Cultural Adaptability

Abstract

Barriers to cultural adaptability include perceptual, interpretive, and evaluative biases. Differences in culturally based perceptual patterns can be problematic given that interpretation and evaluation of behavior is a critical element of teamwork. Altogether, perceptual patterns are “selective, learned, culturally determined, consistent, and inaccurate” (Adler, 1986, p. 54). Selective exposure, selective attention, and selective retention are all hallmarks of the process of perception. Bagby (1970) demonstrated how perceptual patterns become selective even in childhood. He had American and Mexican children watch a bullfight and a baseball game simultaneously using a tachistoscope. When asked what they had seen, the American children claimed to have watched a baseball game, and the Mexican children claimed to have watched a bullfight. Neither group was aware that they had been presented two stimuli simultaneously. Both groups of children selected stimuli that had meaning for their culture and ignored or forgot the stimuli that had no meaning for them. The children's culture predisposed them to notice some things and not others. Perceptual selectivity is a key barrier to cultural adaptability and influences both interpretation and evaluation.

Citation

Sutton, J.L., Pierce, L.G., Burke, C.S. and Salas, E. (2006), "Cultural Adaptability", Shawn Burke, C., Pierce, L.G. and Salas, E. (Ed.) Understanding Adaptability: A Prerequisite for Effective Performance within Complex Environments (Advances in Human Performance and Cognitive Engineering Research, Vol. 6), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 143-173. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1479-3601(05)06005-4