Иностранный язык в сфере профессиональной деятельности (Intercultural Business Skills). Учебное пособие по английскому языку

racial discrimination or racism. Offensive remarks about someone’s race are racist and the person making them is a racist.

In the US, affirmative action is when help is given in education and employment to groups who were previously discriminated against. In Britain, affirmative action is known as equal opportunities. Some companies have a dignity at work policy covering all the issues described.

DISCUSSION

6. Read an abstract and answer the questions in groups.

The following story describes one female K-Mart executive’s successful experience negotiating in Saudi Arabia, a country known for not accepting women in its business world.

A SAUDI-ARABIAN AMERICAN ENCOUNTER

“I went with another gentleman of our company who has a lesser position than I do. We met with a group of Saudis who epitomized the feelings of men in that country toward women. We were in the office of the chairman of the Saudi firm, and for the first hour he continually addressed my associate, ignoring me, because he would not accept my presence as a woman. Finally I turned to him and said: “Mr. X, you are directing your questions and answers to my associate. If you are seriously interested in doing business with our company, I suggest you direct them to me, because it is me with whom you will have to negotiate.” I think he respected my approach. I didn’t feel indignant or slighted as a woman. It was a matter of who it is that a person wants to seek out. I had no problems after that.”

1.Why do you think the woman spoke as she did to the chairman? What persuasive style did she use and why?

2.Once she spoke, why do you think the chairman responded to her as he

did?

3.Do you think all Saudi chairmen would have responded to her style in the same way? Explain your answer.

7. Are the following jobs typically held by mostly men, mostly women, or both men and women in your country? Write M (men), W (women) or B (both men and women).

1.Assembly line workers __

2.Bartenders __

3.Bus drivers __

4.Computer programmers __

5.Lawyers __

6.Managers __

7.Physicians __

8.Secretaries __

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1.Assembly line workers __

2.Bartenders __

3.Bus drivers __

4.Computer programmers __

5.Lawyers __

6.Managers __

7.Physicians __

8.Secretaries __

9.Teachers (except college and university) __

8. The chart below shows the total percentage of women holding the jobs listed above in the United States. Compare the percentages between 1972 and 1990. In what occupations have women in the United States made the greatest gains since 1972? Why do you think these changes have occurred? Answer the questions below the chart.

1.In what occupations do you think women in your country have made the greatest gains? Why have these changes occurred?

2.Do women hold managerial positions in your country? How common is it for women to hold senior-level decision-making positions in your country?

3.What do you think are the advantages of having women managers and decision makers?

READING

9. Study text 13.

Text 13. TEAM-BUILDING

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You can throw each other off cliffs; go abseiling; build a raft. That’s one way to get a team working together. You can spend all night working to meet a deadline; have a brain storming session to come up with new marketing ideas; plan next year’s strategy over a weekend retreat. That’s another way to get a team working together.

Some people have a departmental lunch once a week a part of their team building effort; some play five-a-side rugby after working hours; others go on a company picnic on a peaceful summer’s day. There are many ways to work as a team.

Whichever route you choose to get your team working well together – to build the kind of team you want – there are a few key elements to consider that are crucial: creating trust amongst team members; allowing differences; recognising individual strengths, styles and skills; keeping lines of communication flexible; ensuring tolerance; allowing mistakes; encouraging silly ideas.

There are some very sound reasons to include those elements in any team building you might do. They strengthen and build the whole team while developing the individual; they steer away from blame and create a climate of loyalty and support. People will feel able to voice their opinions and ideas without fear of criticism or humiliation. Put quite simply, you will have a stronger, more versatile and productive team.

It is most important to recognise that a team is a collection of related but disparate individuals. There may be common goals and purpose, but each team member will see things differently because no two people see the world in exactly the same way. Team members don’t always have to agree; however, they do need to negotiate and accommodate all the different views and ways of working that people have.

Good team building means creating a whole, which is greater than the sum of its various parts, while still maintaining the integrity of each individual. So go ahead: throw each other off cliffs, plan departmental lunches, go away on weekend retreats, but it’s how you use these events which is vital to team building and effectiveness back in the workplace.

WRITTEN REFLECTION

10. What’s the message of the article? Summarise its main content in a short paragraph.

SPEAKING

11. What do you think is happening here?

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The US computer specialist Bob Moore is being taken around the Shanghai machine tool factory, which has been running for several months. He is impressed to see that the latest CAD equipment is available, but surprised that it still hasn’t been installed, as it would make the whole process quicker and more efficient. On his return a month later he sees that the computers have still not been installed. As the group look around the plant again, Bob asks Mr Wang, his Chinese partner, what the problem is. Wang explains that there are frequent power cuts. Bob knows that this can’t be true, since if that were the case, the rest of the plant wouldn’t be working. As a result, he is annoyed to have been given such an obviously untrue answer to his perfectly reasonable question.

Comments

This incident illustrates several differences between US and Chinese ways of approaching problems. Bob concentrates on the task at hand (the technical functioning of the plant) rather than on his relationships with the staff. For them, admitting that they don’t know how to install the equipment would be a loss of “face”. In China it is very important to avoid embarrassing people, especially if their lack of skill is likely to be exposed in front of the group and a foreign visitor. It is also likely that Bob Moore’s communication style is too direct for the high-context Chinese.

12. What do you think is happening here?

There seem to be problems in the German-US team. Petra Fischer feels that many problems arise from the failure of American colleagues to define clearly what everyone is supposed to do. She feels that their whole approach is very superficial, since they never seem to go into any depth when they present their new ideas. They speak positively all the time, but in the end it turns out that they really disagree. For their part, the American team members find the Germans cold, unappreciative of the work they are doing, and often very unwilling to share information.

Comments

According to Robinson and Wuebbeler (2000), who train German-US teams, there are important cultural differences in four areas. These relate to the understanding of what a team is, the approaches taken in order to motivate people, communication styles, and ways of solving problems. Their ideas can help us to understand what is happening in the critical incident.

Team: The Germans see the team as a group of individuals, each with special knowledge or skills, who are led by a competent leader. The team is clearly built into the organizational structures of the company. Once the aims have been made clear, tasks are given to the members, who generally then work on their own. The American concept is rather different. There is more frequent contact between the team members, for instance, and there are short but frequent brainstorming sessions to generate ideas. The teams form and reform as the situation demands.

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Motivation: US employees expect and get more praise than their German counterparts. This can be verbal, or can take the form of special prizes, awards, or pay increases.

Communication style: According to Robinson and Wuebbeler (2000), Germans tend to communicate at work to demonstrate their knowledge and to gain respect, while the American tendency is to communicate to be liked. In presentations, the Americans concentrate on the main points, and don’t go into as much analysis and detail as their German colleagues might be used to. The Americans also use the “sandwich technique” to express criticism (i.e. the negative part is sandwiched between two positive statements). However, there is a risk that the Germans might interpret this approach as either ambiguous or dishonest.

Problem-solving: The German tendency to analyse the situation in depth before taking any action is seen negatively by the Americans, who feel that it prevents things getting done (“analysis paralysis”). The US approach is one of trying things out and seeing if they work (“trial and error”).

WORK-RELATED ATTITUDES

Differences in work-related attitudes exit across a very wide range of cultures. In summarizing the most important differences, we can found that managers and employees vary on four primary dimensions:

–individualism/collectivism – relationship between the individual and the collective;

–power distance – distribution of power in society.

Individualism/Collectivism: This is the most often discussed dimension of culture and also one of the most important in which cultures differ.

Individualism exists when people define themselves as individuals. It implies loosely knit social frameworks in which people are supposed to take care only of themselves and their immediate families. Collectivism is characterized by tight social frameworks in which people distinguish between their own groups (“in-groups,” such as relatives, clans, and organizations) and other groups. People expect in-groups to look after their members, protect them, and give them security in exchange for members’ loyalty. For example, as reported in The Arab Executive, two-thirds of all surveyed Arab executives thought employee loyalty was more important than efficiency. Within more collectivistic societies, the particular group with which individuals choose to identify varies a great deal. For example, the French tend to identify with La France, La Famille, Le Cadre; the Japanese with Japan and with corporations; members of the former eastern bloc with the Communist Party; the Irish with the Roman Catholic Church.

Determinism characterizes such collectivist cultures as Japan, where people believe that the will of the group should determine members’ beliefs and

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behavior. This belief is reflected in the Japanese saying, “The nail that sticks out will be pounded down.” By contrast, self-determination characterizes such individualistic cultures as the United States, where individuals believe that each person should determine his or her own beliefs and behavior. In each nation’s case, their beliefs become self-fulfilling. People from individualistic cultures also tend to believe that there are universal values that should be shared by all. People from collectivist cultures, on the other hand, accept that different groups have different values. Being individualistic, most North Americans believe that democracy – especially North American democracy – ideally should be shared by all. People from collectivist cultures find such a view hard to understand.

Collectivist cultures control their members more through external societal pressure – shame – whereas individualistic cultures control their members more through internal pressure – guilt. Members of collectivist cultures place importance on fitting in harmoniously and saving face. Members of individualistic cultures place more emphasis on self-respect. In many ways the two orientations trade off individual freedom against collective protection: Do I do what is best for me or what is best for the group? Do I take care only of myself or does the group take care of me? Do I expect the boss to hire me because I have the right education and work experience (individual) or because I come from the right family or social class (group)? Do I expect to be promoted on the basis of my performance in the company or on the basis of my seniority with the company? In times of economic recession, do I expect the least productive workers to be laid off or every employee to take a pay cut?

Business areas affected by individualism/collectivism:

Power Distance: The second dimension, power distance, measures the extent to which less powerful members of organizations accept the unequal distribution of power. To what extent do employees accept that their boss has more power than they have? Is the boss right because he or she is the boss (large, or high, power distance) or only when he or she knows the correct answer (small, or low, power distance)? Do employees do their work in a particular way because the boss wants it that way (high power distance) or because they believe that it is the best way to do it (low power distance)?

In high power distance countries, such as Philippines, Venezuela, and India, superiors and subordinates consider bypassing to be insubordination; whereas in low power distance countries, such as Israel and Denmark, employees expect to bypass the boss frequently in order to get their work done. When negotiating in

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high power distance countries, companies find it important to send representatives with titles equivalent to or higher than those of their bargaining partners. Titles, status, and formality command less importance in low power distance countries. The United States ranks relatively low on power distance.

3. Prepare presentations on the following topics.

1.The problems of working in multi-cultural groups.

2.How cultural pre-conceptions affect people’s views and attitudes.

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4. Group A: Nigerian cultural information

Nigeria and negotiators

In Nigeria, the age of the negotiator is extremely important because age means wisdom and reflects status and importance. To send a young negotiator means you are not seriously interested in the negotiation. If you are interested, you will send a person with authority and seniority. A good educational background is also highly respected and important. Nigerians also put great importance on formality and social skills. The sex of the negotiator is not very important, since many Nigerian women run their own businesses. In addition, Nigerian businessmen are generally aware of the role of American women in management. In Nigeria, negotiating in groups is common.

5. Group B: US cultural information

United States and negotiators

In the United States, sending a person with great technical competence and knowledge to negotiate is most important. It shows you are serious about negotiations because you are sending an employee who is ready to answer any product questions. Power and authority are important but are more the result of your talent and work record than of your age or seniority in the company. The sex of the negotiator is not important since many women occupy professional and managerial positions. North Americans are accustomed to sending only one person. Sometimes this is called the “John Wayne approach.” This means that the individual thinks he or she can handle the negotiation on his or her own; it reflects the strong individualism found among North Americans.

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