MANILA, Philippines — It is a scene all too familiar in a company or department peopled by Filipino employees and headed by a Western manager. Something slips, and the Caucasian boss calls the mistake on the spot, reprimanding the hapless employee on the spot.

Though there is nothing malicious in what he properly regards as a candid statement designed to improve on the error, the Filipino employee does not take it well and just clams up, if not burst outright into tears (especially if she is female). Neither does the performance over the subsequent days improve.

Worse, the morale of the department seems to suffer, as an unnamed anxiety and nervousness creep in to cripple everyone’s actions. In the meantime, the manager wonders what he has done wrong.

Or take another scenario that baffles expatriate management used to the virtues of candid conversation. Matters are discussed and concluded in a foreign meeting. Asked by the boss for their opinion, reservations and comments, the other workers in the room stay silent.

Fifteen minutes later, after everyone has dispersed, someone from the group approaches the boss, ostensibly representing every other member, and raising the very same concerns and recommendations that should have been attacked earlier.

Synergy

What foreign managers may interpret as timidity or a hive mentality, F. Landa Jocano Jr., a professor of socio-anthropology at the University of the Philippines, attributes to an important Filipino value: “hiya” or a sense of shame.

He explains the second situation: “A Filipino employee does not want to feel that napahiya siya (he is shamed) if his suggestions are turned down, and at the same time, he does not want to shame the boss who is talking” by confronting him with sensitive, difficult issues that may lead to some heated exchanges.

He tells foreign managers who ask to be illuminated about this particular scenario: “You may find it weird, but your employees are protecting your face as well as theirs. By addressing their concerns in private, adjustments can be made quietly.” And as to the first scene, criticism given in a public space, despite all good intentions, will turn out to be ultimately counterproductive Villegasin the long run.

These are snippets of advice that Locano often gives in the lectures and workshops on cross-cultural adaptation techniques that he conducts for private firms and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The owners or the executive committees of said organizations request for his help to help the new foreign managers who are coming in, or their colleagues who still grapple with the nuances of Filipino culture despite their years-long residence in the country.

Jocano maintains that there is a synergy between management and culture, or the dynamics that underlie a corporation’s operations, mission and vision with the larger set of values, beliefs and practices that can be found in the greater context of the society of the country.

This thin line is rarely noticed and felt until two distinct cultures are made to inhabit the same workplace, like an American boss running a Philippine-based and/or Filipino-owned company; or at the other end, when Filipino companies set up franchises, with Filipino executives and employees in tow, in the United States and other Southeast Asian countries.

Regardless of who is making the transfer, there are two cultural values that will always be present whenever a group of Filipinos come together to work and live for an extensive period of time: a sense of family and the almost instinctive capacity to create a relationship. A Filipino tends to be more personal; he is constantly aware of the people around him and his standing with them, especially the ones he holds dear—and he does not want to be shamed in front of them.

Relational Culture

“Our family ties are so strong even when we relate to each other in the urban setting,” Jocano continues. “We make it a point to meet each other once a week. Relatives help in taking care of a child if both parents are working. We tend to be respectful of our elders. And we call strangers we don’t know ‘kuya’, ‘ate’, or ‘tito’, which are kinship terms, because we are used to this.”

This desire to connect is probably one reason why the country has made it to the top of the list of the largest members of social media sites in the world. Jocano opines that it explains a little of the much criticized “Filipino time,” especially the lack of punctuality in some corporate events.

He takes a look at the ubiquitous cocktail: “We distinguish corporate time like formal meetings from social time like the ones we spend with our friends. And in the Philippines, if you have a social time like a party in a friend’s house—it starts one hour later. Now apply that to a cocktail that can be categorized as a social time; you set it at 8 p.m. but people come in at 9 p.m.

I tell the organizers to simply extend the cocktail time before they start the program proper. They’ll get more mileage because the guests will use that first hour networking and bonding.”

With this sense of family also comes a sense of accountability or “pananagutan”. Jocano observes that companies, firm owners or managers who tend to take care of their employees or show concern for them tend to get greater productivity. Morale and motivation increase when the employees feel that they are part of a family and can regard their bosses as benevolent father or mother figures. At the same time, ethical guidelines and clear lines of accountability must be set in place to ensure that both parties deliver what is expected from them, preserving the relationship and the trust.

“Care is translated into empowerment,” Jocano continues. “The owner demands very high standards but he takes care of the employees as if they were his own children.” And when certain benefits are not within the parameters of the corporate budget or have not yet been ingrained in the policy handbook, these paternal-type owners are not above shelling out of their own pocket to help employees in need.

He cites some unofficial practices in some companies he had been privy to: “If someone dies, abuloy is given without a fuss. If someone’s child has to be sent to school, the boss looks for a scholarship. It doesn’t matter in the end whether the employee is paid a high or low salary—he feels taken care of.”

To increase a Filipino owner’s sense of ownership about his job, make him increase his sense of belonging in the company. It may be one way to fight the so-called “5 o’clock habit” that sees Pinoy employees punching out at 5 p.m. sharp regardless of whether the work has been done or not. Jocano counters, pointing to the Filipino capacity of giving malasakit (compassion) to his loved ones: “How well do these employers know these employees guilty of doing Filipino time? How good is their relationship with them? Because if the relationship is good, the employees will do everything to please their boss, even come on time.”

Transparency and profit-sharing would also go a long way in boosting trust and motivation. Jocano gives an example that happened during the economic crunch, “This Tsinoy boss gave his employees a choice whether to hold the usual Christmas party or divide what should have been a cost into small bonuses for the employees. The workforce voted on it—and to a man, they chose the bonus.”

Finally, he counsels the expatriate managers who come from a culture that encourages and welcomes direct criticism: “In the Philippines, the public face is very important. Praise in public but reprimand in private where no one can hear you. Your colleagues will feel motivated. Dahil binibigyan mo siya ng hiya, makukuha mo ang kalooban niya (because you have given the employee a chance to save face, you’ll get him on your side) to get things done.”