Content
• Case 1
• Case 2
• What is culture?
• Case 3
• Rules versus relations
• Basic principles for working with cultural
differences
• Case 4
• Pieces of good advice when working across
culture
Content
•
Case 1
• Case 2
• What is culture?
• Case 3
• Rules versus relations
• Basic principles for working with cultural
differences
• Case 4
• Pieces of good advice when working across
culture
Imagine this:
• You are in a business meeting in an Asian country with your future business partners.
You are having lunch and are about to seal your future partnership with an Asian
company. You would like to celebrate this by proposing a toast and you raise your glass
to the air and say: “A toast for the future partnership!”
• Suddenly the room becomes all silent and everybody just looks down and some people
leave the room immediately and you start wondering
– what did I do wrong?
• A kind colleague whispers in your ear: ”In this country you don’t do that – you have
insulted them”. The eldest person in the room is the one toasting and his glass should
be the one above the others.
Why invest time and resources in working with
cross cultural relations?
Content
• Case 1
•
Case 2
• What is culture?
• Case 3
• Rules versus relations
• Basic principles for working with cultural
differences
• Pieces of good advice when working across
culture
Case 2: Car accident
What Right has your friend?
A. My friend has a definite right as a friend to expect me to testify to
the lower figure.
B. He has some right as a friend to expect me to testify to the lower
figure.
C. He has no right as a friend to expect me to testify to the lower
figure.
Content
• Case 1
• Case 2
•
What is culture?
• Case 3
• Rules versus relations
• Basic principles for working with cultural
differences
• Case 4
• Pieces of good advice when working across
culture
When we meet others
Not ok
box
OK box
Interoperationality is a question of
attitude!
What is culture?
A definition of culture:
•
The beliefs, customs, arts, habits, language, etc. of a particular
society, group, place or time
•
A way of thinking, behaving, or working that exists in a place or
organization
Language
Food
Architecture
Music
Clothing
Literature
Climate
Noise
Pace of life
Public
emotion
Work ethics
Physical
contact
Reworked from: F. Trompenaars, D. Eaton, R. Gesteland
A perspective of understanding
culture
Explicit
Culture
Reworked from: F. Trompenaars, D. Eaton, R. Gesteland
A perspective of understanding
culture
Implicit
Culture
Explicit
Culture
Reworked from: F. Trompenaars, D. Eaton, R. Gesteland
A perspective of understanding
culture
Content
• Case 1
• Case 2
• What is culture?
•
Case 3
• Rules versus relations
• Basic principles for working with cultural
differences
• Case 4
• Pieces of good advice when working across
culture
Case 3:
Copyright © or the Right to Copy?
Content
• Case 1
• Case 2
• What is culture?
• Case 3
•
Rules versus relations
• Basic principles for working with cultural
differences
• Case 4
• Pieces of good advice when working across
culture
Rules
Relations
National Culture
– Rules
Rules
Relations
CHI
GER
IND
MEX
S.A.
POL
SPA
H.K.
JAP
FIN
SIN
SWE
NOR
CZE
S.Korea.
BRA
FRA
MAL
U.S.
ITA
DEN
U.K.
SAU
RUS
•
Consistency
•
Systems, standards and
rules
•
Uniform procedures
•
Demand clarity
•
Relationships
•
Flexibility
•
Pragmatic
•
Make exceptions
•
“It depends”
•
At ease with ambiguity
National Culture
– Rules
Content
• Case 1
• Case 2
• What is culture?
• Case 3
• Rules versus relations
•
Basic principles for working with cultural
differences
• Case 4
• Pieces of good advice when working across
culture
The Cross-Cultural 3R
Recognize
Respect
Reconcile
The Cross-Cultural 3R
3R
• Be aware of own cultural assumptions and values
• Work actively to uncover your counterparts' key values
• Meta-communicate about differences to establish
common ground
• Accept your own cultural standpoint
• Accept your counterparts’ standpoint
• Don’t assume that what you meant was understood
• Don’t assume that what you heard was what was meant
• Listen actively and test for understanding
• Uncover propositions
• Ask for background to understand
• Work with positives and negatives
• Reconcile for progress
Recognize
Respect
Looking at the case again
with the ”3R”
principle in mind – what should have been
done?
Clashing Values
Universal
Copyright
(Rules)
Particular relationship with organization
Split the difference
And irritate both
Reworked from: F. Trompenaars, D. Eaton, R. Gesteland
Clashing values
(10,10)
Reworked from: F. Trompenaars, D. Eaton, R. Gesteland
Finding a joint publisher
30
Universal
Copyright
(Rules)
What’s a Dane like?
How do others perceive us?
Reworked from: F. Trompenaars, D. Eaton, R. Gesteland
Results
Titles
What is good about it:
Communication between experts and
decision-makers possible
Faster decision making
Time saving
(GM’s does not have to meet with GM’s
over trivial matters)
What is bad about it:
Decision-makers not always briefed on decisions
Competences and education different (can harden
communication if e.g. an engineer talks to a
marketing person)
Brazilian cross-company communication
What is good about it:
Communication from specialist to specialist
The decision level is clear from both sides
The relevant departments and managers have full
knowledge on decisions
What is bad about it:
Decisions are not made when managers cannot meet
If you are a lower level employee/manager you cannot close
a deal with a higher level decision-maker in another
company
(10,10)
Reworked from: F. Trompenaars, D. Eaton, R. Gesteland
Content
• Case 1
• Case 2
• What is culture?
• Case 3
• Rules versus relations
• Basic principles for working with cultural
differences
•
Case 4
• Pieces of good advice when working across
culture
Case 4: The Malaysian Case
Joanne Smith was investigating a serious error made by a Malaysian worker at the Malaysian subsidiary of a US multinational. As a result, a component had been inserted upside down and the entire batch had been pulled out of production to be reworked. The cost of this was high. The US company had a management culture, and the rules very precisely stated that the person responsible should be interviewed in order to have the error corrected.
The subsidiary had an elderly Japanese as the Plant Director and a young 2IC from the US. Joanne called the young 2IC – whom she knew from the US – and asked him to address the problem, but nothing happened. So after a while she decided to go to Malaysia herself.
Joanne met the Plant Director and the 2IC in order to cope with the problem. She started the conversation by asking the 2IC why nothing had been done so far. The answer was“I don’t know”.
Then Joanne, clearly frustrated, asked in a very loud voice the Japanese Plant Director which employee had made the error. Had she been identified? What action was being taken against her? She was amazed when the Director in a very unfriendly tone claimednot to know. ”The whole work group has accepted responsibility” he told her. ”As to the specific woman responsible, they have not told me, nor did I ask. Even the floor supervisor does not know and if he did, he would not tell me either.”
”But if everyone is responsible, then in effect no one is”, Joanne argued. They are simply protecting each other’s bad work. ”This is not how we see it”. The plant manager was polite but firm. ”I understand the woman concerned was so upset, she went home. She tried to resign. Two of her co-workers had to coax her back again. The group knows she was responsible and she is ashamed. The group also knows that she was new and that they did not help her enough or look out for her or see that she was properly trained. This is why the whole group has apologized. I have their letter here. They are willing to apologize to you publicly.”
”No, no. I don’t want that”, said Joanne. ”I just want to prevent it from happening again.” She wondered what she should do.
Questions
Should Joanne insist on knowing who the responsible individual was? Should the responsible person be additionally punished?
