Glossary

Acculturation - explains the process of cultural and psychological change that results following meeting between cultures.

Agenda – the list of topics to be covered during the negotiation sessions.

Bona Fides – Latin from “good faith”, it refers to documents, materials and promises that show commitment by a company or individual to a peculiar line of business, a deal or an outcome.

Buddhism - a religious teaching propagated by the Buddha and his followers, which declares that by destroying greed, hatred, and delusion, which are the causes of all suffering, man can attain perfect enlightenment.

Christianity - religion based on the person and teachings of Jesus Christ, or its beliefs and practices.

Collectivism – a cultural value that places great emphasis on the harmony of the group and appreciates individuals who cede their needs and wants to that of the group.

Confucianism - the ethical system of Confucius, the Chinese philosopher and teacher of ethics (551-479 BC), emphasizing moral order, the humanity and virtue of China's ancient rulers, and gentlemanly education.

Corporate culture - a blend of the values, beliefs, taboos, symbols, rituals and myths all companies develop over time.

Cross-cultural – a comparison of beliefs and attitudes of different cultures and nationalities with another set of beliefs and attitudes. In management it is a concept that deals with the challenge of managing a team of workers from different cultures.

Cultural imperialism - is defined as the cultural aspects of imperialism. Imperialism, here, is referring to the creation and maintenance of unequal relationships between civilizations favoring the more powerful civilization. Cultural imperialism can take various forms, such as an attitude, a formal policy, military action, so long as it reinforces cultural hegemony.

Cultural risk - the risk of business blunders, poor customer relations, and wasted negotiations that results when firms fail to understand and adapt to the differences between their own and host countries’ cultures.

Cultural universals - a cultural universal (also called an anthropological universal or human universal), is an element, pattern, trait, or institution that is common to all human cultures worldwide. Taken together, the whole body of cultural universals is known as the human condition.

Culture shock – a mental and physical condition that affects a traveler when everything that was once familiar to them – language, food currency, values, - suddenly vanishes because they have traveled to a new culture.

Ethics – moral principles and values of an individual or company in personal and business relationships. Cultural influences and attitudes usually have a great impact on ethics.

Ethnocentrism - belief in the intrinsic superiority of the nation, culture, or group to which one belongs, often accompanied by feelings of dislike for other groups.

Etiquette – the codes and practices prescribed by social convention that govern correct behavior in all social situations and interactions from personal to business.

Focus group - a group of people assembled to participate in a discussion about a product before it is launched, or to provide feedback on a political campaign, television series, etc

Go-between – a third party that may or may not be known to one or both parties to conduct business transactions. The role of the go-between is usually to set up an introduction for a foreign business in the go-between’s country.

High context culture refers to a culture's tendency to use high context messages over low context messages in routine communication. In a high context culture, many things are left unsaid, letting the culture explain. Words and word choice become very important in higher context communication, since a few words can communicate a complex message very effectively to an in-group but less effectively outside that group.

Hinduism - the complex of beliefs, values, and customs comprising the dominant religion of India, characterized by the worship of many gods, including Brahma as supreme being, a caste system, belief in reincarnation, etc.

Individualism – a cultural value that places great emphasis on the independent thinker and appreciates and honors personal success over that of the group.

Intercultural communication is a form of global communication. It is used to describe the wide range of communication problems that naturally appear within an organization made up of individuals from different religious, social, ethnic, and educational backgrounds. Intercultural communication is sometimes used synonymously with cross-cultural communication. In this sense it seeks to understand how people from different countries and cultures act, communicate and perceive the world around them.

Islam - the religion of the Muslims, which was started by Mohammed.

Low-context culture – in low context cultures, such as Germany or the United much more is explained through words or verbalization, instead of the context. In a lower context culture, the communicator needs to be much more explicit and the value of a single word is less important.

Non-verbal communication – usually subtle gestures, facial expressions, posture, eye contact and body language that often subconsciously accompanies spoken communication and can reveal much about the true intensions of the communicator. Even silence is a form of non-verbal communication and can mean different things in different cultures.

Protocol – the form of etiquette and ceremony observed by businesspeople and diplomats during formal cross-cultural interaction.

Relationship-driven culture – a culture that relies on personal friendships and personal chemistry to do business. Because there is a lack of contract law, personal trust must be built into such a culture before any business can be conducted.

Strategy – the art or science of creating a plan using all the social, economic, political, legal, cultural and other forces available to achieve a goal.

Stereotype - a standardized image of a group that assigns that group a number of characteristics that helps to simplify a task of identification. Not all stereotypes are negative or incorrect.

Task-driven culture – a culture where business is conducted on an impersonal basis and is driven by the deal, not the participants. Because of the presence of the strong legal system, personal relationships are not needed to conduct business.

Time horizon the length of time the company or individual is willing to wait before a business deal begins to produce or make a profit. Shorter time horizons are linked to task driven cultures where capital bears high interest rates.

Uncertainty avoidance – a cultural value that dictates how individuals societies feel about and react to stability ambiguity and risk. This value is often seen in business organizations and views on employment.

Values – concepts that are important to a culture and influence social interactions or individual outlooks. The most basic value difference found in cultures is weather a society emphasizes individualism or collectivism.

Win-win – a negotiating strategy where both parties believe they will both drive equal benefit from a negotiation. It contrasts to a win-lose or zero sum strategy.

Zero sum game (win-lose) – the concept that one side’s gain is directly offset by another side loss.