I watched Dr. Sheena Iyengar’s video (Iyengar, 2010) on www.ted.com. I listened intently and found
myself backing the video up to be sure that I got everything that she said. I was not only edified but I
was also entertained. She started out by telling a personal story about being in Japan and ordering a
cup of green tea with sugar. The waiter informed her that sugar is not used in green tea. She persisted
and the restaurant manager became involved. He informed Dr. Iyengar that they did not have sugar.
She then decided to order a cup of coffee. When the coffee was delivered, on the side of the saucer,
she found sugar packets. She surmised that the waiter and manager were helping her save face. In
this situation, she was not given a choice. I believe that this had everything to do with cultural
differences and beliefs.
She
then described multiple cultural/social experiments that she performed. The first and most interesting was when they
brought Anglo and Asian children into a room and gave them choices with control
measures. There were three groups each
of Anglo children and Asian children who were given the following choices: The first group could each pic their own
pictographs and marker colors, the second group was given a pictograph and
marker color chosen by Ms. Smith and the third group was told that their mother
had chosen their pictograph and marker color.
The results were profound. In the
first group, the Anglo children chose more pictographs whereas the Asian Children
chose less. In the Second group the
Asian children performed better than the Anglo children. Finally, the in the third group, the Asian
children performed better that the Anglo Children where their “Mothers” had
chosen the pictographs and marker colors for them. I made the assumption that the Asian children
were more comfortable when not given choices and told what to do and the Anglo
children performed better when they made their own choices and were not told
what to do. It reminded me of a news
broadcast that I once saw about the Asian Tiger Mom. I can’t recall if I saw it on 20/20,
60-Minutes or ABC’s Good Morning America.
However, I did a search on Google
and found information on Wikipedia ("Tiger
Mother," 2015). According to
the wiki, “
Tiger mother (or tiger
mum, Chinese: 虎媽) is a strict
or demanding mother who pushes her children to high levels of achievement,
using methods regarded as typical of childrearing in
East Asia, South Asia and Southeast Asia.[1][2][3][4] The
term is coined by Yale law professor Amy Chua in
her memoir Battle Hymn
of the Tiger Mother, which gave some Asian Americans and Asian
parents the “license” to be as strict in order to ensure the success of their
children in today's competitive global economy.[5]
Advocates
suggest a strict approach to parenting produces an exceptionally high
proportion of top performers – kids who display academic excellence across the
board with great musical ability and professional success later in life.[6]”
The name “Amy Chua” tickled a memory
and I believe that it was indeed her that was interviewed and discussed her
memoir, mentioned above. It is my
recollection that she portrayed herself as the ultimate “helicopter”
parent. Omnipresent. Always injecting and directing.
According to
Dr. Iyengar, Americans, unlike their Asian counterparts, believe the following when
it comes to making choices:
1.
Make your own choices,
2.
More options leads
[sic] to better choices, and
3.
Never say no to
choices.
I gave great thought to Dr. Iyengar’s
assumptions and tend to completely agree with her. The implication of her comments on leadership
speak volumes to me about cultural awareness.
It is evident that we must culturally aware when leading organizations
that are culturally diverse.
In closing, Dr. Iyengar spoke of
another action research experiment in her final remarks. She states that she went to a nail salon and
when asked what color of nail polish she wished, she informed the nail technician
that she was blind. She asked the nail
technician to select color options for her. The nail technician chose colors of pink with
one being ballet slipper which she was informed was elegant and adorable which
was glamorous. Unable to see, she chose
one. She wondered if the names
influenced the nail technician. She took
a bottle of each back to her lab and removed the labels. When she questioned her test subjects, some
informed her that the colors were exactly the same. I have concluded that not only does culture
play apart in her research but so do perceived influence.
