February 2000

The recovery of Thailand's economy brought in much direct foreign investment. Many Thai organizations have been transformed from purely Thai owned to partially foreign owned. Many expats entered these joint-venture organizations and if you are one of them, perhaps you found that you had a lot to learn about the new environment in which you found yourself.

The beauty of working with Thai colleagues is their hospitality, politeness and willingness to compromise -- all character traits that are deeply ingrained in the Thai culture. As a boss, you may find you are shown greater respect and command a higher degree of obedience than you would expect in a more liberalized society.

Nevertheless, there are, as they say, two sides to every coin. In Thailand, the flip side is that expats who are new to Thailand, often find working with Thais rather frustrating. In general, many of the problems they face can be explained by examining the office culture common to many wholly Thai-owned firms before the Joint Venture arrangement.

In Thai companies, staff are not encouraged to think for themselves. The bureaucratic system of company management has no place for individual thinkers. Following the company line is far more prevalent. Therefore, do not be surprised at the look of blank discomfort and the deafening sound of silence if you pointedly ask a Thai colleague, "What do you think?".

Thai schools do not emphasize analytical skills. The learning method is by rote, learning by memorizing great tracts of text. Asking, "What do you know about this?" may elicit a far more useful response than the previous example. Instead of putting the Thai in the uncomfortable position of having to state an opinion, you are merely asking him or her to repeat back whatever input they have had on the subject. This is far closer to the kind of exchange your Thai colleagues will be used to throughout their formative school years.

One thing that I recall from our education system is that too much attention was paid to the "Right" answer. This kind of syndrome blocks creativity and the ability to think laterally. You may need to inform Thai staff that you expect them to change their behavior from doing to thinking. Try telling them not to come to you with a problem but to come with a solution. You may also instruct Thai staff to have information to back up their proposals.

Encouraging Thai colleagues that you are looking for various alternatives, not one "cast-in-stone" correct answer, may be an effective method of extracting the input you need.

In many Thai organizations, there might be lot of data but not a lot of meaningful information. In some cases, what data does exist is completely unreliable. These Thai organizations have not developed a proper information infrastructure and it is therefore advisable not to rely too heavily on statistics or raw data. Always validate and verify.

Often new expat managers are perplexed by the English writing style of their Thai colleagues. As the Thai education system encourages very formal prose, a report written in English by a Thai may seem very ostentatious. In fact, as there are so many formal and flowery phrases in the Thai language even Thais can have difficulty deciphering the exact meaning intended by another Thai's writing!

Bear in mind that apart from the habits formed in school, your Thai colleagues are also writing in a second language. It would be far more productive to encourage a straightforward and simple style from the start than shoot your subordinates down in flames for trying too hard. One company I know went to the extreme of hiring one specialist to act as Communication Manager to handle all Thai/English correspondence. Certainly, this would not hurt productivity and can only help both internal and external communication.

Kriengsak Niratpattanasai
DBS Thai Danu Bank, Bangkok, Thailand