when cultures collide

The Lewis Model is based on data drawn from 50,000 executives taking residential courses and more than 150,000 online questionnaires to 68 different nationalities and has produced the following tripartite comparison according to country.

The Linear-active group is easily identified. It comprises: the English-speaking world – North America, Britain, Australia and New Zealand, and Northern Europe, including Scandinavia and Germanic countries. Linear-Actives are task-oriented, highly-organized planners, who complete action chains by doing one thing at ta time, preferably in accordance with a linear agenda.

The Reactive group is located in all major countries in Asia. Reactives are good listeners, who rarely initiate action or discussion, preferring first to listen to and establish the other’s position, then react to it and form their own opinion.

Hybrids: Nations like Israel, India and Canada are hybrids, and fall outside of the typical pattern or dominant trait of the groups.

The Multi-actives are more scattered: Southern Europe, Mediterranean countries, South America, sub-Saharan Africa, Arab and other cultures in the Middle East, India and Pakistan and most of the Slavs. Though these cultures are wildly diverse, geographically and in their religions, beliefs and values, they can be categorized as a group, as behaviorally they follow the same pattern with the following traits and commonalities: emotion, talkativeness, rhetoric, drama, eloquence, persuasion, expressive body language, importance of religion or creed, primacy of family bonds, low trust societies, un-punctuality, variable work ethic, volatility, inadequate planning, capacity for compassion, collectivism, relationship-orientation, situational truth, dislike of officialdom, tactility, sociability, nepotism, excitability, changeability, sense of history, unease with strict discipline

NB! While the three types are distinctive, each possesses behavioral elements from the other two categories. It is a question of which one is dominant. Many individuals deviate from the national type in a work situation e.g. engineers and accountants tend to be Linear, sales people Multi-active, lawyers and doctors Reactive.

Employees in international companies often tend to be a copy of their employers, and the cultures they have their roots in. If you look at a Filipino / Filipina seafarer who works for a Norwegian ship owner, he or she will adapt to the traits of their employer; though their dominant DNA is somewhat different. When it comes to ‘actions on deck’ with a multi-national crew, there can differences, but if the employer has a clear ‘company culture’, that is what creates a united ship, with respect and tolerance for differences.

Dominant characteristics:
The various characteristics are summed up in the table below.

Personal experience: We really embrace this model, but we do have our own twist to it. Whilst Lewis talk about cultures, we talk about ‘brains’ (or rather; how the brains are structured for the three groups). The lineal-active we call the ‘Excel-brains’, where everything works best in straight lines and linearity. The multi-actives have the brain of Power Point; with free flow of lines, colors and shapes. The reactives; are like Word; where people can write a bunch of words - wrapping up a message - not to offend. Perhaps Microsoft did something useful when creating the Office Platform…