. Pointing out mistakes means you think that their work in making the decision is wrong, likely you haven't done the same investigation.
When everyone makes off the cuff decisions, there is value to second guessing.
When someone takes a lot of time and energy to make the right decision, it is insulting to be constantly second guessed.
You don't need to compare East vs West to see this cultural divide. We have this all over the US too. Many have already mentioned the differences between West Coast and East Coast but also look at North vs South.
The rank / trust system was very common throughout this entire country before the 60's. It's still prevalent in the deep South today.
I wonder if this behavior is in any way related to family upbringing? Those in more rigid and structure households (where everyone has a role and is depended on to fill that role) are more likely to trust their superiors in a professional environment. This theory could be supported by recruiting statistics, by region, of the US Armed Forces.
On the flip side - those with a loose family structure, where each member is more independent, are more likely to distrust.
I like the Eastern way. I have served in the army, and I am first lieutenant by my military rank besides being engineer. I enjoyed army and I consider being a reserve officer as the best possible training for a boss.
The army way is based on obedience and discipline, as in Eastern cultures. The boss commands and the privates obey. That is the only real way to work and get things done when going gets tough. The importance of discipline and obedience as the basis of leadership can never be stressed and emphasized enough. That is why Eastern cultures are so efficient: they don't waste energy on squabbles and whining.
I would never hire anyone who has not been in the army and does not have at least the rank of staff sergeant to any managerial position. The function of a leader is to give orders and to command and supervise the things do get done. Those with no military background usually make poor leaders.
When I first started reading the article, I figured they were talking about New York versus California.
Once again, leaving out my native Chicago and the rest of the midwest. *sigh* We don't get no respect. There's more than cornfields between the Hudson and Vegas, folks!
--GrouchoMarx
Card-carrying member of the EFF, FSF, and ACLU. Are you?
Self-selected groups, like corporations and blogs, have more selfconsistent cultures than groups selected by criteria other than culture, like countries.
--
make install -not war
Umm...actually a lot of Americans are Mexican, so there is a good chance that he is.
For all the smack that gets talked about Americans, we're actually surprisingly diverse and worldly. Name me a country in the world that has a population as diverse as ours. Show me another place that has such a wide variety of culture. Honestly, if it can be pointed out that somewhere else in the world there is a place where more cultures co-exist than the United States, I will jump on that bandwagon right away. But, I don't think that place exists.
Most places in the United States have people from all around the world. The area I live in has huge hispanic, Russian, asian, black, Indian, and white populations (probably the only group missing is Eskimo, but we do have a lot of American Indian). You see signs in a zillion different languages- and believe it or not, there are few problems.
I lived in Europe for 4 years, been to Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America. Each one of those places is fairly singular in their culture. Each culture has some really amazing things to offer- but surprisingly, it seems like they want to give, but not take. I saw little of Asian culture in Latin America. Europe does not have a lot of Middle Eastern influence- other than the Turkish slums.
While travelling around the world, it seems that I see a lot of europeans who are trying to suck in some culture. Yes, it is great that you went to India. Yes, you saw some good things. Yes, it is sad that a lot of Americans prefer to vacation at Disney World. But...when I want to absorb Indian culture, I can go talk to my neighbors. When I feel the hankering for a little bit of Korea, I just go a few more houses over. And during Black History Month, I don't have far to travel. You get to feel smug about dipping your toe into these cultures during an 'adventure' while I get to see the daily lives of people from all around the world.
And somehow Americans are seen as the ones who are not 'worldly'. We are the ones who are seen as 'insulated'.
While the rest of the world holds onto their culture, we have been absorbing all of them. We have exported some crap (McDonalds, Baywatch, Jerry Lewis) but our culture is really an amalgamation of what the rest of the world has brought here.
Any Slashdotter who lives outside of the US, and would like to come for a visit- I would like to offer up my home as a place for you to stay while visiting. I can show you around, and hopefully you can see that there is more to this place than Dairy Queen and Wal*Mart. Really- this is an open offer. (I live in California if you are interested) (And for a 'freak check' I'm 35, and married. Don't live in my parents house, and don't have foil on my windows. I bathe regularly.)
No reason to lie.
It's simply stating the cultural differences that do exist. There are advantages and disadvantages to the approaches innate in each culture. It would seem that the American culture is better suited to innovation and creativity, but that other cultures are better suited to precision and perfection. Both are important in the development of technology.
This didn't say they cannot think for themselves, rather that they defer to authority, and in many situations, that's a good thing. Conversely it seems to suggest that Americans don't have much appreciation for structure, heirarchy and procedure, and that might explain why some software is as flaky as it is even if it is innovative.
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The issue is more complex than this. You break down a broader philisophical notion of: When does life begin and how valuable is it? into an only religious context. For some discussions, this is fine since religion is one of the few feilds that societies seem comfortable in discussing morality. However, this issue goes further than this.
The West has a cultural memory of WWII. Part of this legacy is the idea of Eugenics, championed by Those Guys Who Lost. They did some of the original work on cloning, and selectivity in people. In fact, the believed that some sub-groups of humanity were intrinsically better than others. When we research cloning and embryo modification, these issues become important because it will ulimately allow people to make decisions on which traits propogate. Thinking about this before the genie is out of the bottle shows amazing restraint and forsight. Honestly, it is hard to beleive that anyone could be against contemplation and rational discussion before fundamental changing the human condition.
In the east, less prohibitions against eugenics exist. Again, this arises from many aspects of the cultures, and not mere religion. At a small level, this is evidenced by gender selection. Several asian countries have practiced eugenics, in that a gender was selected for, to such an extent that the male/female ratio is not 50/50. This is known to such an extent that even Newsweek had a recent article on this topic. Furthermore, taboos about favoring race tend to be less prevelent than western culture. This lack of social stigma to racial favortism and genetic selection allows this type of research to progress. This has little to do with seeing the future for what it is, or any greater mission of free flowing ideas.
Ultimately, will the world be a better place as stem cell research increases? Honestly, I don't know, but then again, neither does anyone else. Blaming any restraint on persuing this science is larger than the trite case of "religion bad, science good." Larger issues are at stake, and need to be taken in total context of where the human entity is as a people, and were we want to be.
my two cents,
-Iowa
"He who laughs last, didn't get the joke."-Cap
I find it interesting what was once meant by the "East".
The Orient Express train went to Buda-Pest. This was consider an exotic foreign land where people did things differently (at leat in English speaking countries).
The East used to mean Eastern Europe and Constantinople (Istanbul).
Then it meant China and Japan and the other "Easts" became "Eastern Europe", "the Near East" and "The Far East".
Now it is politically correct to say "East Asia" (China/Japan/Siberia on the Pacific Coast?)
"South Asia" (India)
SouthWest Asia (Iraq/Persian Gulf)
"Central Asia" (Mongolia? Some of the former Soviet Republics?)
I haven't seen "West Asia" that much. I guess that would be Israel/Sinai/Lebanon. Turkey is still called Asia Minor and Anatolia as far as I can tell. The rest of "West Asia" would be Russia east of the Ural mountains (West of the Urals would be Europe).
I agree that East/West by itself is no longer meaningful.
No, you figure out what nationality I'm thinking of.
Are you talking about Southeast Asia or Europe?
1 Asia has the largest buildings in the world.
2 Polls show asian women are the most beautiful
3 Europe has the best train systems follwed by Asia
4 Japan makes the best mass consumption cars, followed by Europeon Elites like Porsche and Ferrari for high end
5 I bet Europe and Asia have more "World Championship" that dont involve the world than any other country.
As you can see I think the area your talking about is either Europe or Asia.
Glad someone recognizes on here that American diversity is what makes us so strong.
While I agree that there are advantages to a diverse culture, strength is not one of them. There is strength in unity, not diversity.
Proverbs 21:19
You say that like a diverse culture doesn't mean a unified one. I wouldn't consider them mutually exclusive. People come here from countries where they were a lot worse off and work their asses off to become successful here. That has got to influence how people around them react. I know when I am with a group of hard working people I will work harder, same goes when I'm around a bunch of slackers. Diversity almost limits our surprise, we know for the most part not to underestimate someone because of where they are from, well, we as in people like me. I know people of a great many ethnic backgrounds and I believe I have been educated by them about other cultures, I see that as a strength as well. Hard to be ignorant of a culture that surrounds me.