TABLE OF CONTENTS The great Chinese social philosopher Confucius taught about the Five Proper Relationships, one of which was ruler and subject. This can be extended to the bond between employer and employee. While Confucius did say that a junior person should point out if the senior person errs, most of the advice given involves deep respect and loyalty to the superior. Western philosophy, on the other hand, is more grounded in Socrates, who suggests that while these employer/employee relationships are important, there are societal rules and/or laws that supersede them. Both cultural differences go deep and historically far into the past.
In order for culturally different employees to stay in the organizations that have hired them, they need to work effectively with their managers. If their managers consider them poor employees, they are unlikely to get past the probation period; if they do, they are likely to feel that they are going nowhere in the organization and will probably leave after a few years because they believe they have no future there. When employees do not come from the same cultural backgrounds as their direct managers, two major issues commonly arise.
Employees and managers may have very different ideas of what being a good employee means because they have different perceptions of hierarchy. As a result, employees may feel they are doing an excellent job when their managers are ready to terminate their probation period or to put them on a performance-improvement plan.
Employees and managers may have very different ways...
