ell if he was being insulted or not. He had gone into a kind of cultural default mode.

I fell into the denial trap myself too. In my first experience of working in France, I blithely scheduled the period immediately after noon to make local telephone calls, just as I used to do in London, where lunch was often just a quick sandwich break at around 1pm. In a Homer Simpson-like moment of recognition, it dawned on me that this was the sacred French lunch break and, of course, nobody was ever in their office. I had tri

An individual’s ability to forge effective relationships across cultures is influenced by a very personal and highly complex mixture of emotional and cognitive processes. Anyone contemplating an overseas posting feels apprehensive about stepping into the unknown. The mere knowledge that we are leaving our own cultural comfort zone can trigger all sorts of subconscious defensive tactics that can make it difficult to operate effectively the new environment.

The widely known work of Milton Bennett helps to elucidate the process of adaptation to a new culture. In his work, Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity, 1993, he describes six main stages in the development of intercultural sensitivity:

1. denial
2. defensiveness
3. minimization
4. acceptance
5. adaptation
6. integration

I want to revisit these six stages and discuss them as they relate to the potential problems of people working in intercultural environments.

The denial stage refers to an individual’s inability to even notice cultural differences. I witnessed this once when a middle-aged Saudi man studying in the UK complained to me that his English teacher was treating him like a ‘donkey’. I was very puzzled by this because I knew the teacher concerned was very polite with the students and showed great respect to those who were older. After some ferreting around I discovered that the teacher was in the habit of saying ‘sh’ when the students were talking too much. Apparently such a noise is used for donkeys in Saudi Arabia. Why, I wondered, had the Saudi man not noticed that the streets of London were free entirely of donkeys?

Looking at the incident now, I can see that he was clinging to his own cultural norms like a life raft in the uncertain seas he was currently experiencing: a world where young women were allowed to teach older men, where his host family did not have a separate part of the house for the women and children, where he couldn’t eat freely because even pastry for a dessert might contain pork fat . He was totally disoriented and could not tell if he was being insulted or not. He had gone into a kind of cultural default mode.

I fell into the denial trap myself too. In my first experience of working in France, I blithely scheduled the period immediately after noon to make local telephone calls, just as I used to do in London, where lunch was often just a quick sandwich break at around 1pm. In a Homer Simpson-like moment of recognition, it dawned on me that this was the sacred French lunch break and, of course, nobody was ever in their office. I had trie

process of adaptation to a new culture. In his work, Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity, 1993, he describes six main stages in the development of intercultural sensitivity:

1. denial
2. defensiveness
3. minimization
4. acceptance
5. adaptation
6. integration

I want to revisit these six stages and discuss them as they relate to the potential problems of people working in intercultural environments.

The denial stage refers to an individual’s inability to even notice cultural differences. I witnessed this once when a middle-aged Saudi man studying in the UK complained to me that his English teacher was treating him like a ‘donkey’. I was very puzzled by this because I knew the teacher concerned was very polite with the students and showed great respect to those who were older. After some ferreting around I discovered that the teacher was in the habit of saying ‘sh’ when the students were talking too much. Apparently such a noise is used for donkeys in Saudi Arabia. Why, I wondered, had the Saudi man not noticed that the streets of London were free entirely of donkeys?

Looking at the incident now, I can see that he was clinging to his own cultural norms like a life raft in the uncertain seas he was currently experiencing: a world where young women were allowed to teach older men, where his host family did not have a separate part of the house for the women and children, where he couldn’t eat freely because even pastry for a dessert might contain pork fat . He was totally disoriented and could not tell if he was being insulted or not. He had gone into a kind of cultural default mode.

I fell into the denial trap myself too. In my first experience of working in France, I blithely scheduled the period immediately after noon to make local telephone calls, just as I used to do in London, where lunch was often just a quick sandwich break at around 1pm. In a Homer Simpson-like moment of recognition, it dawned on me that this was the sacred French lunch break and, of course, nobody was ever in their office. I had tri

ultural differences. I witnessed this once when a middle-aged Saudi man studying in the UK complained to me that his English teacher was treating him like a ‘donkey’. I was very puzzled by this because I knew the teacher concerned was very polite with the students and showed great respect to those who were older. After some ferreting around I discovered that the teacher was in the habit of saying ‘sh’ when the students were talking too much. Apparently such a noise is used for donkeys in Saudi Arabia. Why, I wondered, had the Saudi man not noticed that the streets of London were free entirely of donkeys?

Looking at the incident now, I can see that he was clinging to his own cultural norms like a life raft in the uncertain seas he was currently experiencing: a world where young women were allowed to teach older men, where his host family did not have a separate part of the house for the women and children, where he couldn’t eat freely because even pastry for a dessert might contain pork fat . He was totally disoriented and could not tell if he was being insulted or not. He had gone into a kind of cultural default mode.

I fell into the denial trap myself too. In my first experience of working in France, I blithely scheduled the period immediately after noon to make local telephone calls, just as I used to do in London, where lunch was often just a quick sandwich break at around 1pm. In a Homer Simpson-like moment of recognition, it dawned on me that this was the sacred French lunch break and, of course, nobody was ever in their office. I had tri

the Saudi man not noticed that the streets of London were free entirely of donkeys?

Looking at the incident now, I can see that he was clinging to his own cultural norms like a life raft in the uncertain seas he was currently experiencing: a world where young women were allowed to teach older men, where his host family did not have a separate part of the house for the women and children, where he couldn’t eat freely because even pastry for a dessert might contain pork fat . He was totally disoriented and could not tell if he was being insulted or not. He had gone into a kind of cultural default mode.

I fell into the denial trap myself too. In my first experience of working in France, I blithely scheduled the period immediately after noon to make local telephone calls, just as I used to do in London, where lunch was often just a quick sandwich break at around 1pm. In a Homer Simpson-like moment of recognition, it dawned on me that this was the sacred French lunch break and, of course, nobody was ever in their office. I had tri

ell if he was being insulted or not. He had gone into a kind of cultural default mode.

I fell into the denial trap myself too. In my first experience of working in France, I blithely scheduled the period immediately after noon to make local telephone calls, just as I used to do in London, where lunch was often just a quick sandwich break at around 1pm. In a Homer Simpson-like moment of recognition, it dawned on me that this was the sacred French lunch break and, of course, nobody was ever in their office. I had tried to salvage a little of my old, familiar routine in order to feel more comfortable with the working day and was in denial about this great French tradition. I really didn’t want to see that the French could abandon between two or three hours in the middle of the day to non-work activity.

The point here is that it’s not sufficient to know about differences on an abstract level, we need to experience them to recognize them, and this transitional period takes time. But it also requires a willingness ‘to see’. If we feel more secure by keeping on the blinkers we will never be able to accept or be accepted in the new environment.

The defensive stage occurs after such recognition and is a reflection of just how disturbing it is when we see how alien the host culture is. We need to cling to a concept of what is normal and so we perceive the new culture as skewed. Our own way of doing things is automatically better and right. And it is often counter intuitive. I confess again. I was in the habit of treating my French secretary as an equal. I would ask her so politely to do things ‘if she had time’, if she wouldn’t mind’. She did nothing. In France, you give a subordinate an order otherwise it is not interpreted as requiring action. I resisted this for ages. How abrupt, how rude, I thought. How much more civilized to be egalitarian and indirect like the British.

Clearly this position is going to cause difficulty if it results in confrontations between us and our co-workers. As the outsider, we will be seen as arrogant at best, perhaps stupid and na?ve at worst, and people will sense that we do not respect or trust their way of doing things. Yet even so, this stage is a step forward. We do at least know that the differences exist and we now need to build bridges so that we look for what works best in the given situation.

The stage of minimization can be seen as a means of overcoming our defensiveness. In order to cope with the differences, we try to minimize their significance and concentrate instead on the common values and needs that humanity shares. While this