Keywords: cultural synergy;cultural assimilation
Definition of cultural synergy
Cultural synergy is a term coined from work by Nancy Adler of McGill University which describes an attempt to bring two or more cultures together to form an organization or environment that is based on combined strengths, concepts and skills. The differences in the world's people are used in such a way that encourages mutual growth by cooperation.
In a more general sense, cultural synergy can be observed in the creation new or reproduced cultural forms that are distinct from the cultures from which those forms are derived. In either case, cultural synergy may be expected to be more prevalent as globalization takes place.[citation needed], and the concept and/or phrase can be found in discussions of globalization.
Cultural Assimilation
The concept goes back in the 1970's in the USA , at a time when the American management was thought to be the one and only business model. This is what is commonly known as the concept of Ethnocentrism , which some specialist consider to be cause of the general ignorance among American managers towards the influence of culture on management. It was only a matter of time (after the postwar economic success of other foreign countries) until American management realized that Ethnocentrism can have negative consequences and started to incorporate different approaches for their management.
Moreover, the flow of immigrants coming to work in the USA contributed to the change of conducting management, as the managers started to consider Cultural Pluralism , a completely different view from what they were used to have, known as the "melting-pot", which was based on forcing the immigrant workforce to adapt to the American culture.
Definition of Synergy
The word comes from ancient Greek: synergia means working together. Andrew Campbell and Michael Goold, two British academics, define it as “links between business units that result in additional value creation”. It is, they go on to say, “a Holy Grail for large multi-unit companies”. It is something akin to the philosopher's stone: seeming to create extra value without consuming resources.
Synergy means cooperation that occurs between diverse groups of people with different viewpoints that work together. The aim of synergy is to increase effectiveness by combining various knowledge, perceptions and viewpoints together. It is a common belief that “when solving problems, groups are often smarter than the smartest people within them”.Synergy is extremely important in business, as it gathers resources needed for successful operations and it complies with our present society where diversity is considered to be a value.
Organizational Change
Organizational Change has a very broad meaning and it can be major or minor, depending on the number or individuals from a specific organization it affects. From changing the water supplier to completely transforming the marketing strategy, every change is important and has consequences.
On one hand, cultural synergy can be understood as a major organizational change, as it merges cultures and customs within a company and presumably finalizes with a change of the better, creating a more solid company culture, bonding the employees.
On the other hand, the phenomenon has not been sufficiently studied and researched, and it is also known that it can be chaotic for the employees, as they are being put through unfamiliar circumstances. Read more...
