International Management & Cultural Differences
Cultural convergence, for better or worse, through their advertisements that define appropriate lifestyles, attitudes, and goals and by bringing new management techniques, technologies, and cultural values to the countries in which they operate.
UNDERSTANDING
NEW CULTURES
•
Many
international business people make the mistake of relying on the self-reference
criterion, the unconscious use of one’s own culture to help assess new
surroundings.
SITUATION
A U.S. salesperson who calls on a German customer in
Frankfurt and asks about the customer’s family is acting politely according to
U.S. culture—the salesperson’s reference point—but rudely according to German
culture, thereby generating ill will and the potential loss of a customer. In
behaving as is usual in the United States, the salesperson forgot the answer to
a critical question: “Who is the foreigner?”
- There are numerous ways to obtain knowledge about other cultures to achieve cross-cultural literacy.
- Cross-cultural literacy is the first step in acculturation, the process by which people not only understand a foreign culture but also modify and adapt their behavior to make it compatible with that culture.
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