1. Complete the passage below using the appropriate words or phrase from the box.

subordinates hierarchy delegate national culture authority

The amount of responsibility of any individual in a company depends on the position that he or she occupies in its ¹ . Managers, for example, are responsible for leading the people directly under them, who are called ² .To do this successfully, they must use their ³ , which is the right to take decisions and give orders that will allow their subordinates to reach certain objectives. Managers often ⁴ authority. This means that employees, at lower levels of the company hierarchy can participate in decision-making. The characteristics of management often vary according to ⁵ , which can determine how managers are trained, how they lead people and how they approach their jobs.

2. Answer the questions to the text “Learning to cope with corporate culture clashes” on page 46 of nIiB sb.

1. Why are the dos and don’ts of travelling abroad a potential minefield for the unprepared traveller? 2. What is the main objective of the Centre for International Briefing? 3. Which two broad fields does the training program cover? 4. How does the decision-making go in most Asian countries? 5. What is the difference in handshake style between Europe and Middle East? 6. Which gestures and body postures may be regarded as disrespectful or offensive in Islamic countries? 7. In what country is unconventional initiative punishable? 8. How does talkativeness characterize a person at a business meeting in Japan? 9. Where is the notion of personal space nonexistent? 10. What peculiar national feature distinguishes people living in smaller countries from their counterparts in big and powerful neighbour states? 11. When can the knowledge of English for Business be misleading? 12. What trait of British national character is regarded in America as lack of enthusiasm?

3. Read the text “Gift giving in the international business context” on page 48 of nIiB sb and frame questions to which the following words and phrases provide the answers.

1. In Great Britain and in the United States. 2. When doing business abroad. 3. To learn about the etiquette. 4. Bad luck or death. 5. That the content was more important than the act of giving. 6. Waiting for the person to open your gift. 7. As they find items like this impersonal and in bad taste. 8. Giving knives. 9. White lilies. 10. Yellow and white chrysanthemums.

4. Read the following descriptions of problems managers had when doing business abroad. Make guesses about what might have caused the misunderstanding in each case. Present your interpretation of the problem to see if the rest of the class agrees with it. In case of default look for possible answers at: http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/resources/country-profiles.html.

1

Mr Byrd was an ex-State Department employee hired by a well-known multinational corporation to be its 'man in Riyadh', Saudi Arabia. This retired American diplomat went to the home of a Saudi, Mr Fouad, to try to interest him in participating in a local joint venture with his company. A middle man who knew them both had introduced them. As this was a first meeting, the men’s conversation began with small talk that made Mr Byrd a little impatient.

Questions such as: 'how are you doing?' 'how was your flight?' 'how is your family?' and 'how is your father?' were common. Mr Byrd, familiar with all these obligatory formalities of greeting answered fine'. 'Oh, my father, yes, well he is fine, but he is getting a little deaf. I saw him a few months ago during Christmas when we took him out of the nursing home for a few days.' From that point everything froze up. Mr Byrd's mission was completely derailed. Mr Fouad remained gracious enough but obviously was uninterested in doing any business with Mr Byrd.

2

Jim Turner was attending a conference in Lyons. This was not his first trip to France and he was pleased the French colleagues he'd met previously remembered him. One evening they invited him along for dinner and began joking about the quality of the food. That surprised him. He thought the food was really rather good and said so, expecting the discussion to continue. But to his great discomfort, they then make some joke about 'Americans and food' and changed the subject. He felt somewhat excluded and didn't know what he'd done wrong.

3

This incident was reported by a British management consultant based in Paris:

‘I had taken the American CEO of a New York based consulting company to a French consulting firm in Paris. The negotiations did not go well. He hadn't been in the boardroom for more than 15 minutes before he asked them what their company's annual earnings were. Without waiting for an answer to that question, he suggested they give him an estimate of their firm's market value, as he was interested in making them an offer.’

4

A businesswoman recently asked why a high-level delegation of visiting Japanese clients had not approached the breakfast buffet table she had taken such great pains to prepare. 'I'd gotten out the good china and silverware and even brought in Japanese green tea for them, but no one touched a thing!’