Cultural Cringe: Still Active in Australian Business?

A 2008 study says Australians are less comfortable promoting business interests than business-builders in several other countries.

The study was conducted by well-known U.S. scientists, Shannon L. Goodson, George W. Dudley and Trelitha R. Bryant.

The research team examined attitudes towards business-building in more than 199,000 sales and non-sales professionals scattered across 34 nations including 46,177 Australians.

“While Australians seemed less willing to be constrained by the ever-present cultural cringe right before and immediately after the 2000 Olympics, it still inhibits business development today,” Shannon Goodson said.

Curiously, 3% of Australian salespeople are not comfortable speaking with anyone. However, Australians are not the most reluctant to promote their business interests. Salespeople in Denmark, New Zealand, India and Japan are most reticent. The dubious honor for non-sales professionals goes to Finland. But salespeople in the U.S., Norway, Canada, China, South Africa and Sweden are less hesitant than Australians. Non-sales professionals in China, Iceland and Ireland are more comfortable promoting themselves and their business interests than their Australian counterparts.

Compared to the U.S., professional salespeople in Australia worry more about outcomes, experience more guilt and shame about being in sales, are more concerned about appearing intrusive, are less likely to make optimum use of referrals, and are more hesitant to use the telephone.

Dudley and Goodson have been studying the attitudes of Australian salespeople towards business building for over twenty years. The results of their current multi-nation study are being prepared for presentation at the 2009 annual convention of the Southwestern Psychological Association in San Antonio, Texas.

Source: Behavioral Sciences Research Press International