Intercultural Training: Universalism, Particularism and the Road to Kumasi
Even with all my experience traveling and leading intercultural training, I still come across some situations that surprise me a bit. On my first trip to Ghana I hired a driver to take me from Accra to Kumasi. I met the driver in the morning and before we got underway he said we needed to go to the market. I wasn’t in much of a hurry so I agreed. When we arrived he asked for 10,000 Cedis (about a $1.50 US at the time) to pick up supplies. He quickly purchased a bunch of bananas, some paper products and a few small items and off we went. I wondered why but didn’t really think much about it.
The mystery was solved when we arrived at our first police check point. When we arrived, the driver stopped the car, got the large bunch of bananas out of the back and disappeared in the police officer’s hut. He came out a few minutes later with a grin and off we went. It was the same procedure when we arrived at the next check point and the next. The driver got a “gift” out of the back of the car, presented to the police officer in private and off we went.
Universalism v. Particularism
Fons Trompenaars, wrote about this in his universalism/particularism dilemma. Fons is an internationally recognized intercultural communications expert, leader of Trompenaars Hampden-Turner and developer of the seven cultural dilemmas model. In universalism, the rules of a group outweigh the interests of individuals in the group. That includes rules against police officers accepting “gifts” in exchange for permission to pass a check point. In particularism, the individual circumstances can be more important than the rules of the group. So for a poorly paid police officer to request assistance from a relatively rich foreigner to supplement his income is a logical and acceptable thing to do.
Role in International Business
The universalism v. particularism dilemma plays a powerful role in international business. The concept of corruption can sometimes be seen as a universalist judgment of particularistic behavior. On the other hand, Universalist rule followers can be labeled as inhumane, inflexible bureaucrats who value following rules more than the consequences people endure. This can be seen in the Universalist West in the primacy of the contract over long-term personal relationships. The handshake contract can still be valuable in other more Particularist parts of the world where an extensive and deep personal relationship provides security for the deal rather than a set of laws and a court system.
The culturally competent Ghanaian driver knew two things quite clearly: Americans tended to tolerate but dislike what we saw as “bribes” to the police. Some of the Ghanaian police at the check points felt within their right to request what for the average American tourist was a trivial amount of money to facilitate our onward journey, similar to paying a toll. The driver built relationships with the police along the way of his often traveled road. He found out what the police officers needed in their remote outposts and delivered it to them in exchange for not having to pass on to his passengers the request for money from the police. He integrated the needs of the police with the rules by not putting them in a position to break them. It felt better for me to buy a bunch of bananas in advance of the trip than to be forced to hand over cash at a check point. Besides, he gave me a great example of reconciliation in action.
The focus on reconciliation is why Target Training integrates Trompenaars Hampden-Turner’s experience and research into our solutions. Through reconciliation, clients will find better solutions to the intercultural problems they face. Target Training is a licensed supplier of Trompenaars-Hampden-Turner’s Intercultural Awareness Profile and Cultural Competence Online Products. Target Training provides intercultural training based on the Trompenaars’ Seven Dimension Model alone and as part of business communication skills training.
