Being able to blend cultures can prove to be a “beneficial superpower” in international trade talks and global corporate arrangements, according to research by Northeastern assistant professor Priyan Khakhar.
LONDON — A study authored by a Northeastern University researcher found that hiring senior staff who are comfortable in more than one culture to conduct international negotiations can help “supercharge” the bottom line for businesses.
Research carried out by Priyan Khakharhead of international business at Northeastern University in London and others have found that people who are considered “bicultural” seem to have an advantage when it comes to bridging the gaps between two different cultures.
Khakhar and his colleagues — Hussain Gulzar Ramma of the University of Adelaide in Australia and Vijay Pereira of the NEOMA Business School in Reims, France — define biculturals as people who “have internalized two or more cultures.”
The findings were presented last month in The European Business Reviewa magazine aimed at world leaders and other professionals.
The study, “Biculturalists in international business negotiations: moving away from the single culture paradigm”, published in the Journal of Organizational Change Management, explored how biculturals “possess higher cultural intelligence than monocultural individuals.” He found that their cultural knowledge and the way they hold multiple identities can influence business negotiations and “help their businesses stand out from the rest.”
Khakhar said they chose 35 bicultural senior officials in Lebanon to interview because the Middle Eastern country has seen regular patterns of migration and return over the past five decades due to instability, including a civil war between 1975 and 1990 and the 2006 war with Israel.
In addition to Lebanon, participants experienced cultures in countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Australia, Canada, Armenia, and Brazil.
After using artificial intelligence to pick out topics from the interviews, Khakhar said the researchers found that biculturals had the ability to be “one person, two personalities,” with respondents often suggesting that they could tap into a different part of of their personality when they speak another language. .
This shifting identity and ability to mix cultures, according to Khakhar's article in The European Business Review, is a “beneficial superpower” that can “help create understanding and synergy between parties with different cultural backgrounds.”
A second finding was the ability of those immersed in various cultures to switch between different ways of thinking.
“When it comes to international cross-cultural communication, there's always room for miscommunication because sometimes we don't understand customs or nuances,” Khakhar told Northeastern Global News.
“So there's a bridge-building ability that these biculturals have. And, as a result, their adaptability was higher.”
Third, the research found, the assistant professor said, that biculturals were innovative thinkers, creative and more resistant to following so-called “groupthink.”
The professor's analysis also found that such people had the ability to immerse themselves in large global corporations more easily than someone from a single culture.
Khakhar, who previously lived and taught in Beirut, argues that employing a bicultural person can have benefits in certain business situations.
Being able to make connections between different cultures can “nudge the negotiation in a certain direction, even if it's in an implicit way,” the assistant professor said.
Khakhar said, “When it comes to building bridges, there are implicit connections that [biculturals] create nuances with language, linguistics and understanding'.
He suggested that a corporate American company may find that a Japanese employee who has studied and lived in America can prove to be a “good negotiator” to strike deals with a Tokyo company, as their dual experience could help create a mutual relationship.
But Khakhar said there are two sides to the argument and that context would be key when making hiring decisions.
He continued: “I'm not saying that bicultural people will be Superman or Superwoman in negotiations because of their upbringing, their background or their ethnic mixes.
“There are also studies out there that show that if biculturalism is not navigated properly, it can lead to psychological effects like confusion — it can lead to things like decision-making paralysis.
“So when it comes to selecting managers, obviously their culture is not the only hiring criterion. It's about the overall mix.
“But if there was that ability there — they call it bicultural integration ability and there's a scale that measures it — then that would be a plus.
“They have the ability to successfully navigate two or three cultures when not everyone can.”