Hey Joshua, great insight into Asian culture, thanks for sharing that! Just to enrich the discussion, I can say I totally relate to that, I’m originally from Brazil and have seen the exact same behavioural patterns take place there, especially in large companies. People trying to desperately become something other than a developer either for better salary or social status, managers trying to hold on to their power positions, etc. This is also to say that the grass is not always greener on the other side. Bear in mind that “westerns” is a very broad term, englobing people from America, Europe, Africa (are Australians Western or Eastern after all? ;) ), with very different backgrounds. I can tell you I’ve worked in Australia and Germany and have seen those same patterns applied at these places as well. Besides, there are many things in which Westerns can (and should) learn from Easterns. For instance, I’ve worked on a team made mostly of people from US and Europe and, even though they were very good at exposing their opinions, they were also very bad at listening to others, leading to an even worse ability to solve conflicts. I guess finding a balance between different cultural backgrounds is always the key.

And when it comes to adoption of agile in big corporations, despite of the country, most times it’s a difficult change. Implementing this change usually requires a need for change (e.g.: competitors stealing market share) and showing what’s in it for the people with higher decision power. That’s why it’s usually particularly hard to make this change for big corporations that hold a monopoly in their local markets, as they usually don’t have enough competition to force a change.

I’ve learned a lot with your article, got some great insights. Thanks a lot!