Ten Mistakes to Avoid in Working With Latin Americans

Ten Mistakes to Avoid in Working with Latin Americans

By
William A. Naughton, Ph.D

Copyright © 2003

Boundless opportunities exist for successful relations with Latin Americans. Some disagreements and conflicts persist, but the growing sense of hemispheric partnership since the 1994 Summit of the Americas is leading to expanding government cooperation and commercial ties in all areas. Yet, many U.S. officials and representatives complicate and even damage relations by making needless mistakes in their dealings with Latin Americans. Making it worse, many of those mistakes can go unnoticed until they create serious problems because they involve subtle differences in cultural values and customs. Most of those problems can be avoided or minimized with careful awareness and sensitivity.

Which mistakes are most serious? And how can they be avoided? Based on my own more than 40 years of experience in working with Latin Americans and with U.S. personnel dealing with Latin Americans, I would highlight the following:

Mistake #1: Being patronizing to Latin Americans.

Most of us are so accustomed to seeing the United States as the best and most advanced country and the world's "leader" that we often unconsciously tend to see other countries and people as less sophisticated and believe that all they really need is to learn to do things "the American way." As a result, we often simply try to impose our ways on Latin Americans and others without understanding and appreciating their values and perspectives.

Such an ethnocentric approach often borders on arrogance and inevitably rankles Latin Americans, who rightfully take pride in their own traditions and culture. Although they are seeking more effective ways to deal with national issues and participate in international affairs--and they admire many "American ways"-- they know from experience that "Anglo-American" approaches often do not work as well within a Latin culture. At a minimum, they need adaptation to local values and customs.

Successful U.S. businessmen and diplomats know this. To be successful, you need to show respect for Latin American customs and not try to impose U.S. values and ways in your dealings with Latinos. And once you understand their ways, you will be in a better position to assess which mix of approaches would work bet in that particular culture. In the process of working cooperatively together, both sides gain from the trust that builds from a relationship of mutual respect.

Mistake #2: Assuming that Latin American values and ways are identical to those of Anglo-Americans.

Some inexperienced Anglo-Americans make a somewhat different mistake in assuming that "Latins are just like us"--a phrase once used by a senior U.S. official. We do share many values, goals and customs, and success requires reinforcing and building on those common values. But our conflicting values and customs create the most serious barriers to understanding and successful relations.

Latin America's Iberian heritage often contrasts sharply with Anglo-Saxon patterns found in the United States. The problem is that each side sees its own customs as "natural" and "right"--and see "foreign" ways as not as good. That often leads to cross-cultural mistrust and friction. To compound the problem, the true causes of conflict are often so subtle that they go unrecognized until damage is already done. And then it's much more difficult to restore cordial relations.

To succeed with Latin Americans, you have to understand and respect their perspectives and values, and help them understand and appreciate yours. Such understanding strengthens mutual trust.

Mistake #3: Overgeneralizing and stereotyping "Latin American" values and customs.

Latin Americans share many values and perspectives stemming from the continuing powerful influence of their common Iberian heritage. And Latins themselves recognize that they share much more in common with each other than they do with people from the United States or Canada. But each country has its own culture and historical experiences which make it unique, and stereotyping "Latin Americans" is not only wrong, it creates resentment. Latin Americans take great pride in their own country of origin and see themselves as Mexicans or Colombians or Chileans or Brazilians. An more particularly, they see themselves as individuals deserving respect for their uniqueness. They dislike being lumped together as "Latin Americans."

To work successfully with Latin Americans, you need to avoid over-generalizing and make it a point to emphasize and show respect for the values and sources of pride of the particular Latin American country with which you are dealing.

Mistake #4. Failing to develop trusting personal rapport with Latin Americans.

There is probably no more decisive factor in the success or failure of government-to-government relations or business dealings with Latin Americans than the extent to which you are able to establish trusting interpersonal rapport. Latins give great importance to being able to trust people with whom they work. People in the United States seem to have less of a need. We tend to put our trust in governments or particular companies to be reliable. Latins tend to distrust impersonal institutions and put much greater reliance on personal relationships.

To succeed with Latin Americans, you must work actively to gain their confidence and trust. No matter how prestigious your agency or firm, if you cannot convince your Latin American associates that you are personally reliable, you will probably fail in your dealings with them. And that trustworthiness must be sincere, not simply playing a role. The U.S. government and most firms now give much higher priority to picking representatives who can develop such rapport. But not all people can. And those government and business representatives who do not--or cannot---develop trusting personal relations with their Latin American associates are doomed to failure or mediocre performance at best, usually at considerable cost to the government or firm they represent.

Mistake #5: Not showing sufficient respect for their Latin American associates to at least try to acquire basic communication skills in their language.

Nothing pleases Latin Americans more than sincere expressions of respect for their culture and for national achievements in which they take great pride. That means learning as much as you can about their country and culture, and especially proper social and business protocol within that culture. It also means showing enough respect to learn at least basic communication skills in their language. No one expects language fluency or even facility, but just demonstrating that you want to speak their language says a great deal about your respect for them. On the other hand, showing a lack of interest in even trying to learn basic expressions also says a great deal about your respect for them. Most U.S. Government agencies and global companies normally give high priority to having their representatives learn to communicate well in the language of the country where they will serve as representatives. Yet, there are still many U.S. officials and businessmen who do not bother to learn much about the country or culture of the Latin Americans with whom they are working, much less attempt to learn their language. That's an immediate mark against that person when he or she is trying to create a favorable impression--and first impressions are extremely important to Latin Americans.

If your work involves close and frequent association with Latin Americans, you would benefit greatly from reading extensively about their country and culture and from taking out some tapes on Spanish or Portuguese--or taking a short language immersion course in the particular language. It doesn't take that much to show respect, and the benefits are immeasurable.

Mistake #6: Not learning enough about your own Anglo-American values and customs, particularly those which clash with Latino ways and most irritate some of the very people you are seeking to impress.

Many people from the United States are surprised and perplexed by how many of the very customs and styles in which they take most pride can clash with Latin American styles and practices. But that should not surprise them since most of those customs are based on Anglo-Saxon values and traditions. It should be more surprising to find Anglo-American styles succeeding in Latin cultures without modification. Some styles do work well, of course, because of shared universal values or Latin American experience with U.S. methods. But in most cases, styles need to be adapted to fit the local culture. For example, our particular governmental, legal and business practices are based heavily on English traditions. They may go over in former English colonies in the Caribbean but not with Latins of Iberian heritage. Yet, we take those practices so much for granted that we naturally assume that they will work as well in other cultures. Not true. And not only do they not always work with Latin Americans and others brought up with differing values, but Latins resent it if we try to impose our styles and practices on them--which we quite often do. One past U.S. effort to "modernize" Latin American civil law practices, for example, failed miserably because we tried to convert them from using the Napoleonic Code followed in Latin America to practicing U.S. common law concepts based on English tradition.

Avoiding such mistakes requires that you objectively analyze the very values and customs you were brought up to see as universal norms in your culture. That's not easy without help. Fortunately, various studies are available which provide that assistance. And as you come to see those customs as foreigners see them, you gain insight as to why they may or may not work as well in someone else's culture. That knowledge will also help you explain your own styles to them in objective terms unbiased by ethnocentric arrogance. Latins appreciate such information since they often experience their own misperceptions and confusion in working with people from the United States.

Mistake #7: Assuming in particular that U.S. management and negotiating styles will succeed without modification within a Latin American country.

As successful as advanced U.S. management and negotiating styles may be when applied within the United States, they are successful largely because they appeal to Anglo-American-based U.S. values. U.S. emphasis on competition and achievement, for example, helps explain our tendency to be hard-charging workaholics and to rely on individual initiative, while our strong tradition of egalitarianism explains the success of participatory management and use of project teams. And U.S. pragmatism reflects our preference for practical results and our willingness to compromise in resolving disputes.

But prevailing Latin American values and traditions are quite different, and we should never assume that our management and negotiating styles will work without modification when dealing with Latins. Latin American traditions of authoritarianism, personalism and emphasis on family and interpersonal ties, for example, create a much different government and business environment that require adaptation of U.S. styles. But this by no means implies less efficiency or productivity. A study of sister manufacturing companies in the U.S. and Mexico, for example, showed that applying locally based management and work styles can provide a more satisfying environment without lessening productivity.

And in negotiations, Latins tend to be more idealistic and see little inherent value in the U.S. preference for compromise. In fact, there is no direct translation of "compromise" in either Spanish or Portuguese. "Compromiso" and "compromisso" mean "commitment." For that reason, the only kind of negotiations that will work with Latin Americans is a "win-win" approach clearly benefitting both sides. And the best approach to conflict resolution is one that is recognized as fair and sensitive to both parties' perspectives and concerns.

Innovative approaches in management and negotiations can be successfully applied as long as you apply them with sensitivity to local customs and they are seen as benefitting all concerned--and as long as you are seen as ready to modify them if they run into problems. Changing cultural values does not come easily, and trying to force changes can provoke serious resistance and resentment. But with understanding and mutual trust, new approaches can be turned into positive collaboration combining the best of both cultures and avoiding unnecessary friction.

Mistake #8: Not learning how your Latin American associates view the United States and our ways of doing things.

Seeing ourselves as others see us can be both surprising and sobering, but it is essential if we're going to understand their attitudes and forge a relationship of trust and cooperation. It also enables us to work more successfully with them by helping us to understand their perceptions and likely reactions to what we do. This is especially true regarding Latin Americans. The history of U.S.-Latin American relations is replete with misperceptions, conflicting interests, policies geared mainly in pursuit of U.S. interests, use of pressure tactics and frequent ineptness in handling cross-cultural relations. And the history of U.S. business in Latin America retains lingering memories of uncaring exploitation and self-serving policies and pressure of a past era. But such a history has created some underlying mistrust on the part of many Latin Americans.

Reading Latin American accounts of the United States and openly seeking their views on U.S. government and business policies and behavior are the best means of understanding their perspectives on the issues of concern to both sides. Such open discussion also enables you to correct misperceptions on both sides and strengthen an atmosphere of confidence and trust.

Mistake #9: Not recognizing how to deal with irreconcilable differences in ways that will lead to success in other areas.

Even trusting and mutually beneficial relationships will occasionally encounter irreconcilable conflicts on essential issues. After all, each side is seeking to promote its own particular interests, and conflicts in those interests are bound to arise. With goodwill and a focus on long-term relations, such conflicts can often be resolved in acceptable ways. But not always. And for that reason, not all negotiations will succeed. But having a particular arrangement fall through is not the worst possible outcome: it may be much better than having an agreement which one side sees as unfair, leading to resentment that would doom the trusting partnership that was supposed to have been established in the first place.

Maintaining that broader trusting relationship is what is most important. For even if you cannot agree on particular arrangements at the time, conditions may change and other opportunities arise that will enable you to reach new arrangements. And the underlying relationship of trust can lead to expanding trusting relations with other Latins. Interpersonal trust is such a core value among Latin Americans that they will often recommend you to other friends as a "person of confidence" even though your specific arrangement with them ran into irreconcilable problems. That's what trust and friendship are all about.

Mistake #10: Failing to nourish your relationship with Latin American associates over the long term.

Successful personal relationships with Latin Americans must be cultivated and nourished over the long term, especially since Latins tend to see agreements and even contracts and treaties as personal arrangements which may need adjustment as conditions change or problems arise. The common U.S. view that "a contract is a contract" to be fulfilled under threat of litigation clashes with Latin American values and can severely damage the underlying trust that enabled the agreement in the first place. Moreover, the lingering Latin American mistrust of the U.S. government and business as interested only in their own benefits needs to be handled with great care.

This means careful nourishment of relationships, with frequent personal contact and consultations maintained with Latin American associates and ensuring that you seek and respect their insight on matters involving their country. And decisions must be based on mutual benefits for all parties concerned. As long as you can keep your eye on the long-term relationship of trust and confidence--and as long as you treat your Latin American associates with the same respect, fairness and consideration with which you expect others to treat you--you will achieve enormous success in your relations with Latin Americans.


Much more detailed discussion of these and many other related topics can be found in Dr. Naughton's Working Successfully With Latin Americans and Negotiating Successfully With Latin Americans. For more details, e-mail Dr. Naughton at WmNaughton@netscape.net:

You may also find the following of interest:

The Need for Greater Understanding in Inter-American Relations
The Importance of Shared Values in Inter-American Relations
Conflicting Interests in Inter-American Relations
Cultural Conflict in Inter-American Relations
Differing Styles and Business Practices in Inter-American Relations
Two Core Studies on Inter-American Understanding:

About Dr. Naughton

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