Give three compelling examples of how cultural issues affect your project.
The first cultural issue that is going to affect our COPRA project is the Filipino family-centered and hierarchical society. In the Philippines, there exists a concept called “pakikisma” that expresses the need for comradeship and for decisions to be made by the group. The actions of individual members reflect upon the entire family. Respect for elders is central to society and the family. Not surprisingly, respect for authority from those in inferior positions can also be considered a norm. In the Philippines, the power distance index (PDI), which was developed by Geert Hofstede to measure the cultural dimensions, is 94, the fourth highest in the world. PDI is an indicator of how much a culture does or does not respect for authority and value hierarchical relationships, as well as “the degree to which the less powerful member of organizations or institutions (like the family) accept and expect that power is distributed unequally” [1]. The high power distance index implies the idea that those in inferior positions, such as the copra farmers, are willing to accept and expect social inequality. For example, even though pricing is an issue, most copra farmers are likely to just accept the situation. Another consequence is that as the elders might believe that they are knowledgeable and having nothing to learn or improve, young people might not bring ideas forward. Under these conditions, innovations might not be welcomed owing to the fear of being too progressive.
Another cultural issue that might affect our ability to increase the income of copra farmers is due to the political issues around the coconut industry. For example, the Coco Levy Fund that originally aimed to promote the development of the coconut industry turned out to be corrupted, being used for personal profit to purchase United Coconut Planters Bank and a majority stake in San Miguel Corporation [2]. Coconuts farmers, up to this day, are still fighting for justice against unfair taxation. Of course, politics is always a sensitive issue, and it might be beyond the scope of our project. With that said, an understanding of the political and economic culture in the Philippines is definitely required to create a viable and sustainable platform.
A third culture issue that might affect our ability to work productively is Filipino Time – being late and start things late are considered as a part of the culture. One of the main reasons for this tardiness in the culture is the congested traffic that Filipinos have to go through in Manila, Philippines. Another reason is that the poor public transportation has resulted in a very long commuting time. However, some people in the Philippines might just decide to be late, which is called “fashionably time.” This Filipino time culture is contagious, from social gatherings, business meetings to even the aviation industry. Filipino time has transcended from a habit to become a form of branding of the people. As a result, as a student research group from the US, we might find it difficult to work with our research partners and coconut stakeholders, simply because to us, time is gold.
Have you experienced or observed any of these social situations at home? Describe at least three such situations.
Growing up in Vietnam I have been exposed to the culture that is both hierarchical and time-elastic. For example, at a very young age, I was taught to be always polite and respectful to my peers, teachers, families, and authorities. I need to nod my head whenever I met any adults, teachers, and elders. Like the Filipinos, the Vietnamese also has the elasticity in our time standard. For example, if the wedding starts at 4:30 pm, it is common to show up at 6:30 pm. Another example is that if we decide to gather for an annual high school catchup, be expected that there will be a couple of people late to the meeting from 30 minutes to an hour. And this is normal. If you’re late, it’s alright to be late too. With that said, the Vietnamese are very punctual for school and business meetings, at least in my opinion. It seems like we tend to set high standards for academic and business-related works but not so high for social gatherings.
Give three examples of cultural practices that can be leveraged to addressed community/ market problems.
First, regarding Filipino time, I would say that it is important for us to be upfront with our research partners from the University of the Philippines about our time-efficient standard and see how they would respond. We also need to take into consideration the horrific traffic in Manila when we travel around the city and visit the copra farmers. Second, we can leverage the culture that places significance on the community values to perhaps create a business framework that is engaging and attractive to families and communities. Third, Filipinos are outgoing people who usually don’t consider it rude to ask personal questions. Therefore, we should learn how to ask effective questions (Dr. Whitney will probably have a workshop on this next week) so that we might able to get more useful and direct information about the copra supply chain in the Philippines.
References:
[1] Padua, M. A. K. A. (2015). Small farmer access to premium prices for copra in the Philippines: a case study of the coconut oil chain in Camarines Sur province (Master Thesis, Lincoln University, Auckland, New Zealand). Retrieved from: https://hdl.handle.net/10182/6741
[2] Panesa, E. F. “Cojuangco loses claim to UCPB block”. Manila Bulletin. MB.com.ph. Retrieved 4 December 2007.