...Summary 1 2. Introduction 2 3. Cultural aspect to Communication 3 3.1. Cultural Contexts 3 3.2. Assessing Cultures through Hofstede’s Framework 4 4. Codes of Communication 6 4.1. Verbal Communication 6 4.1.1. Welcome topics of conversation 7 4.1.2. Topics to avoid 8 4.2. Non-Verbal Communication 9 5. Gift Giving 10 6. Causes of Cross-Cultural Communication Conflicts 12 7. Conclusion 13 8. Recommendations 14 9. References 15 Executive Summary Today’s world has gone global. This globalization has led to the collaboration among manufacturers of products, suppliers of materials and service providers situated across the globe. The markets are no more restricted to a specific region or a country. The boundaries and distances between the markets have vanished. Saturation in developed markets has led to exploration and exploitation of emerging markets. The expansion of geographic footprint is not happening only to meet business needs, but this is happening also to promote social causes (Education, Health Awareness) and to mitigate global risks (Global Warming). Therefore, for the purpose of effective functioning, there is a strong need to learn about Cross-Cultural Communication. It is true that any usage of an inappropriate word, an impression or a gesture can lead to serious business or social implications. These cross-cultural communication blunders can then lead to lost customers...
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...A will be moving part of its business overseas into Japan in the 4th quarter of 2010. In order to prepare for any cross-cultural issues or communication differences that may impact the company’s marketing approach and strategies I have prepared a brief summary of some of these challenges. I have also touched on certain cross-cultural ethical differences between Japan and the United States. Marketing Approach It is important to become aware of the culture around you. Take into consideration what the culture is, the customs, the history, the language, and communication styles. What works in the United States and Great Britain will not necessarily work in Japan too. Marketing tools like commercials, slogans, and music will need to be researched prior to any rollout. The phrases or gestures alone could be enough to damage future success in the country. Because unspoken language can often tell businesspeople something that spoken language does not, they should know something about this form of cross-cultural communication. In Japan it is not considered professional to use extreme hand gestures or facial expressions. The Japanese are very formal and will expect you to dress your part and be prompt. Business in America over the years has given way to a casual approach to business, so gird up. Communication While doing business in Japan it is important to understand the differences in communication style. In the West it is acceptable to get to the point...
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...GUNG HO! CULTURAL ANALYSIS Michael Hamilton MKTG 3852 – Second Summer 2012 7/22/12 GUNG HO- CULTURAL ANALYSIS Cultural differences influence how business is conducted in today’s rapidly expanding global market. These cultural barriers affect human interactions through our perspective of one another, credibility, time frames, as well as through communication. The success of international business depends upon the ability to set aside our differences, unite and strengthen one another. Many of these challenges can be seen throughout the movie Gung Ho. The movie portrays the relationship between the Japanese and Americans in a lightly comically point of view through an auto factory. However, when comparing and contrasting the interactions of these two cultures, both in and out of the film, they’re dynamics of become more apparent. The connections and exchanges between the Japanese management team and the American workers throughout the film present examples for each of the five dimensions in Geert Hofstede’s cultural dynamics analysis: Individualism/Collectivism, Uncertainty Avoidance, Power Distance, Masculinity/Femininity, and the later added Long-term Orientation. I. Hofstede’s Cultural Dynamics The results from Hofstede’s analysis for the United States and Japan are in the following table. When comparing the two we see that the Americans have a highly individualistic, male reinforced, ambiguous, society with a slight hierarchy with a weak connection to tradition...
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...these two words, it looks like they are just completely different words and nothing is related to each other. But that is wrong. Business and Religion, these two are deeply related and difference in religion can influence the way of operating business and also the way of communication. Religion is one of the important key factors that we all need to know when we try to step into global business and dealing with people from other country or the other culture. There are countless religions around the globe but there are eleven major religions around the world. Those are Hinduism, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Shinto, Confucianism, Jainism, Taoism, Christianity, Islam and Sikhism. 2.1 billion people around the world believe in Christianity, which ranked most number of adherents and Islam is the 2nd most and has 1.5 billion adherents. In some country, religion and the way of people living, including business and communication are tightly related. And most of the countries have the major religion, which most population believes. In this research, you will see example of 4 countries and their religion and showing how their religion is influencing their way of people living and the way of business and communication. First example is United States of America and Christianity. 224,457,000 people are the adherent of Christianity in USA. This is about 85% of USA’s population. There are cases that often company incorporates Jesus' examples into the business building process. Many firms...
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... Mass Communication Research Subject code: SM 312 Lecturers: Kenneth Teo Student ID: 1000922384 Topic : Benefits of learning intercultural communication to university student. Chapter 1 Introduction Background of the Study Anthropologist Edward T. Hall is the founder of intercultural communication during the 1951-1955 when he was at the Foreign Service Institute of the U.S. Department of States. The scholarly field of intercultural communication was then mainly advanced by university-based scholars of communication in the United States and Japan, and in other countries. The development of intercultural communication in the U.S. and Japan is analyzed here. Intercultural communication is one of the most important communications and also a structure of global communication as the world today is characterized by an ever growing number of contacts resulting in communication between people with different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. This communication takes place because of contacts within the areas of business, military cooperation, science, education, mass media, entertainment, tourism but also because of immigration brought about by labour scarcity or political conflicts. Hence, there is communication which needs to be as constructive as possible, without misunderstandings and breakdowns. It is to belief that study on the nature of linguistic and cultural similarities...
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...A. Identify one country in Eastern Asia (e.g., Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea, Macau, Taiwan, or Mongolia) to be the focus of your essay. I chose Japan as the focus of my essay. In addition to being a lovely country with rich history, Japan is also a hub of business, producing great art, fantastic video games, cars, computers, and other electronics, a few examples among many business avenues that can be found in Japan. There is likely something in everyone's life that has roots in Japan in one way or another. B. Identify major cross-cultural issues that may impact Company A’s marketing approach in this situation. 1. Describe how the issues you identified may impact the approach Company A takes. Bringing two cultures together is a delicate objective. A challenge that is an automatic given is the challenge of communication, with language being the first challenge. It is the most major of cross-cultural issues that may impact Company A's marketing approach in this situation. If one is not fluent in the native language, then a translator is absolutely essential, and it is best to have a translator that is local to the region in which business is to be conducted. Even if one is very fluent in the native language, it's still a good idea to have a translator local to the region to assist with business proceedings. The reason for this is because of a second challenge Company A will encounter in its business endeavor – regional dialect, or lingo. It's not enough...
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...Toyota plant in Valenciennes The Toyota Yaris is a subcompact car produced by Toyota since 1999. Yaris was first launched in the European market and it has achieved great success in the global market then. It was become Toyota's best-selling models in Europe. Besides, Toyota has used the "Yaris" and "Echo" names on the export version of several different Japanese-market models. At the beginning, Toyota decided to sell Yaris in the European market and build their overseas factory in Valenciennes France. As Toyata’s target market was in the European market, its overseas factory has the advantage in low labor cost and delivery cost. Valenciennes is a medium-sized city of 350,000 inhabitants located at northeast of France near the Belgium border. The region was severely struck by the steel crisis of the 1970s and the following constriction of the coal mining industry. The region suffered a huge economic depression with an unemployment rate approaching 30% during the 1980s. At that time, the installation of the Toyota factory in the industrial suburbs of Valencienne was a very important step of this regional revitalization process. Toyota ensured to the local government that it will create more than two thousand jobs for local residents. Considering of local economic situation, Toyota’s plant was more than welcome by local government and residents. To attract Toyota, national and local governments, as well as the European Union, gave Toyota a total of 51.5 million Euros in subsidies...
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...of Science and Education Cross-Cultural Etiquette and Communication in Global Business: Toward a Strategic Framework for Managing Corporate Expansion Ephraim Okoro1 1 School of Business, Howard University, Washington, USA Correspondence: Ephraim A. Okoro, Department of Marketing, School of Business, Howard University, 2600–Sixth Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20059, USA. Tel: 1-202-806-1545. E-mail: eaokoro@howard.edu Received: March 22, 2012 doi:10.5539/ijbm.v7n16p130 Abstract The expanding scope of business corporations in the first decade of the twenty-first century is drawing much scholarly attention, and the trend has been described as a fact of life that defies the stretch of human imagination. The concept of global economy has expanded consumer awareness, defined new standards and rules of operations, and increased the need for national and corporate interdependence. Multinational organizations are exploring opportunities around the world, demonstrating sensitivity towards cultural differences in order to gain from the proliferation and growth of international enterprise. Recent studies indicate that while some corporations compete successfully in the global marketplace, others have failed to sustain their competitive advantage because of cultural imperialism or inadequate acculturation of their managers on international assignment. Corporate analysts argued that the key to global business success depends on effective cross-cultural etiquette and global workforce...
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...The need for understanding cultural differences, diversity of needs and competing interests is paramount to be successful in the current age of globalization. Business dealings have evolved into cross border … and business executives are required to deal with counterparts for from different parts of the world. A high level of cross cultural negotiation skills becomes a prerequisite for success. Thus the importance of understanding cultural diffences becomes critical. Cross cultural negotiations are complex and involve both personal and cultural – they have an impact on both perception of conflicts and the methods used to solve them. Many factors influence the outcome of cross-cultural negotiations and should be considered before entering into negotiations with another culture. Negotiators who understand certain aspects of cross-culture negotiations have the advantage over the negotiator who is not well prepared to negotiate with their foreign counterpart. I will discuss a few negotiation factors which constitute a basic framework for identifying cultural differences that was presented during the cross cultural team presentations. Cultures have different views and reasons for setting their goals in negotiations; for example in North America the goal of any business negotiation is to reach a substantive outcome; time is money and the outcome of reaching an agreement is quick and formal. In Italy, quite the contrary is true; the goal for a negotiation is to focus on building...
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...INDEX Introduction The challenge of crossing cultural boundaries The meaning of culture: foundation concepts Why culture matters in international business National, professional, and corporate culture Interpretations of culture Key dimensions of culture Language as a key dimension of culture Culture and contemporary issues Managerial guidelines for cross-cultural success Page 1 to 1 Page 1 to 5 Page 5 to 6 Page 7 to 9 Page 9 to 9 Page 10 to 14 Page 14 to 17 Page 17 to 19 Page 19 to 21 Page 21 to 23 1 Introduction There are few things more representative of U.S. culture than American football. It is an extravaganza, complete with exciting halftime shows and peppy cheerleaders. The game exemplifies national pride. The national anthem is played, flags are unfurled, and uniformed players charge up and down the field like an army in the throes of often violent conflict. The teams’ huddles divide the game into small planning sessions for the next play. In the United States, the National Football League (NFL) oversees the sport and, like any successful business, wants to score in new markets. The NFL first tackled Europe in 1991, with plans to establish American football there. After years of failed attempts, NFL Europe emerged as six teams, five of which were based in Germany (such as the Berlin Thunder, the Cologne Centurions, and the Hamburg Sea Devils). Earlier teams established in Spain had failed. Why did American football triumph in Germany but fail in Spain? An...
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...CROSS CULTURE COMMUNICATION Sondra Pham University of Memphis Abstract This paper explores cross culture communication by dissecting the term. Cross-cultural communication is a newly studies and researchable topic due to the businesses going global and the interaction between different cultures. In this paper, it will define communication and culture along with helpful tips and strategies to better understand how to communicate between different cultures. This paper examines the do’s and don’ts during cultural interaction in the business world as well as the tools for communicating with different cultures. Cross Culture Communication The importance of effective communication is immeasurable in the world of business and in personal life. Communication and cultures have always existed, but with the global market growing, it has been more common for business to do business with people from different cultures. The way of communicating will not be the same in all countries. Cross- cultural communication is essential in order to have a successful business and relationship with companies around the world. There are many aspects that go into consideration when communicating with people from a different background. Before fully understanding cross culture communication, one must first understand communication. Understanding Communication Communication is our ability to share our ideas and feelings. Whether people live in Hanoi, Vietnam, a city in Brazil, the mountains of North...
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...Cross Cultural Management of Japan & United States One concern of the merger between these two companies involves group interaction and sense of space. People in the United States take great pride in themselves on individualism and informality. The Japanese culture values groups and formality. People in the United States admire a person who excels above everyone else. If this merger takes place and it makes the price of stock to rise, the American company might want to buy more stock and the Japanese might not agree with this and be more cautious which could result in a cross-culture conflict. Cultural differences and cross culture conflicts is the biggest challenge in terms of cross-cultural management that will arise in the merger of these two companies (Chen, 2013). Due to differences in culture in terms of beliefs, priorities and lifestyles, management of cross culture operations will be difficult for both companies. It is because cultural differences affect the human thinking, feeling, acting and behavior that can result in cross culture conflicts within the organization (Adekola and Sergi, 2012). For example, in terms of language, religion, value, and attitudes, there are several cultural differences in both countries: U.S. and Japan, which can affect decisions and choices of employees or people from these countries and can cause to cross culture conflicts (Yoder, 2011). The women who are employed at Tokyo Electron worry that their jobs might be eliminated...
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...International Journal of Economics and Finance www.ccsenet.org/ijef Cross-cultural Communication in Business Negotiations Liangguang Huang English Department, Zhenjiang Watercraft College of PLA Zhenjiang 212003, China E-mail: Blackhawk1975@126.com Abstract All communication is cultural -- it draws on ways we have learned to speak and give nonverbal messages. With the implementation of the Economic Reform and Opening policies, more and more Chinese companies do business with the foreigners. When negotiating with the delegates from different countries, cross-cultural communications play an important role. Culture differs from one another, which influences the style, the time, and the course of negotiations. If distorted, cross-cultural communications may weaken a company’s position in the market, prevent it from accomplishing its objectives, and ultimately lead to failure of negotiation. Keywords: Cross-culture, Cultural difference, Business negotiation, Negotiating style 1. Introduction As business has turned more and more to an integrated world market to meet its needs, the difficulties of communicating at a global level have become increasingly widespread. Still, in an increasingly competitive world economy, it is harder for the successful business venture to conduct business exclusively within the safe confines of a single domestic business environment. With the implementation of the Economic Reform and Opening policies, China’s national economy has...
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... ------------------------------------------------- Executive Summary Scott Patjens was an international training manager for True Boards, Inc. a worldwide producer and distributor of silicon chips and assembled printed circuit boards. Patjens had gone for a corporate meeting with Toyo True (its Japanese subsidiary) with an agenda of reassessing relationship and to handle the new structure. After having a meeting with Merton Robinson, a western marketing executive who lived in Japan for years, he came to know why this meeting had mixed results as many environmental conditions had affected the smooth relationship between them, some of them are: Unaware of Japanese business practices and cultural patterns. True Boards not included two directors of Toyo True, and there was no communication or sharing of information between US and Japan. Some other factors are Lacey, the sponsor and translator had communication problem, misunderstanding and cultural differences. Patjens had improper presentation; there was no list of options or recommendations for them and improper planning by him. Thus Scott Patjens was frustrated and disappointed with this strip and still wondering if learning...
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...International Journal of Economics and Finance www.ccsenet.org/ijef Cross-cultural Communication in Business Negotiations Liangguang Huang English Department, Zhenjiang Watercraft College of PLA Zhenjiang 212003, China E-mail: Blackhawk1975@126.com Abstract All communication is cultural -- it draws on ways we have learned to speak and give nonverbal messages. With the implementation of the Economic Reform and Opening policies, more and more Chinese companies do business with the foreigners. When negotiating with the delegates from different countries, cross-cultural communications play an important role. Culture differs from one another, which influences the style, the time, and the course of negotiations. If distorted, cross-cultural communications may weaken a company’s position in the market, prevent it from accomplishing its objectives, and ultimately lead to failure of negotiation. Keywords: Cross-culture, Cultural difference, Business negotiation, Negotiating style 1. Introduction As business has turned more and more to an integrated world market to meet its needs, the difficulties of communicating at a global level have become increasingly widespread. Still, in an increasingly competitive world economy, it is harder for the successful business venture to conduct business exclusively within the safe confines of a single domestic business environment. With the implementation of the Economic Reform and Opening policies, China’s national economy has made unprecedented...
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