Did the Pedestrian Die?
You are a passenger in a car driven by a close friend. He hits a pedestrian. You know that he was speeding. There are no other witnesses. His lawyer (who has clearly forgotten his ethics) says that if you are prepared to testify under oath that your friend was not speeding, it may save him from serious consequences. What would YOU do?
What right has your friend to expect you to protect him? Does he have :
a) A DEFINITE right to expect you to testify that he was not speeding?
b) SOME right to expect you to testify that he was not speeding? or
c) NO right to expect you to testify that he was not speeding?
If you ask this question of a general group in say, Norway on the one hand and Korea on the other, you are likely to get diametrically opposed answers. And each group will likely be equally as appalled as the other, that anybody could think differently.
In fact, the breakdown of how people have responded to this question through a whole range of countries is presented below in Figure 1.
The fact is that cultural differences across international boundaries are far more than simply about social niceties and different approaches to doing business. To find the source of the differences, and the misunderstandings and conflicts that they can cause, one has to dig deep down, to examine the values that drive each side.
During 2005, I was privileged to facilitate a workshop for leaders of 30 of some of Europe's top law firms in Reykjavik, Iceland, on exactly this topic. It was a fascinating experience. Even within Europe, and between people that often interact with each other, it transpired there were differences in perception about a wide range of topics, that were severe enough to cause misunderstanding if not properly managed.
The unfortunate pedestrian is a case study that the great guru of international culture management, Fons Trompenaars, has put to audiences across the world. He has also written several books on the subject, including Did the Pedestrian Die?, which gives an excellent overview of this specific issue. His book Building Cross-Cultural Competence, co-authored with his partner Charles Hampden-Turner, is an equally good read.