Page 129 - Harnessing the Strengths

112 ■ Servant-Leadership in the Intercultural Practice

The Benchmark

There are many different ways to look at organizations,
but which way best expresses the organization’s true
essence? In an effort to determine how people from differ-
ent cultures think about this issue, people were asked to
choose from the following two propositions:

A: An organization is a system designed to
perform functions and tasks in an effi cient way.
People are hired to fulfi ll these functions with the
help of machines and other equipment. They are
paid for the tasks they perform.
B: An organization is a group of people work-
ing together. The people have a social relationship
with other people and with the organization. The
functioning of the company depends on these
relationships.

It is obvious that answer A refl ects a specifi c orientation,
while answer B represents the diffuse perspective. Again,
as is indicated in Figure 9.1, there is an enormous differ-
ence between different cultures in the way they answer the
question.

Problems and Solutions

Some cultures have the tendency to analyze, reduce, and
pick apart experiences into distinct parts, while others are
more focused on creating a synthesis. The possible tensions
between these two poles are endless and can contribute to
the following confl icts: