fall 2011 imq

Intercultural Management Quarterly

Fall 2011Vol. 12, No. 2

Integrating Culture and Management in Global Organizations

Intercultural Dynamics in IndigenousChinese Nonprofits: A Case Study ......................................3by Easten Law

Back to Basics in Diversity Training ...................................7 by Ben Alexander

Israeli-Syrian Peace Talks:A Negotiator’s Perspective ...................................................12by Josef Olmert

Bitter Fruit: Rural Chinese Women and theCulture of Suicide ......................................................................15by Jingsi Hong

The Unofficial Diplomat by Joanne Huskey ...................18Reviewed by Marc Rambeau

In This Issue...

From the Editor STAFFPublisher: Dr. Gary R. WeaverManaging Editor: Marc Rambeau

Editorial Review Board: Dan Deming, Annmarie McGillicuddy, Adam Mendelson, Darrel Onizuka, Chris Saenger, Karen Santiago, Gary Weaver, Sherry Zarabi

Intercultural Management Quarterly is published by the Intercultural Management Institute at American University. IMQ combines original research con-ducted in the field of interculutral management with the applied perspectives of industry experts, profes-sors and students.

SuBMiSSiONSProfessionals, scholars, and students are invited to submit articles of 1,000–2,000 words on issues related to the study and practice of intercultural management. Articles must be innovative and con-tribute to knowledge in the field but should avoid overly academic jargon. Footnotes or endnotes are discouraged except in the case of direct quotations or citations. Each submission is refereed by the mem-bers of the Editorial Review Board. Accepted pieces are subject to editing.

REPRODuCTiONNo part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the express written permission of the publication manager. Please contact the managing editor for reprint availability.

CONTACTIntercultural Management QuarterlyIntercultural Management Institute

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Phone: 202.885.6436Fax: 202.885.1331

[email protected]

© 2011 Intercultural Management Quarterly

Dear readers,

Hello, and welcome to the latest issue of Inter-cultural Management Quarterly! As the leaves have changed in Washington, so too has our leadership here at IMQ. I speak for all at the Intercultural Man-agement Institute when I wish Kathryn, our former editor, the best in all her future endeavors.

I’ve taken the reins at a truly exciting time for IMQ. Our 10th anniversary is already a distant memory, but we have not let such an opportunity for reflec-tion pass us by. We have been hard at work, putting into motion a number of exciting plans to launch IMQ boldly into the new decade. Watch for some major changes as the spring approaches.

One thing that will never change, though, is our commitment to informative and thought-provoking content drawn from a wide variety of perspectives. Accordingly, Easten Law begins this issue with a thorough discussion of the unique position of non-profit organizations operating in China. We then re-visit a piece by Ben Alexander on the fundamentals of diversity training that remains as relevant today as when it was first published.

Next, Josef Olmert addresses the impact culture can have on negotiation in his first-hand account of the Israeli-Syrian peace talks in 1991–92. Jingsi Hong rounds out our contributions with a somber discus-sion of suicide among rural Chinese women and its cultural roots.

Finally, we take a brief look at The Unofficial Diplo-mat, a thrilling and inspirational memoir by Foreign Service spouse, cross-cultural trainer and internation-al businesswoman Joanne Grady Huskey.

Please enjoy. As always, we welcome your input!

Marc RambeauManaging Editor

W A S H I N G T O N , D CAMERICAN UNIvERSIty

3

Intercultural Dynamics in Indigenous Chinese Nonprofits:A Case Study

by Easten Law

Easten Law teaches cross-cultural studies at American University’s Washington Semester Program. He is trained in ethnography, asset-based community development, cultural contextualization, intercultural communication, and inter-religious dialogue, and has worked in China teaching and lecturing on communication and culture at Anhui Normal University. He has also provided trainings and lectures in cross-cultural dynamics for organiza-tions such as the U.S. State Department, and both international and local Chinese non-profits responding to the earthquake that struck southwest China in 2008. He is currently pursuing a Master of Divinity at Wesley Theo-logical Seminary with a focus on the global urban dynamics of cross-cultural ministry and social justice.

Since China began opening up its economy in the 1980s, its development has been celebrated and feared around the world. Stunning growth

has brought material riches and global prestige; it has also carried with it the vices of an appalling rural-urban income gap, corrupt business and political practices, environmental disasters and more. The Chinese govern-ment has not been unaware of these developments, and in the past few years has begun promoting a new “Har-monious Society” policy to balance out the inequalities that have followed China’s economic and political rise. By promoting social and environmental concern, the government hopes to strengthen the social order.

A few pioneering nonprofit organizations (NPOs) have seized this opportunity to make an impact on Chi-nese culture and society in ways that would have been unthinkable only a few decades ago. As a newly devel-oping sector in Chinese society, Chinese NPOs face the common challenge of securing funding for projects and retention of capable staff within a culture unfamiliar with private charities.

As an online Xinhua News Agency survey of 451 Chi-nese NPOs on February 6, 2011 reveals, 65.7% were seeking new hires, but could not attain them given low pay—an average of 5,000 yuan ($750) per month. In-digenous NPOs also have to work under ambiguous or restrictive regulations set by a government that had originally denied the need for privately organized social services altogether. For example, there are no tax de-ductions for charitable giving in China. As such, large donations are still subject to a 5% tax, strongly dis-couraging corporations from giving (Wu 2011). Peking

University School of Law professor Ge yunsong notes, “There is a big difference between the existing Chinese NPO legal structure and basic concepts and those in the west, and the Chinese NPO legal structure and basic concepts are problematic and remain to be completely reformed” (27). Despite this combination of cultural and legal barriers, many Chinese NPOs push on to posi-tively contribute to Chinese society.

Faith-based organizations, for example, have begun to see increased sympathy for their social service works as a chance to spread their values. The 2008 Sichuan earth-quake catalyzed increasing support for such organiza-tions, and government-sanctioned faith-based NPOs based both domestically and internationally have begun making space for themselves in Chinese society through relief, recovery and rebuilding.

One of these organizations is HM International. A small, Christian faith-based organization operating in Si-chuan Province, HM International was founded by a lo-cal minister and is a legally registered NPO. This makes it one of China’s first formally accepted faith-based non-profits. Since 2005, HM has sought to help build Sich-uan’s “Harmonious Society” through English and music education, community development and various other training. In addition, HM has made significant contri-butions to post-earthquake relief efforts and has thus wielded rapidly expanding influence in the province.

The bulk of my research has focused on analyzing HM International’s influence on the social and spiritual land-scape of Sichuan Province, and, more broadly, the po-tential for Chinese Christians to develop a socially and

Fall 2011

4 Intercultural Management Quarterly

intercultural Dynamics...

culturally transformative presence under the aegis of the “Harmonious Society.” However, HM International also serves as an informative example in operating an inter-cultural organization for both faith-based groups and NPOs of all stripes.

Methods

In 2001, Rev. Samuel Ling wrote an article for evan-gelical online magazine China Horizon entitled, “Chart-ing two Critical Maps for PRC Service Work.” In his analysis of the challenges facing ministries operating in China, he asked two key questions that are critical for any organization operating across cultures: “Do we un-derstand who our coworkers are in the PRC [People’s Republic of China] field?” and “Can we identify their unique emphases and approaches?”

In order to answer these questions as they apply to HM International, I sought to understand its mission, orga-nizational culture and activities. I conducted interviews with important members of HM’s leadership, held focus groups with HM’s national staff and ministers of the lo-cal churches who receive its support, and made field ob-servations in a variety of contexts. Of primary interest was my interview with Robert Chen, HM’s director. As founder and intensely active director of the organization, Chen’s influence is central to its successful functioning. Hope Patterson, HM’s program manager, offered insight into HM’s organizational culture and activities. Finally, I interviewed William Cain, a member of a large Chris-tian cooperative in the United States working with HM International. Although Cain is formally employed by his U.S. organization, he acts as a sort of informal staff member at HM and supports much of its work. He pro-vided an important Western perspective on the extent and dynamics of intercultural partnership, involvement and influence within HM International.

Observations

Nonprofit organizations of any kind are still a very new category in China. As such, HM appears to be greatly dependent on foreign assistance, and not always the fi-nancial kind. I sat in on two staff meetings that were

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5Fall 2011

“There is a big difference between the existing Chinese NPO legal structure and basic concepts and those in the west, and the Chinese... concepts are problematic and remain to be completely reformed.”

very revealing in terms of the national staff’s relations with its foreign counterparts. A foreign co-worker from a faith-based development organization in the U.S., one of HM’s partners, led both meetings. The contrast between the “international” staff meeting and the “all-staff” meet-ing was apparent. The international meeting involved much greater detail in planning and event organizing concerning HM’s most successful venture, its Summer English Camp, and various community development projects in Bazhong. The meeting was highly results-ori-ented and productive. In contrast, the all-staff meeting, which included the Chinese national staff, seemed more like a reporting and updating session.

While no two staff meetings are the same, these two in particular gave me the impression that the foreign staff exerts much more influence in the decision-making pro-cess than the national staff (with the notable exception of Director Chen). While this apparent “division of la-bor” may work for HM at present, for more sustainable growth, the organization must emphasize “understanding” among foreign and na-tional staff and better take advantage of “unique empha-ses and approaches,” as Ling advised.

Cain estimates that almost 100% of HM’s funding comes from foreign sources. He hints that this factor does not win favor with the government, but is almost impossible to avoid, because China lacks a “culture of giving” and because nonprofits there do not yet have a stable existence. Patterson commented in my interview with her that HM’s projects are largely dictated by the donors’ wishes, further emphasizing the influence of for-eigners at HM.

Current Challenges

However, this finding highlights another aspect of HM’s organizational culture and even its foundations mentioned earlier. In short, as an organization, HM’s functioning and success are almost entirely dependent on its relationships—with Chen himself at the center.

This is a common characteristic of Chinese organiza-tions, and suggests even NPOs and faith-based organiza-tions under foreign influence will have trouble escaping it.

Cain even joked that if Chen were hit by a bus, HM would have to close its doors. Though extreme, behind this statement hides an alarming truth. After all, accord-ing to Patterson, all of HM’s local church relationships stem from Chen in some way and require his intimate knowledge for successful handling. The staff, though it holds meetings on its own, always defers to Chen for fi-nal approval. Throughout any given day, his office sees countless staff members seeking approval for one motion or another. In a sense, Chen holds the keys to the orga-nization—only he can open and close its doors.

Chen’s wisdom and authority rest at the top of HM’s organizational pyramid, and seem above foreign influ-ence. As founder and visionary, he best understands the intricacies of his organization’s pioneering work in Chi-na. Some have begun to worry, though, that operations are too dependent on him. The national staff seems to follow traditional Chinese cultural norms, adept at car-rying out orders but wary of thinking independently.

Indeed, when I asked about challenges that lie ahead, Cain noted the need for greater capacity building among the staff, and particularly the leadership, at HM. He also mentioned a lack of sufficiently clear long-term goals and objectives. Even Chen spoke to these difficulties—when I asked him about future obstacles, he replied that it was hard to find people with real leadership potential. He cited some key qualities, including the ability to build effective international relationships and to manage government relations. In addition, Chen’s busy schedule leaves him ill-equipped to train future leaders himself. The question of leadership clearly has serious implica-tions for the future of the organization; it is also indic-


ative of the crucial role cultural norms can play in the success or failure of a multinational organization.

Moving Forward

Clearly, HM’s primary advantage as a faith-based NPO operating in China is its ability to leverage its extensive network of connections in local government and com-munity leadership. It has also had success “bridging” the gap between the local population and international NGOs. As one of China’s first legally recognized faith-based organizations and a pioneering NPO, HM’s ser-vice works serve as a sort of public relations offensive targeted at China’s government leaders. traditionally skeptical and wary of faith-based work, Sichuan’s city and county governments now have a powerful example in HM—they have seen how NPOs can contribute to their own goal of a more “Harmonious Society.”

yet, despite its success, HM still faces limita-tions stemming both from operating in China and from its own organizational culture. Externally, China’s poli-tics of regulation make service and even mere existence a tricky business for HM. Until now, HM has been blessed with good relations, but the need to manage and monitor these relations effectively greatly limits expan-sion. Internally, one limitation of HM’s organizational culture is the centralization of power in Chen. The tide rises and falls with him; without new leadership train-ing or further capacity building, HM will not be able to continue its work. Finally, HM’s vision and goals are too general. The organization often works well as a link between those who have concrete plans and resources for those in need, yet HM has no cohesive objectives that an entire staff, both foreign and national, can rally around. This causes it to operate reactively, rather than intention-ally. If the organization is to grow, it needs a more direct set of objectives.

Conclusion

This brief survey of HM International’s organizational culture provides several important lessons to those seek-ing to partner in China’s emerging nonprofit sector. First, government relations are key to any social endeav-

or. Only through government support can a nonprofit organization grow. Second, a careful balance must be fostered between funding and leadership. While much of HM International’s funding and project development appeared to come from foreign sources, ultimate deci-sion-making power remained respectfully with Chen. Third, intercultural partnerships should share a common value system as a base to work through cultural differenc-es. The faith-based nature of HM International allowed both Chen and foreign staff to appeal to one another’s Christian values as a foundation for communication and growth. Lastly, one of the greatest concerns both Chen and foreign staff shared was training of indigenous lead-ership; yet, neither appeared to have a suitable way of addressing it. Chen’s extensive relationships cannot be easily transferred and Western management methods are ill-suited for a Chinese context. This remains a challenge for all to consider and build upon in future research and training.

This study was conducted in 2008. Since then, HM International has continued to expand under Chen’s leadership and with successful international partner-ships. Chen has recently organized a second NPO—a relief and development foundation for poor rural areas. HM International has also continued to expand its edu-cation initiatives in other provinces. In addition, as Chi-nese society has grown more aware of and comfortable with the presence of NPOs, more resources have been made available to better understand how they function in Chinese civil society. Most notably, as Cindy Wang noted in an online article on May 23, 2011 for the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations, Renmin University has published a report entitled, “2011 Obser-vations of the Third Sector.” It is the first comprehensive review of China’s growing nonprofit sector, and comes highly recommended for anyone seeking to gain a great-er understanding of Chinese nonprofit work. i

Reference

yunsong, Ge. 2004. Nonprofit organizations and the reform of China’s public institutions. International Jour-nal of Civil Society Law 2, no. 1.

intercultural Dynamics...

7Fall 2011

“What I want is a workshop that will build upon the EEO and fair employment practice training that you have done for us and take us to a place of improving relation-ships across all of the differences that sometimes keep us from achieving our potential for effectiveness. Basically, I want a workforce where interactions are driven by respect for the other person. So, what can you offer us? And, by the way, the gumbo they serve here is the best in town.”

It was a wonderful New Orleans afternoon in the fall of 1984. My client had suggested lunch at a nearby cafe to talk about next steps around equal employ-

ment opportunity (EEO) training in his organization. The challenge that he had placed before me felt both exciting and timely. As I gave him my plans for a work-shop that would meet his needs I had no idea that I was about to enter an obscure and emerging zone of aware-ness that would, within ten years, become a global busi-ness issue.

At that time workforce diversity was not a well recognized term in most corporate and academic settings. My search efforts took me to McGill University in Montreal where Dr. Nancy Adler, then Chair of the Department of Diversity Studies, was breaking new ground in this area. She helped me to understand how many of the differences that my client wanted to address were based in cultural experiences that gave individuals an almost un- conscious sense of what should be valued, how things should be done and the where and when of drawing lines of appropriateness. Her work supported the prem-ise that organizations capable of recognizing and re-sponding to these differences in an appropriate manner could be more effective in their business relationships than those that could not. Whatever this thing called “diversity” was, it seemed to be right on target with what I (and my client) needed.

Equipped with the client’s business case and a working definition of diversity, I was able to identify the various cultures within my client’s organization and how the dynamics created by different cultural expres-sions impacted important relationships. This was done through focus group assessments and interviews with individual employees. The data from these assessment efforts were used to design a workshop that enabled the participants to have hands on experiences in expressing, engaging and resolving problems and conflicts that rep-resented recurring themes around these dynamics.

Exploring their own differences for the purpose of improving organizational effectiveness was the job of the workshop participants. We tried to stay out of their way as they told us what was important to them. Sometimes conflicts that appeared to be based upon occupational differences were expressed as gender issues; sometimes assumptions of racial issues were inextricably interwo- ven with the regional cultural differences (e.g., north and south) that were thematic within the organization. Our job was to provide a safe environment for discuss- ing these differences and ensuring that appropriate links were made with the non-negotiable legal and regulatory requirements and organizational goals for effectiveness. The presence of our client and his top management staff was felt throughout the workshop as well as in the post-workshop commitments around follow-up actions. Feedback from all levels convinced us that the training intervention had been successful.

Almost 25 years that have passed since that inspirational bowl of gumbo on the New Orleans waterfront. During that time I have seen diversity move from rela- tive obscurity in the mid-1980s to a widely recognized, sometimes controversial issue 10 years later and now to something that “everyone is doing.” Despite this apparent progress, I often wonder how much real progress we have made in developing cultural competency—that is, understanding the how, when, and where aspects of ap-plying this learning to actual situations that are important to organizational effectiveness.

I’m not the only one with this question. A few weeks ago a colleague sent me an article describing a survey

Back to Basics in Diversity Trainingby Ben Alexander

Ben Alexander is Senior Partner at Alexander Consulting & Training, Inc. He has designed and presented workshops in human resources management, workforce diversity and dispute resolution to thousands of participants in over two hundred private and public organizations.


conducted by the Washington Post newspaper entitled “Why Diversity training Is Not Effective.” As a diver-sity trainer, I found the title disturbing, but not sur-prising. The article was based upon assessments of top managers in companies that had done diversity training who felt that the training had not resulted in changes that were beneficial to the organization. Although I was willing to agree with some of their conclusions, there was a flaw in their analysis. First, it assumed “diversity training” is a specific training course or approach. There is much diversity among diversity training and diver-sity trainers. Everything from a two-hour briefing to a week-long cultural sensitivity course and everything in between is delivered under the heading of “diversity training.” As I continued to read the article it became apparent that an absence of clear goals and measures made it difficult to determine what constitutes success. In fact, vague measures of success, when they even exist-ed, appeared to be based upon reductions in the number of complaints filed by employees and increased hiring of minorities and women along with decreases in attrition for both groups. These EEO and affirmative action/af-firmative goals are actually unrealistic and inappropri-ate measures of the impact of diversity training. Finally, employees’ “happiness” with mandated training, while a useful indicator of course content and trainer skill, is not an indicator of individual or organizational learn-ing.

As I continued reading two thoughts began to form. The first was my own awareness of how the general acceptance of diversity training as something that “ev-ery- one should do” seemed to be leading to a “magic wand” mind-set that once diversity training happens everything should be better. I was seeing this in the number of calls we receive from Human Resources or EEO officials who are not able to explain their organiza-tion’s desire to do this training beyond the fact that they have not done it or they see it as a “quick fix” because they have had a few complaints of discrimination. My second thought was about the influence of top manage-ment upon the success of diversity initiatives. There is no question in my mind that our most successful train-ing experiences have been linked to the strong presence of top managers at every phase of development, imple-mentation and follow-up. typically these were managers

who were able and willing to communicate personally the specific reasons for the training based upon data specific to the organization. They could articulate their expectations for success along with how they will rec-ognize it when it occurs. These managers also made a commitment to the steps that they will take to achieve the goals behind the training. From that point it was a simple, but not always easy, matter of “walking their talk” as they monitored and responded to the progress of the organization. These attributes, demonstrated by my client in New Orleans are still a practical blueprint for success.

So, how do we get back to the basics of effective di-versity training? After 25 years in the field, I can share some best practices and lessons learned. The following “top ten” list gives you some proven don’ts in terms of what often causes diversity programs to fail (the items are listed in reverse numerical order to demonstrate the importance of the critical bottom line of leader-ship, which certainly impacts all of the other items). Use these items as a checklist for getting off to a good start. Chances are that you will have a number of things to add to your list but these ten items may offer useful guidance for sticking to the basics.

Ten Reasons Why Diversity Programs Fail:

10. Using the term “diversity” in lieu of race, gender, ethnicity and other specific categories

Diversity is the all-inclusive end result of the many cultures and categories that make up the organization. It is more than race, gender and ethnicity. When we say “diversity,” but really mean “race” or “ethnicity,” it is a source of confusion, miscommunication and misunder- standing. Diversity is not a specific group of individu-als. For example, while it would be appropriate to say, “our organization is lacking racial or gender diversity in terms of its overall makeup,” statements along the lines of, “we need more diverse people” come off as meaning-less and confusing.

9. Confusing diversity with EEO and Affirmative Ac-tion/Affirmative Employment

Back to Basics...

9Fall 2011

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Equal employment opportunity has to do with elimi-nating discrimination in the workplace. Affirmative action/affirmative employment efforts are focused specifically on hiring from specific categories for the purpose of eliminating imbalances caused by past dis-crimination and removing barriers created by current practices. Diversity, on the other hand, is about recog-nizing and responding to culturally-based differences that may impact working relationships and organiza-tional effectiveness. These are different terms with dif-ferent requirements and outcomes. They are highly interactive in terms of overlapping issues, but they are not interchangeable.

8. Using diversity training to prevent complaints

As discussed above, diversity transcends legal and regulatory concerns. The prevention and resolution of discrimination complaints is basically an equal employ-ment opportunity objective that can be assisted through awareness and responsiveness to diversity dynamics. Rather than prevent complaints, diversity awareness may actually increase complaints as the message to em-ployees is often one of open communications. Instead of expecting it to prevent complaints, you can use diversity awareness to resolve complaint issues, correct situations known to cause complaints and improve relationships.

7. Paying too much or too little attention to issues in-volving differences

It is not unusual for organizations to ask for diversity training based upon an event or complaint that creates a high level of concern. They often request the training before determining the magnitude of the problem as it relates to the organization’s diversity objectives. At the same time organizations often fail to respond to im-portant diversity issues because they are not packaged or presented in a manner that generates concern around complaints or legal issues. Diversity dynamics that are frequently missed are those involving administrative/

non-exempt employees, working parents, and genera- tional diversity.

6. Mistaking silence for satisfaction

A sure sign that the thinking of the organization is being driven by the avoidance of complaints is when it views employee silence as desirable. When organizations fail to elicit or encourage employee feedback, the silence that is mistaken as satisfaction can actually be caused by fear of retribution, resignation or resentful accep-tance of negative conditions. The front page of the local newspaper is not how you want to learn about unspoken expressions of dissatisfaction. Don’t assume. Create op-

portunities for representative groups of employees to have safe conversation about things that are facilitating and hin-dering their success.

5. Substituting “color blindness” for diversity aware-ness

We regard this expression as a sure sign that the point and meaning of diversity has been misunderstood. Basi- cally, diversity is about recognizing the differences that exist among groups, when it is appropriate to do so, for purposes of inclusion, respect and cross-cultural understanding. The idea is not to eliminate or subordinate the points of difference that may define the cultural groups that make up the organization. Rather, it is to use these differences to the organization’s advantage.

4. Expecting organizations to be immune to society’s issues

The fact is that organizations are a cross-section of our society. For example, if sexual orientation is a challeng-ing issue for our society (it is), it will also be a challeng-ing issue when it surfaces in our organization. The only true difference is how the unique cultures of the organi-zation may impact the expression of the values, beliefs, sensitivities and preferences that are expressed in the larger society.

3. viewing diversity awareness as something that is optional

Back to Basics...

“Don’t assume. Create opportunities for representative groups of employees to have safe conversation...”

11Fall 2011

Diversity is. We have diversity no matter who is in our workforce by virtue of the fact that we are all unique individuals with similarities and differences. How well we understand the cultural differences that exist among the people who do the work, as well as those that exist among our customers and stakeholders, affects our working relationships as well as our organization’s per- formance, productivity and profitability.

2. Actual or perceived exclusion of white men as part of the organization’s diversity

Diversity is about recognizing and responding to all of the groups that make up the organization for the pur-pose of inclusion. A failure to include any recognizable group takes the initiative away from diversity and to gives it to something else, which could turn out to be a definition of illegal discrimination.

1. A lack of leadership presence and commitment

There is no question that the number one reason diversity programs and initiatives fail is lack of management support and commitment. There is a direct correlation between an effective diversity program and the visibility of organizational leadership.

There is no trainer out there who is good enough to take the place of this leadership presence. Nor are there any games, ice-breakers or “fun exercises” capable of generating more attention and interest than sincere and forthright expressions of purpose, expectations and personal commitment from organizational leaders.

So what must you do to be successful? It pretty basic. I work with organizations to answer these three questions:

1. What is the business case for diversity? In other words, what is the link to your vision, values and mission?

2. What do we already do well? In other words, recognize past and current success.

3. How can attending to diversity dynamics enhance teamwork, productivity and/or profitability?

With the answers to these questions, you can establish training objectives that are meaningful, measurable and achievable.

In conclusion, my personal belief is that there is a lot of good diversity training going on out there that is ben- efiting organizations in ways that may not be as imme- diately apparent as the outcomes of, let’s say, an effective report-writing workshop. After all, diversity awareness is about cultural competency—developing increasingly higher levels of the capability to recognize and respond to human differences in a manner that supports the relationships needed for organizational effectiveness. This is not a learning task that can be evaluated within a few days of completing the training. In fact, it is a task that requires an evaluation of the total organization in terms of policies, programs and practices designed to support the individual learning that was to have taken place during the training.

Diversity training is no different from any other type of training; it is important to have realistic outcomes and clear measures of success. I think that my client in New Orleans understood this very well. I am also sure that this is how we were able to put on a great diversity workshop long before we knew that we were “doing diversity.” i

This piece was previously published in the Winter 2008 issue of IMQ.


P rofessional literature on conflict resolution has widely covered the Middle East peace process. While the media focus incessantly on conflict be-

tween Israelis and Palestinians, scholars have richly de-scribed and analyzed nearly every conceivable angle of the issue. There is one topic, however, that has not been addressed as widely: the impact of cross-cultural com-munication—or lack thereof—on negotiations between Israel and its Arab neighbors.

After decades of peace talks between Israelis and Pales-tinians, the issue of cross-cultural communication finally received much needed attention in tamara Cofman Wittes’ groundbreaking book, How Israelis and Palestin-ians Negotiate: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of the Oslo Peace Process. Wittes concluded that a better understanding of how culture shapes negotiating methods on the part of political leaders and diplomats might improve chances of success in the future (2005). Though enlightening, Wittes’ book deals only with Israelis and Palestinians. No such book has ever been published about the peace talks between Israel and Syria.

Historically, Syria has served as a seedbed for a number of regional ideologies, including pan-Syrianism, Arab nationalism and Arab socialism. Syria, as states a com-mon proverb, is “the beating heart of Arabism.” As such, it has a special historical obligation toward the Palestin-ian people and a duty to promote a “just” solution to its long-standing struggle with Israel. yet, in 1991, in what appeared to be a sharp break from past policy, Syria’s ruler Hafez al-Assad responded positively to American initiative and chose to participate in the Madrid peace conference and ensuing bilateral talks with Israel under Prime Minister yitzhak Shamir’s government.

I participated directly in these talks as a member of the Israeli delegation. Apparent goodwill notwithstanding, I can attest to the suspicious, hostile and frigid atmo-sphere that characterized the meetings. From my vantage point, they constituted an interesting and instructive case of the breakdown of effective cross-cultural commu-nication.

Our two delegations, consisting of ten members each, met for hundreds of hours. yet, we exchanged not even one word during breaks. There was no small talk of any kind, no drinking coffee together and no shaking hands. The chairman of the Syrian delegation, Muaffaq Allaf—a close friend of president Assad—made clear to us why: “We are enemies, because you occupy our lands, and only when you return our lands in full can we become friends and act as such.”

And what of our delegation? After the defeat of the Shamir government in the 1992 elections, I gave an in-terview to the Israeli daily Haaretz in which I described the handling of the talks by our chairman, yossi Ben-Aharon. Ben-Aharon, a close confidant of Prime Min-ister Shamir, was a known hawk and a sworn opponent to any concessions to the Syrians. As I said then, he was “abrasive and confrontational, deliberately teasing, in-sulting and provoking his Syrian counterparts in order to expose their alleged underlying extremism. At the first meeting in Washington, he literally threw in the face of the head of the Syrian delegation a book in Arabic con-taining anti-Semitic remarks, written by Mustafa tlass, the Syrian defense minister. Some of the experts on the Israeli team were appalled by Ben-Aharon’s unprofes-sional behavior, but they could do little. … [The hawks] would meet in the evening in the bar of their hotel and

Israeli-Syrian Peace Talks: A Negotiator’s Perspectiveby Josef Olmert

Dr. Josef Olmert is an adjunct professor in the School of International Service at American University. He was a professor of Middle Eastern studies at Tel Aviv, Hebrew and Bar-Ilan Universities, and has also taught at Cor-nell University, City College of New York and York University.

In addition, Dr. Olmert has served in senior positions in the Israeli government, including Director of Commu-nications under Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir and Policy Advisor to Defense Minister Moshe Arens. Olmert has served in diplomatic missions across the world and participated in both the Madrid peace conference and ensuing Israeli-Syrian peace talks in 1991.

13Fall 2011

practice throwing books at a target” (Cobban 2000, 41). The book in question was The Matzah of Zion, published by tlass in 1983. In it, he discussed the 1840 Damascus affair, which saw the Jews of Damascus accused of ritual murder. In his introduction, tlass stated that the Jewish religion was one of ‘vicious deviations’ and ‘black hatred’ against all humankind and religions. Therefore, he con-cluded, no Arab regime should make peace with Israel. While Ben-Aharon was rightly upset that a member of the Syrian government could publish such a book, his conduct was uncalled for in both style and content.

But then, nothing was accidental. The conduct of the negotiations by Ben-Aharon reflected a policy of com-plete rejection of any territorial compromise in the Go-lan Heights, a policy that was, and still is, very popular in Israel.

Since 1967, the Israeli govern-ment has felt little effective public pressure to make peace with Syria. The public treats the corresponding price—withdrawal to the borders of June 4, 1967—as a forgone conclu-sion. Moreover, the dovish Israeli left wing is generally preoccupied with the Palestinian issue, and significant elements (particularly in the Kibbutz movement) oppose full-scale withdrawal because some of the Golan support the Labor party.

years of border incidents, oppression of the Syrian Jew-ish community, treatment of Israeli war prisoners and Syria’s refusal to return the remains of the famous spy Eli Cohen had all taken their toll on Israeli public opin-ion. Likewise, the long-standing demonization of Israel in Syria did not recede during the buildup to the Ma-drid conference and subsequent talks. The official media hardly covered the meetings, and the ordinary Syrian could only guess something was afoot by reading be-tween the lines of the state-run reporting.

While many propose the 1979 Egypt-Israel peace trea-ty as a model for a future treaty between Israel and Syria, they often overlook the importance of Anwar Sadat’s use of confidence-building measures—particularly his

dramatic visit to Jerusalem and his speech in the Knes-set. These measures brought about an immediate and forceful change in Israeli public opinion, and a similar attempt by Assad could have done the same. However, Syria under Assad consistently neglected to take any confidence-building measures aimed at changing its very negative image. Similarly, Assad never took any steps to prepare his people for the possibility that talks with Is-rael could actually lead to a peace treaty and termination of the conflict.

It is fair to say that mutual demonization served the two governments well. It is apparent that, in 1991 and 1992, they had no intention to go beyond formal, meaningless talks and get into the business of serious peacemaking. Both governments exploited this demoni-zation, as it seemed to vindicate long-held prejudices in both countries.

Multiple rounds of negotiations have taken place in the twenty years since. Israeli prime ministers, Syrian presidents, foreign ministers and senior generals from both sides have participated in the talks; even third par-ties such as the U.S. and turkey have been involved. yet peace has not been achieved. There has been some progress, however, at least so far as cross-cultural com-munication is concerned: Reportedly, one of the envoys sent by former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel to President Bashar al-Assad returned with a pack of the finest Syrian hummus, a gift of the Syrian leader to his Israeli counterpart.

Hummus notwithstanding, continuing failure indi-cates that more effective intercultural communication may not be enough to solve the conflict. We may not know for some time if a more proper, civilized and re-spectable course of negotiations, as is to be expected be-tween countries truly committed to making peace, could have made any real difference. These days, while Syria

“I can attest to the suspicious, hostile and frigid atmosphere that characterized the meetings.”


burns and Bashar al-Assad’s regime is on the verge of collapse, we cannot realistically hope for a resumption of talks in the foreseeable future. i

References

Cobban, Helena. 2000. The Israeli-Syrian peace talks: 1991–96 and beyond. Washington: United States Institute of Peace Press.

Wittes, tamara Cofman. 2005. How Israelis and Palestinians negotiate: A cross-cultural analysis of the Oslo peace pro-cess. Washington: United States Institute of Peace Press.

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israeli-Syrian Peace Talks...

15Fall 2011

Bitter Fruit: Rural Chinese Women and the Culture of Suicideby Jingsi Hong

China has one of the highest suicide rates in the world. While suicide in most countries is more common among males, studies by researchers at Qinghua University show the rate among Chinese women is 25% higher than among men. Rural rates are also three times higher than urban; 70% of rural female suicides are related to family issues, and most of those women kill themselves by drinking pesticides. Women in their early twenties to early thirties make up nearly 60% of female suicides. As Christopher Allen noted in a BBC News online article on June 19, 2006, every four minutes a Chinese woman ends her own life.

In China, evidently, being young, female and from the countryside is an especially lethal combination. Chinese women in rural areas pride themselves on their ability to “eat bitterness”—to put up with great sadness and stress—but, as the statistics show, even the strongest woman has her breaking point. to explain rural female suicide in China, the numbers suggest we must address not only psychological, but also cultural, causes.

Over thousands of years of Chinese history, there has been a strong and undeniable preference for sons. The introduction of the one-child policy in 1978 only magnified that preference. Historically, womanhood in China was synonymous with submission, and although this situation has improved in urban areas, it is still widespread in rural locales. As previously stated, most suicides committed by women in their early twenties to early thirties can be attributed to marriage and fam-ily issues. These, then, are the “bitter fruits” which rural women must eat.

When people in the countryside ask a girl if she has a husband, they use the word zhu, which means “master.” The girl is not her own master; she must find one.

When she does get married, she is usually under 22 (Lin and Jia, 2007), uneducated and powerless. An ar-ranged marriage, conducted like a business deal, means she must leave her family and friends behind for good, and can only return if she gets divorced (a great shame in traditional Chinese culture). She enters a strange new world—her husband’s family. It is not likely that the girl knows whom she will marry before the wedding, yet she is now his bride and before long will be the mother of several children. She is treated like an object. A tradi-tional Chinese aphorism reads, “Marrying a woman is like buying a horse—men can ride them and beat them whenever they like.” It is not difficult, then, to imagine her suffering a sort of culture shock.

Most people who endure culture shock enjoy a “hon-eymoon” phase. These brides, however, have no hon-eymoons. While female relatives likely have tried to prepare them for the change, reality is often worse than they could have imagined. In the early stages of mar-riage, new brides must work extra hard to earn the ap-proval and acceptance of their husbands’ families, mere strangers before the wedding. They are entirely depen-dent—first on their families, and then on their hus-bands—so obedience is essential. Lack of educational and social opportunities only serves to imprison them further.

According to Lysgaard’s “U-Curve of Cultural Ad-justment” (Ward, Bochner and Furnham 2001), most people begin to adjust to culture shock and eventually recover from their initial “down” period. However, for women in rural areas, recovery often comes only with luck—giving birth to a boy, for example. For many, things just get worse; this downward spiral eventually drives them to suicide. Those who are lucky become mothers-in-law after about twenty years, put the same pressures on their sons’ wives, and continue the “cycle of bitterness.”

Besides the initial shock, what goes so wrong for the unlucky ones that it drives them to give up their lives? 64.54% of suicides are caused by marital discord, 42.55% by economic difficulties and 38.3% by domestic

Jingsi Hong is a graduate student studying Inter-national Communication in the School of Inter-national Service at American University. She is from Suzhou, China and hopes to work in cross-cultural training.


violence (the three categories are not mutually exclusive [yan 2008]). Clearly, family issues are the primary cause. yet why go to such an extreme? Why not seek alternative solutions?

According to Albert Bandura’s social learning theory observing is the basis of learning (Bandura 1977). People learn new ways of behaving by observing the behavior of others. This doesn’t mean every person turns every ob-servation into actual behavior; a happy person wouldn’t commit suicide after hearing of a neighbor killing her-self, for example. turning simple observation into real action requires an emotional trigger. Observation alone simply teaches potentialities, increasing the possibility of imitation.

After marriage, rural Chinese women devote their lives to their families; they have nothing left to occupy themselves but their husbands, children and farm work. Their lives don’t extend beyond the borders of their small towns. A narrow range of activities combined with limited social circles makes it very difficult for these women to “brush off” bad news and constructively di-vert their attention. Instead, news of suicide captivates the whole town—especially its women, who have little other intellectual stimulation. With an example of sui-cidal behavior thus planted in their minds, the thought of committing it comes naturally when insurmountable family issues crop up. According to a study (yan 2008), 50% of Chinese females commit suicide after less than two hours’ consideration, 29% of those after less than ten minutes.

As such a traditionally powerless population, Chi-nese women have been forced to find creative ways to deal with their problems. An age-old coping pattern follows three steps: cry, scream and threaten to hang yourself. Resorting to hysterics has become accepted behavior among women who feel they have no way to force change besides threatening the worst. Sadly, this type of behavior can be self-reinforcing—threatening to kill yourself often does get people to listen. Without education, guidance or a constructive emotional outlet, many see suicide as their only option.

The depression that contributes to high suicide rates among rural Chinese women might best be explained by Martin Seligman’s theory of learned helplessness. Learned helplessness results from the persistence of neg-ative situations that make people feel trapped and con-sistently unable to influence their circumstances. try as these women might, they cannot avoid or change the negative situation that has been thrust upon them; a constant feeling of helplessness drives them to extreme thinking. Women in rural areas almost always move in with their husbands’ families after marriage; not only are they forced to gain the family’s acceptance, but also, whenever there is domestic conflict, their opinions are the least respected. This only reinforces their feelings of helplessness. Additionally, traditional Chinese culture regards domestic violence as a shameful topic, so many women keep such problems a secret rather than telling others or seeking legal protections.

It is equally important to note the role of the women’s own families in enabling suicidal behavior. On one hand, it would not be uncommon for a young woman’s mother to have committed suicide herself. This, of course, sets a very negative example of how to cope with familial pres-sures. On the other hand, once a young woman’s parents hand her off to her husband’s family, they no longer re-gard her as part of their own. Therefore, when she runs into trouble, the very people she would normally turn to for help are often unwilling.

Nowadays, in order to take charge of and improve their lives, many rural Chinese move to the suburbs as migrant workers. For women, this often entails one of two scenarios. If a girl is already married, her husband will go off to work and she will stay home to take care of the farm, children and in-laws. If she is unmarried, she is likely to move herself, and often at a very young age. The former scenario, since it forces the girl to do her husband’s work as well as her own, often places her un-der even more pressure. Extramarital affairs (on the part of husbands) are much more likely under this scenario.

The latter scenario, however, can be even bleaker. The suicide rate for migrant females in China is still 2.6 times higher than for males (Lin et al. 2010). For these

Bitter Fruit...

17Fall 2011

young workers, moving to the city suburbs entails an en-tirely different, but just as severe, form of culture shock. A lack of education and poor understanding of city life often mean these women are totally unprepared for the change. For the first time, they have escaped the iron fist of familial control; however, they have never developed the tools to cope with problems on their own, and their newfound freedom can be deadly. If their traditional mentality cannot integrate their new surroundings, when they run into emotional or financial trouble, they have a tendency to turn to smoking, drinking and even drugs (Lin et al. 2005).

Their innocence also makes them prime targets for ma-nipulation. They enter a moral vacuum, in which they break with their previous value system but have yet to build a new one. The lines blur between good and bad, possible and impossible, fair and unfair; their desires are inflated, and when they cannot be satisfied, many of these women become psychologically unbalanced (Lin et al. 2010).

Undoubtedly, myriad psychological phenomena con-tribute to the high rate of female suicide in China. Additional contributing factors include easy access to pesticides, the most common tool for suicidal women; the traditional scorn for, disorganization and high cost of psychotherapy in China; and the lack of proper emer-gency medical response systems in rural areas. However, it is clearly instructive to consider the impact of cultural and societal norms on suicidal behavior. Perhaps, one day, Chinese women will no longer be expected to eat the bitter fruit of their cultural inheritance. i

References

Bandura, Albert. 1977. Social learning theory. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Kleinman, Arthur, yan yunxiang, Jun Jing, Lee Sing, and Everett Zhang. 2011. Deep China: the moral life of the person. Berkley: University of California Press. 214

Lin, Danhua, Xiaoming Li, Hongmei yang, Xiaoyi Fang, Bonita Stanton, Xinguang Chen, Antonia Abbey, and Hongjie Liu. 2005. Alcohol intoxication and sexual risk behaviors among rural-to-urban migrants in China. Drug and Alcohol Dependence 79, no. 1: 103–112.

Lin, Danhua, Xiuyun Lin, Lixia Ma, Xiaoyenan Xu, and Fang Wang. 2010. Characteristics of high-risk be-havior and its contributing factors among young female rural-to-urban migrants in Beijing, China. Chinese Jour-nal of Clinical Psychology 2: 183–186.

Lin, An and Huixue Jia. 2007. Study on female suicide mortality in China. Chinese Journal of Health Statistics 24, no. 1: 30.

Ward, Colleen, Stephen Bochner, and Adrian Furn-ham. 2001. The psychology of culture shock. London: Psy-chology Press. 81

yan, Muxiu. 2008. On the problem of village women’s suicide in our country. Journal of Tianzhou 23, no. 6: 50.

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“We must fight the impulse to protect ourselves by running the other way… We cannot leave it to the diplomats, the media, or the military. Every one of us is an ‘unofficial dip-lomat’ who must turn outward, not inward.”

In twenty years as the spouse of a U.S. Foreign Ser-vice Officer, Joanne Grady Huskey has certainly earned the title of “unofficial diplomat.” Alongside

her husband, Jim Huskey, she has traveled the world, living for several years at a time in cities such as Beijing, Chennai and Nairobi. yet her life as a Foreign Service spouse has been far from glamorous. At each posting, she has faced unimaginable hardships, confronted dan-ger and witnessed history in the making—all without ever “running the other way.” Her story, told in great detail in her aptly titled memoir, The Unofficial Diplo-mat, is one of courage, resolve and inextinguishable op-timism.

After only a year of Foreign Service life in the still-backward Beijing of the late 1980s, Huskey and her husband were quite literally caught in the crossfire of the tiananmen Square massacre. Their eyewitness ac-counts served as important testimony to the world against the Chinese government, which had cut off for-eign media coverage of the events. years later, in 1998, Huskey was at the U.S. embassy in Nairobi—with her children—when a truck bomb rocked the building. And yet, after barely escaping each tragic event, she stood fast and chose not to return to the U.S. Instead, she doubled her resolve and stayed by her husband’s side.

While they certainly make the memoir a page-turner, Huskey’s brushes with danger and disaster are not what make it so worth reading. Its true value lies in the mun-dane yet inspirational accounts of the way she applied herself to meaningful endeavors in the face of such ad-verse conditions. Her story offers valuable lessons to the partners and family members of diplomats, business-people and any others whose jobs take them abroad for extended periods.

Huskey serves as a model for such “dependents,” as they are so often insensitively labeled. Huskey is far more than just a diplomat’s wife—she is a successful

international businesswoman, volunteer and fundrais-er. At every one of her husband’s posts, Huskey set out to make her own mark on the community. In Beijing, she changed the lives of disabled people and orphans through her volunteering and community organizing. In Chennai, she co-founded a company to provide relo-cation support and cross-cultural training to expatriate families in India. That company, Global Adjustments, has expanded to employ over 60 people and has worked with clients from all over the world. In the process, it has helped turn Chennai into a bustling business center. Huskey also helped found the American International School of Chennai, which has grown from its humble first class of 18 students to serve over 750.

Admittedly, the book’s writing leaves a bit to be de-sired. Often repetitive and at times meandering, its chapters tend to read like short stories meant for serial printing. you’ll be reminded of what tai Chi is and what certain acronyms stand for far more often than you’d like; it’s the type of book you could jump into at any point without missing much detail, as the details are often repeated. The stilted dialogue, too, would benefit from less emphasis on exactitude and a stronger ear for the natural flow of conversation.

yet, at only 192 pages, The Unofficial Diplomat is a quick read and packed with valuable lessons. Huskey’s business acumen and drive to help people are apparent, and the accounts of her many struggles along the way should be instructive for anyone living and working in a foreign culture. Public-sector foreign officers, interna-tional businesspeople and especially their families will find inspiration in her story. i

The Unofficial Diplomat: A Memoir by Joanne Grady HuskeyReviewed by Marc Rambeau

The Unofficial Diplomat: A Memoir, published by Scarith Books, is available for pur-chase on amazon.com.

19Fall 2011

The Intercultural Management Institute cordially invites you to attend the

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Symposium Topics Include:• Department of State and its role in foreign policy• Personnel systems: Foreign Service Officers, Foreign Service Specialists, Civil Service Officers• FSO functions• Selection, training and placement• Orientation to DoS• Language training• Security training• Job-specific training• Life at your post (moderated by the Foreign Service institute Transition Center)• Family life: raising children overseas; schools; health issues; safety• Lunch included! (FSOs will be present to answer any questions you may have)

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