Working in an international company, I’ve experienced cultural differences firsthand between various nationalities. A year ago, I wrote a review of The Culture Map, a book I constantly recommend to colleagues. However, this topic is so broad and fascinating that it keeps resurfacing, especially as the understanding of these differences allows me to notice them in the behavior of those around me almost daily.
Today, I’d like to delve deeper into differences in trust and loyalty. Instead of comparing everyone, let’s focus on the typical American and the typical Russian. By “Russians,” I mean people from the former USSR, as this is how we are often viewed abroad. Of course, this is a diverse mix, and we’re not all the same (for example, I can clearly see differences between Russians and Belarusians, and within Russia itself, there are plenty of distinctions due to the sheer size of the country).
But when it comes to trust and loyalty, these internal differences aren’t as important, nor is the diversity within the U.S. population. Why? Because we are almost at opposite ends of the spectrum. Therefore, these internal differences are just small ripples in the larger picture.
According to Erin Meyer, Americans tend to build trust on task-based grounds, while for us, relationships (relationship-based trust) are far more important. In Asian cultures, this is even more pronounced than it is for Russians. Here’s where Americans and Russians sit on this scale:
In the workplace, Americans tend to prioritize what a person does and the results they achieve. Trust is built primarily based on performance and outcomes. For Russians, however, the nature of the relationship with the person and what others say about them is far more important. In other words, Russians tend to place more value on personal qualities. But what does this mean in practice?
For Russians, formal communication isn’t enough. They need to understand the person in front of them, what their character is like, how they will behave in unexpected situations, and whether they can be relied upon. It’s that classic notion of whether you can “go to war” with someone. This is likely why socializing in restaurants with vodka or visiting a sauna together is so important in Russian business culture. You need to be “one of their own” to do business with them.
Let’s look at layoffs as another example. In American culture, changing jobs frequently is common, and employees don’t typically form deep attachments to the company or colleagues. You can be good friends with coworkers, share dinners or drinks, but once someone leaves the company, those ties often fade quickly. If someone is laid off, it rarely impacts other employees or the company’s operations — unless it’s an extreme case.
For Russians, things are different. Your colleague can easily become a close friend, someone you share personal matters with, and the relationship goes far beyond work. If a manager leaves the company, they might take business partners with them. If someone is fired, colleagues will want to know why and how it happened. As a result, the process of firing someone in Russian culture cannot happen the “Western way”: you can’t just have someone pack up their belongings and leave in five minutes. Even if the person wasn’t particularly good, their coworkers will project the company’s treatment of that person onto themselves. In an American context, this might be seen as proper conduct, but in Russia, firing one person could lead to the loss of an entire loyal team — or business partners, as mentioned earlier. Even though, from an American’s perspective, everything was done correctly.
These differences also extend to how loyalty is built. For Russians, loyalty is internal because colleagues are more than just coworkers — the company often feels like a family, not just a workplace. Based on my observations, Americans tend to display loyalty more “on the surface” — wearing branded t-shirts, coming up with corporate slogans, and so on. Meanwhile, a Russian may walk around with a gloomy face and constantly voice complaints about internal issues, while still deeply loving the company (Russians almost never air such negativity publicly, keeping in mind the saying “don’t air your dirty laundry,” a perfect example of a cultural tradition). And if someone starts bad-mouthing the company from the outside, Russians will fiercely defend it, regardless of their internal dissatisfaction, if it exists. In essence, Americans tend to show loyalty more to the company as an institution, while Russians are loyal to the people in the company, like a family.
The American approach has its advantages in that employees view their careers as a journey between companies. Meanwhile, the deep connection many Russians feel to their companies can be a disadvantage, as it makes it difficult for them to leave a company they’ve grown attached to, even if they want to move on. Losing a job can feel like the end of the world for many.
Neither tradition is inherently better than the other. It’s important to recognize that cultural differences exist, and the same action can be perceived in completely different ways by people from different cultures. Understanding this is crucial.
