Culture Differences in the Workforce

In regards to "Understanding Power in Organizations" and my interest in international business, I have presented a few arguments and agreements with the article to the workforce in both Western Europe and the U.S. After studying abroad in Europe, it is obvious that the cultures of many of the countries are all different from each other and from the culture of America. One key thing I pointed out, especially in Austria and Germany, was their dedication to their family more than their work. One professor there even talked to us about how our worklife establishes our success while a job there is just a paycheck to take care of the family. According to http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/11/28/051128ta_talk_surowiecki, the French work 28% less and Germans work 25% less than Americans. Does the worklife make the culture or does the culture make the worklife? It goes both ways. Since Americans work more, we drive wealth and productivity which forms our culture. However, our culture also makes believe that work is what drives success. The same goes for Western Europe. "Americans trade their productivity for more money, while Europeans trade it for more leisure."

To link this with the article and in class, there are points presented that I agree with in our culture, but may seem ridiculous for another culture. Since we put so much emphasis on our worklife, organizations do feel like a government to us and that we must have a certain power to help us succeed in the workforce. A job here sounds like a full-time life where you constantly have it on your mind and work towards pleasing those in your "government" and gaining power. Many European countries, on the other hand, leave work (when they don't have vacation time) and put it behind them to make time for their family. Another point that I picked out in the article was the problems that we have in our schools versus our worklife. In school, we are mainly taught to be interdependent. We don't do a lot of group work and when we do, we don't really know how to go about it. This is why in companies groupthink occurs. We are more individualistic than our Europe counterparts. Although they are more individualistic than Asian cultures, they do tend to be more collectivists.

Are these differences in culture a good thing or a bad? Is it bad to place so much emphasis on worklife that we are finding ways to be "powerful" and seek out networks? It all lies in personal opinions and how we want to live our lives. Society and culture places certain pressures on people to "fit in" but I think that it is beneficial for companies to offer a wide variety of different cultures both in America and in Europe. Not all people have the same desires or ambitions even though they are placed in a country that believes certain things. Offering different cultures in organizations could also be a good way for different countries to gain more international workers who would feel more comfortable in that work setting.