Document Type : Research

Authors

• Reza Pishghadam ¹
• Shima Ebrahimi ²

¹ Professor of English Education, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran

² Assistant Professor of Persian Language Teaching, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran

Abstract

1. Introduction
An error is an unexpected performance or decision that violates existing norms or necessary standards, leading to undesirable outcomes (Malcom et al., 2011). In such situations, it's essential to manage critical situations and deal with errors effectively. However, some organizations tend to identify the wrongdoer as the sole culprit, attributing defects and mistakes to them by disclaiming responsibility. This approach encourages people to hide their mistakes for fear of being reprimanded, which can be problematic for complex safety. In reality, accidents or errors are rarely caused by a single person, but rather by a set of factors, such as the employee's training and the system they're engaged in, environmental conditions, etc. Therefore, identifying the primary cause of the error and finding its root is crucial. A healthy organizational environment should not only focus on preventing errors but also on managing them when they occur.
When mistakes occur, people tend to judge or blame others, which can lead to the emergence of a blame culture. In such societies, people look for a culprit when an error occurs, and many people may be judged, blamed, and criticized unfairly or fairly, which can be a defense mechanism for some officials. The guilty person may also consider others or external factors to be at fault, obscuring their role. In such societies, recognizing the fault itself and investigating its causes to prevent it in the future is not important.
On the other hand, some societies, called responsibility cultures, feel responsible for the error and seek to solve it and find its root cause, which is also known as just culture (JC). In such cultures, there is a tendency to balance learning and error with accountability (Dekker, 2008). By analyzing language expressions, researchers can understand hidden cultural patterns in society. Therefore, this study aims to examine the utterances of error detection based on the conceptual model of cultuling analysis (Pishghadam et al., 2020) to determine which of these utterances are dominant in the studied society, when and where they are used, by whom and for what purposes. The hidden cultural patterns in these utterances are investigated, and by examining the emotioncy (emotion+frequency), solutions are attempted to inform people about these cultural genes.
2. Materials and methods
This study examines blame cultuling and just cultuling by utilizing the cultuling analysis approach. The "conceptual model of cultuling analysis" is a combination of three models - SPEAKING, cultural values, and emotioncy - proposed by Pishghadam et al. (2020). To achieve this purpose, 693 naturally occurring utterances containing blame cultuling, along with 326 naturally occurring utterances containing just cultuling, were collected through purposeful sampling. The data were gathered by observing 109 female and 62 male speakers of Persian (aged 23-79) in public and private spaces.
3. Results and discussion
Since errors are inevitable, how different societies and cultures deal with them leads to the creation of different cultural patterns. By examining language expressions, researchers can understand the infrastructure, beliefs, and behavioral habits of the people in a society (Pishghadam, Derakhshan, & Ebrahimi, 2021). This study aimed to uncover the hidden culture of Iranians when errors occur by analyzing common utterances in this situation, which were divided into two categories: blame culture and just culture. The findings showed that, based on the conceptual model of cultuling analysis, most people in Iranian culture tend to look for a culprit when an error occurs instead of investigating the error itself and finding its root cause. The fear of being labeled as incompetent or being punished by authorities, the lack of support from the authorities, mistrust, and improperly informing others of one's mistake are some of the reasons why individuals tend to conceal their mistakes and avoid accepting responsibility (Movahednia et al., 2014). Therefore, a blame cultuling can emerge in such societies.
In such cultures, people prefer to cover up their mistakes instead of reporting them, or they tend to find a scapegoat to absolve themselves of responsibility and make the incident appear out of their control (Mohammadi et al., 2017). The creation of troubleshooting discourse is also common in such cultures, where people tend to challenge the system by accusing and finding someone guilty. This is why the frequency of the use of blame cultuling is higher than just culture cultuling, and these utterances can be used in any context. People of different ages, with equal or unequal relationships, use them abundantly with goals of blaming others, justifying the lack of work, absolving oneself of responsibility, hiding weaknesses and shortcomings, glorifying self-righteousness, changing the situation from error to error to diminish the error, punishing others, accusing and eliminating rivals, expediency, etc.
The frequent use of blame cultuling in Iranian culture can be a confirmation of the culture of secrecy and indirectness, ambiguity avoidance, large power distance, collectivism, complacency, lack of trust, exaggeration, strong and shame-oriented structure of Iranians. If there is a fault-finding when an error occurs, the whole system may be challenged. Therefore, officials and people in positions of power tend to focus their efforts on identifying the culprits of the lower levels and promote the discourse on blame instead of finding the root cause to remove responsibility.
4. Conclusion
The findings show that blame culture is prevalent in Iranian society, while just culture is uncommon. Blame culture is used in such cases as blaming others, sidestepping responsibility, hiding weaknesses, complaining, vindicating oneself of accusations, punishing others, accusing others, eliminating opponents, and so on. The study also highlights that Iranian society emphasizes secrecy, indirect communication, uncertainty avoidance, power distance, collectivism, sloppiness, distrust, exaggeration, and dominance of shame. To improve on and remedy these unacceptable cultural practices and pave the way for cultural excellence, blame culture should be replaced with just culture wherein individuals are informed of their actions.

Keywords

• Cultuling
• Conceptual Model of Cultuling Analysis
• Blame Cultuling
• Just Cultuling
• Cultural meme