Text 3. Culture clashes.

In Asian countries most of decision-making takes place behind the scenes. In China it may be necessary to have government involved in any decisions taken. And in India people are sometimes late for a scheduled appointment.

Greetings, gestures and terms of address are all potential hazards when meeting people of other cultures.. While we are familiar with short firm handshake in this part of the world, in the Middle East the hand is held in a loose grip for a longer time. In Islamic cultures, showing the soles of your feet is a sign of disrespect and crossing your leg is seen as offensive.

The difference between understanding a culture and ignoring its conventions can be the measure of success or failure abroad. In Western cultures we believe in empowering people and rewarding them for using initiative, but other cultures operate on the basis of obeying direct orders.

You can easily talk yourself into trouble at a business meeting in Japan. For them the most senior person at the meeting will say very little, and the person doing most of the talking is not very important. In a country like Japan, the notion of personal space which we value so much simply has no meaning. With a population of 125 million condensed into a narrow strip of land private space for the Japanese is virtually non-existent.

‘Do and Don’t’ while you are on a business abroad

Do: - show an interest in, and at least an elementary knowledge of the country you are visiting.

- Learn a few words of the language – it will be seen as a compliment.

- Be sensitive to countries who have bigger and better-known neighbours, and try not to confuse Canadians with Americans, New Zealanders with Australians, Belgians with French.

- Familiarize yourself with the basic of business and social etiquette. As a starting point, learning how to greet people is very important.

Don’t:

- Assume you won’t meet any communication problems because you speak English. You may think you are paying somebody a compliment by telling them their business is going a bomb. Americans will conclude you think it is failing.

- Appear too reserved. As Americans are generally more full cheerful than their European colleagues, they may equate reserve with lack of enthusiasm.

Text 4. Cross- Cultural Management that Makes a Difference

Cross-cultural management, as defined concept, is no more than twenty years old. It came into being because in the past decade international companies have become truly international. They are not just exporting; they are opening offices in other countries or buying into joint ventures. As a result, they employ lots of foreign employees, many of them local hires, and have their own employees living and working in other cultures.

Cross-cultural management training teaches, explains, consults and conveys modes of communication to people so they can better understand a culture foreign to them.

We all understand, intellectually, that things are done differently abroad, yet many people tend to forget this in the heat of daily business. Not all conflict is caused by cultural differences – some people just can’t get along – but often it is. Employees must be taught how to manage and be managed across cultures.

Culture is like the air you breathe but only when you put your head under water do you realize that you’ve been breathing air and now you are deprived of it. The same is true for culture: when we are in our home countries, we are swimming in culture without seeing or sensing it since it’s how we were brought up. Only when you leave your country, or start working with foreigners in your home country, do you become aware of your own culture.

When a foreign company opens an office in Russia, for example, it imports its culture here. Not only do the expatriates working here experience culture shock, but so do the Russians working in the company. Naturally the experience of working and interacting differs depending on whether you work for a German, French, or Japanese company.

One always carries his/her culture and it is always done on the subconscious level. When you come into a new culture, you are shocked because it confronts your own. If you try to push your culture onto the people and environment around you, people will find you difficult. The key to understanding any culture is information- you must look around and ask questions, even if you think they are stupid questions.

If no one explains you how another culture functions, you will not know how to interpret the way its people interact with you; you may seem like they just don’t like you. There are lots of avenues to describe culture: history, traditions, nature, and even ways of society. Knowing even some of them helps reduce conflict because people start to understand more about the culture, and, more importantly, become more open minded. They may still not like their colleague as a person, but at least it isn’t because he is American, French, or Chinese.

Cross-cultural management doesn’t claim to solve all communication issues and get rid of all workplace conflicts. But it does one thing for sure: it brings to light the cultural issues many of us keep hidden. It teaches people to accept the fact that differences do exist.

When you are going to work in an international company, first of all, you should anticipate that you are probably not going to understand what is going on. It is natural for people who do not understand to start blaming somebody else. To combat this, you need lots and lots of solid communication.