A new article in a special section on Culture and Psychology in Perspectives on Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, explains that people in different cultures think about work in different ways.

 

For example, people have different expectations about teamwork, says Cristina B. Gibson, of the University of Western Australia.

Gibson has interviewed people to understand how they conceptualize teams. “In the US, people used a lot of sports metaphors. Elsewhere, that just wasn't a common metaphor.” In Latin America, for example, many people talked about the work team as a family.

“If you just use those two contrasts and think about what you might expect from your family versus what you might expect from your sports team, you start to see the differences.” Families are involved in all parts of your life, and are expected to celebrate with you socially. “Your involvement in your sports team is more limited. Less caretaking, more competitive.”

Another example is in the realm of leadership. Many people assume that charismatic leadership is a good thing - using a strong personality to inspire loyalty in others. But that's not going to work for everyone, Gibson says. “The very same behaviors that are deemed desirable from a leader in one culture might be viewed as interference or micromanagement in other settings.”

And as this research continues, she says, people should consider that cultures can vary a lot within countries, too, especially as large numbers of people continue to migrate between countries. “We can’t make these assumptions that everybody in the US is like this and everybody in China is like that.”

美国“趣味科学”网站8月11日报道：不同文化如何理解工作。

日前，一篇刊登在美国心理科学联合会的学术期刊《心理科学视角》文化与心理版块的文章称，在不同文化生活的人对工作的理解也不一样。

例如，人们对“团队合作”就有不同的期望，西澳大学教授克里斯蒂娜-B-吉布森说道。

吉布森调查了人们对于“团队合作”这一概念的认识。“在美国，人们使用很多体育方面的比喻。而在其他地方就不是一个普通的比喻了。”例如在拉丁美洲，很多人把“团队合作”看做是一个“家”。

“如果你对比这两种认识，想想你能从家庭看到什么以及能从体育团队看到什么，就会看出差别来。”“家”涉及你生活的方方面面，并且就社会层面上与你共享成功的喜悦。“而你在体育团队中的参与度是有限的。关爱更少，竞争更多。”

另外一个例子便是人们对“领导”的理解。许多人认为有魅力的领导作风是件好事——用人格魅力激发员工的忠诚。但吉布森称这并不对每个人都管用。“同样的行为，在一种文化中被看做是领导者的必备素质，在另一种文化中却成了干涉或是微观管理。”

吉布森还称，随着研究的进行，尤其是随着庞大数目的移民持续在国家间流动，人们需要意识到一国内部文化的多元性。“我们不能假设在美国的所有人都是这样的，或者假设中国的所有人全都是那样的。”