What's the Difference? Mexican business practices
I want to respond to a question from my first cross cultural training blog here but I think the answer will be way too big for a simple response. So instead I'm creating a new topic to answer that first question, and hope others will jump in with some more opinions.
First off, the question to my last post regarded different business practices that exist within North America (don't forget that North America officially includes Canada, the U.S. and Mexico - hence NAFTA).
So let's start listing a few. Here we go:
Professor emeritus Geert Hofstede elucidated many years ago a basic cultural construct that he calls Power Distance. So much has already been written about the concept that I won't define it here other than to say that High Power Distance cultures can be described as being essentially hierarchical, whereas Low Power Distance cultures can be viewed as more democratic, or horizontal in nature.
One of the biggest differences most visitors from the U.S. or Canada will immediately comment upon once gaining experience working in Mexico is the relationship between boss/employee. In most situations, especially in the south of Mexico, there is a much more established hierarchical relationship in place between the leader and those who follow. For that reason, employees frequently wait to be told what to do by their direct supervisor, because in many cases in Mexico, the dominant social interaction at work is one of discipline or at least, respect for hierarchy. In many cases in Canada and the U.S., the dominant social interaction between boss/employee would be best described as initiative.
What happens when a Canadian or American manager works with Mexican employees? Unless both sides are aware of this essential difference, the Canadian leader may think, "Where's the initiative?" and the Mexican employee may wonder, "Why doesn't this guy spell out what he wants done, where and when?"
Think of the potential conflict!
