American culture

Every time that questions are brought up regarding American culture and office etiquette, a common mistake is made – people refer to said culture as a single item, not accounting for its nature and history. No consideration is put into the fact that there is no such thing as ‘American’ culture, but rather a mix of almost any work ethic out there, which doesn’t always borrow the best parts from foreign ethics. With the huge ethnical diversity, the differences between management in various companies are very significant. Over the years of migration from European and Asian countries, America has become the global kitchen sink of nationalities, resulting in a wide variety of managerial methods. There is no set strict set of expectations to be had when preparing for moving into the American market; only generalizations and overall hints.

In those general hints, it could be seen that the main managerial goal in America is to get the job done through any means. Newer companies constantly employ new work routines that allow their workers to work at a pace that is more suitable for them instead of hard-set hours in Asian firms, for example. At rare occasions, quality is put before speed, allowing some employees to procrastinate for a while, as long as there is no loss in productivity. Foreign employees don’t always catch the true meaning of such behavior, misinterpreting it as having the right for leisure during their work hours, and resulting in less than desirable results. Similarly, employees who come from countries with a strict work ethic can’t bring themselves to get even a modest share of ‘slacking off’, alienating them from their colleagues over time. Due to often going up the managerial chain themselves and knowing how it is ‘down there’, American managers usually don’t tend to go excessively hard on their subordinates in terms of communicating and delegating tasks, keeping the office atmosphere discharged oftentimes. However, as in the previous case, that is only possible under the circumstances when the work is going as planned and deadlines are being met. Here, the American managerial ways are slightly bipolar, going from soft positive motivation to strong negative motivation, which may sometimes scare foreign employees and break their pace of adaptation, further pushing them away from their co-workers. However, what the American office code excels at, is employee communication. The bonds between colleagues in America take the golden spot between the moderate distance of Asian employees and the fraternity of some post-Soviet organizations. While no familiarities is accepted between the average worker and the higher management chain, the lower branches of the organization that work close to each other may often become quite informal between each other, especially if placed in the same environment/office/operation for a long time. With the amount of teamwork training sessions American corporations have, they can easily create a pleasant environment to work in, employing methods such as the Thunderdome – a temporary company-wide operation allowing employees to basically work on whatever they want for a certain amount of time. Some companies, such as Riot Games (one of the recent most successful game developer companies) goes to the point where the motivation for employees to work is actually working in the office – the employees know each other in person a lot, playing games in breaks and holding gaming tournaments between employees.

The main thing that should be always remembered when working at an American company should be that it can be different. The managerial ways can change drastically over a short amount of time, and the environment dynamically changing. The good in the motivation and coordination methods is that they are the true middle between the contrasts of other countries’ office policies; but at the same time, it’s the worst part – any foreign worker would, without doubt, find himself in conflict with the managerial system, even if very slightly. Adapting to an American environment is always hard; but Americans are quick to adapt themselves.