CONTENTS
I. CULTURE
II. LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION
III. VERBAL LANGUAGE OR FACTUAL KNOWLEDGE
IV. PROBLEMS FACED WHEN CONVEVING A MESSAGE
IN ANOTHER LANGUAGE:
V. PROBLEMS WHEN ESTABLISHING A BRAND NAME:
VI. THE RELEVANCE OF CULTURE
VII. ANALYSING CULTURAL DIFFERENCE
VIII. AN EXAMPLE OF THE JAPANESE CULTURE
IX. SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS
X. ATTIDUS TOWARDS WORK AND ACHIEVEMENT
XI. GUIDANCE TOWARDS SUCCESSFULL, CROSS CULTURAL
NEGOTIATIONS(Herbig & Kramer)
XII. CONCLUSION
I. CULTURE
Culture has been defined in many ways. Kluckhohn (1951: 86, 5) quotes as a consensus of anthropological definitions:
Culture Consists in patterned ways of thinking, feeling and reacting, acquired and transmitted mainly by symbols, constituting the distinetive achievements of human groups, including their embodiments in artifacts; the essential core of culture Consists of traditional (i.e. historically derived and selected) ideas and especially their attached values.
There is no cultural right or wrong, just differences... we must not make value judgements as to whether or not cultural behaviour is good or bad, better or worse. (Copland and Criggs)
Once upon a time there was a great flood, and involved in the flood were two creatures, a monkey and a fish. The monkey, being agile and experienced, was lucky enough to scramble upon a tree and escape the raging waters. As he looked down from his safe perch, he saw the poor fish struglling against the swift current. With the very best of intentions, he reached and lifted the fish from the water. The result was inevitable. (Adams,1969)
lt is wrong to assume that people in different cultures think, feel and act in the same way. Ignorance of cultural differences could end with fatal consequences, as dramatized so vividly in the story of the monkey and the fish.
In international business dealings, ignorance of cultural difference is not just unfortunate, it is bad business. Sensitivity to cultural difference is crucial to successful international business Operations. Ignorance of cultural differences could end in disastrous business blunders. (There are many documented cases in which multinationais have failed to understand fully the foreign cultural environment. For an interesting account of such blunders.
This means to provide business managers with a better grasp of the impact of the sociocultural environment of international business, and suggestions for how to better conduct their business in a multicultural environment.
II. LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION
Of all the cultural elements of the international business environment, language is perhaps the most obvious difference between cultures and probably the most difficult to acquire and understand.
There are approximately 3000 different languages in the world with less than 300 nations and 10 000 different dialects. In some countries, several languages exist at the same time.
Canada, for example, has two national languages, French and English. Belgium has three national languages: Flemish in the north, and French and German in the south. Switzerland has four dominant languages and India alone has 15 major languages and over 1000 dialects. Some countries, such as the former USSR and Yugoslavia, not only have different languages, but also have different alphabets.
There has been an attempt by Dr Lazarus Ludwig Zamenhof to develop an international language, Esperanto, by combining many languages to form words that are easy to understand and remember, and where grammar, punctuation and spelling are simple enough to learn in about an hour. Although Esperanto is nowadays spoken in some parts of Europe, it has not yet become a true language because there is no need for it. English has always been and still remains the dominant language of international business. The ability to speak and understand the various interpretations of the language of a foreign country is essential for anyone planning a career in international business. The study of a foreign language should therefore indude both the verbal language, or factual knowledge, and non-verbal language, or interpretive knowledge.
III. VERBAL LANGUAGE OR FACTUAL KNOWLEDGE
In addition to the formal learning of the verbal language and the ability to speak and communicate effectively in it, business managers must also acquire the competency to recognize the interpretations of that language, which are quite different from those, for example found in a dictionary. Matching words with identical meanings from one language to another without being aware of the nuances of the local language, double meanings of words and the various interpretations of the cultural terms and concepts, could lead to confusion embarrassment and expensive mistakes.
IV. PROBLEMS FACED WHEN CONVEVING A MESSAGE IN ANOTHER LANGUAGE:
"Pepsi Cola ,Come alive with Pepsi"
When technically translated in German the message conveyed the idea of coming alive from the grave, and in Asia of bringing your ancestors from the dead.
Parker Pens "Avoid embarrassment, use Parker Pens"
The message meant to be transmitted was that a Parker Pen is a truly reliable fountain pen and could be worn in a shirt pocket without concern for embarrassing ink stains. But when technically translated into German the same word for embarrassment is also often indicate pregnancy.
V. PROBLEMS WHEN ESTABLISHING A BRAND NAME:
Egypt Air ,Misair', when pronounced in France sounds like ,misere', or misery
General Motors ,Chevrolet Nova'
After General Motors introduced its new Chevrolet Nova in Puerto Rico, it found out although the word Nova means ,start' in Spanish, its pronunciation sounded also like ,"no va" meaning ,does not go', and had to change it to ,Caribe'.
Ford ,Fierra'
The low-cost truck ,Fierra' faced the same problems with its Spanish translation, ,,fierra meant ,ugly old woman'.
Rolls Royce ,Silver Mist'
Rolls Royce's new model, the ,Silver Mist', was not very popular in the German market where ,mist' is literally translatable into ,excrement'.
Culture is an extremely broad concept and very difficult to define. Culture touches and alters every aspect of human life and embraces everything from food to dress, from household techniques to industry techniques, from forms of politeness to mass media, from work the learning of familiar rules. There is no general agreement regard to the definition of culture. To some, culture refers to the distinctive way of life particular group of people (Herskovitz, 1952, p. 17), or a complete design for living
Others refer to culture as a pattern of behaviour transmitted to members of a
from previous generations of the same group. Culture is not sirr product of conditioning acquired, learned or transmitted from one generation to another. Culture also shapes people's values, attitudes, beliefs behavioural patterns. lt is therefore crucial for business to understand fully not only how people in different cultures behave but why they behave way they do. Knowledge about culture is achieved by a combination of factual knowledge to be fully interpretive understanding.
Factual knowledge is acquired through an accumulation of the characteristics or obser facts about a particular culture, for example learning the different meanings of colour, taste so on. Interpretive understanding requires a deeper insight and understanding of the ,nuances of different cultural traits and patterns, which require more than factual knowledge to be full appreciated, such as learning the meaning of time, of life, of attitudes towards others of gender, and of business itself.
VI. THE RELEVANCE OF CULTURE
Knowledge of culture is essential to conducting international business. lt enables business managers :
·
To communicate with each other through the use of language either commonly known to them or learned·
To anticipate how other business people and consumers in various markets are likely respond to their actions·
To distinguish between what is considered right and wrong, reasonable or unreasonable acceptable or offensive, safe or dangerous, beautiful or ugly, in various countries of the world·
To identify themselves in the same category with other business managers of similar background and provide the knowledge and necessary skills for meeting and negotiating with them.
VII. ANALYSING CULTURAL DIFFERENCE
There is no best method of cultural analysis that is appropriate for all business decision. Assessing the cultural environment of international business depends largely on the type of business and the international activities involved. One practical approach is to break down the broad area of the sociocultural environment into its various elements and to study each element in detail, (for example, lists five dimensions to culture: material culture; social institutions; mankind and the Universe; aesthetics; and language and communication.) lt should be noted, however, that culture is not simply a group of unrelated elements, but that the different facts of culture are intricately intertwined (Cateora, 1990, p. 81) and must be viewer integrated complex whole (Terpestra and David, 1985). An employee's behaviour, for example, or a customer's reaction cannot be fully explained by a simple reference to certain aspects of the cultural environment influencing their attitude such as language, religion, social structure and so on. lt is essential for business managers to understand the reasons and motivations behind such a behaviour or reaction. A Systems approach to the analysis of the cultural environment is one where culture is understood as a system composed of parts that are related to other parts which mutually influence and adjust to each other, through a process of cooperation, competition, conflict and accommodation.
VIII. AN EXAMPLE OF THE JAPANESE CULTURE
Cultural issues
Establishing relationships
Loyalty and trust play major roles in Japanese society. The Japanese businessman must feel comfortable with you and fell that he can trust you before he will do business with you. The Japanese tend to view relationships, business and personal, as long-term commitments. Accept social invitation from them as often as possible. Your Japanese business partners will want to find out about all side of your personality so social meetings can be as important as business meetings.
The Japanese take time to organise a meeting and consider carefully who will be attending. They therefore need to know exactly who you will be bringing, their status within your organisation and details of the purpose of your visit. Surprising them, making changes at the last minute suggests you are unreliable. To establish successfully a relationship with Japanese the foreign company has to be patient. The Japanese often say that they need to call on a company eight times before their visits begin to bear fruit. This may be an exaggeration in the 1990s, but one of the main faults which Westerners have when dealing with the Japanese is impatience.
Attitude of Japanese businessmen
Japanese businessmen do not give information readily, although they are expert listeners and will remember everything you say. There are a number of methods to encourage them to speak as much as possible:
The way of doing successful negotiations in Japan is determent by certain rules a foreigner has to know. If you negotiate with Japanese you should avoid to show anger as it is regarded not only as rude but also as the sign of awake character. Cooperativeness, reasonableness and understanding of others are the virtues most admired by the Japanese businessman.
Harmony is critical in all relationships. Signs of aggression are viewed as inharmonious, nor as a tough negotiating style.
Another peculiarity in the attitude of Japanese businessman is that the Japanese will always avoid answering with a direct ‘no’ to a question. You must , therefore, be able to read the signs that many indicate ‘no’ so that you do not waste time pursuing an unacceptable request.
Look for:
Even for very minor details it is unlikely that one individual will say yes or no as everything is done through the group. Equally, do not misunderstand the Japanese "hai" to mean "yes" - it usual means "I understand", not necessarily "I agree".
Contracts signed between businesses in Japan are rare but becoming more commonplace. They are more common between Japanese and Europeans, but it is not always the case that a contract will be considered binding. A Japanese businessman may not expect to abide by the small print of a contract if circumstances change and he believes you should be more flexible in your approach. However, businessmen are strongly advised to put all agreements with Japanese firms in writing. Language and cultural barriers can result in misunderstandings and a written agreement helps to prevent such misunderstandings, before trading starts. This need to be a formally written contract, but it is invaluable in establishing agreement and in ensuring that both parties understand fully the agreement being entered into.
Doing business in Japan in the ‘correct’ way is very important. Many Japanese businessmen are familiar with Western ways and will generally make allowances for unintentional mistakes made by Europeans. But it indicates a seriousness about doing business in Japan if you are seen to be aware of normal modes of Japanese business behaviour.
Attitude in work
A further point which is important to know is the attitude of the Japanese workforce. To know about the attitude of the workforce is import for two reason. Firstly, to establish a positive image to attract well-qualified local personnel and secondly to know who to lead these employees successfully.
When examining the work structure of Japan, you can see recognisable differences to the Western culture like the concept of guaranteed lifetime employment. In Japan, once they are hired, they generally stay with a company until retirement, which is around age fifty-five, and their pay is determined by their length of service. However not everyone in Japan is granted lifetime employment. It is usually reserved for the most qualified graduates from prestigious universities who must compete for positions in the large companies. Perhaps a third of Japanese workers have such job security. Contrary to the Western believe, the vast majority of Japanese workers are employed not by the large companies like Toyota, Sony, Mitsubishi or Honda, but by medium size and small firms, which provide lower benefits, lower salaries and little job security.
Because of the importance of long-termism, the management of Western companies should not only set up short-term objectives. Furthermore, they should not lay off personnel during a recession for reasons such as fall in sales-per-employee or profit-per-employee-ratio.Taking this into account, they will follow the Japanese policy of job security and stability, which will enable them to attract university graduates or high school graduates who prefer to work in Japanese companies.
Another important point which should be recognised is that Japanese are not used to working side by side with people of a large number of nationalities as are the Europeans and Americans, therefore the presence of expatriates, particularly those occupying top ranking positions, and high interference by headquarters are only grudgingly by Japanese personnel, and are considered below the dignity or even humiliating.
As there is a high respect for age in Japan which you can see in the fact that the salary is linked to the age and that high positions are occupied by old people it is experienced that foreign companies that dispatched very young executives to occupy top positions in Japan had problems.
A growing number of young people who feel stifled by Japanese old guard finds hard to accept. The Japanese even have a name for young people who move from one job to another in a short space of time - second freshmen. More young people, especially women, are also looking for temporary work so that they can have time either to start their own businesses or return to school.
Another difference of the Japanese worker to the western worker is the importance of the group . The relationship of the individual to group is the most distinctive feature of Japanese social structure. It is common that decision are made by the group and not by one person. So it is important that western executives take this in account. Large Japanese companies are run like communities or large families. Many provide employee and their families with dormitory housing, recreational facilities, stores, and a hospital. Employees and employers are said to be fiercely competitive, long hours are considered a necessary sign of loyalty and devotion to one’s company and are usually requirements for staying ahead.
The difference in the working hours between the Japanese workforce and the western workforce is considerable. In 1987, the standard workweek in Japan was forty-eight hours; today it is around forty-three, compared to an average of 38.5 in the U.S.. Many Japanese workers put in far more hours than the statistics show. While people who work for the national government now work five days a week, six-day workweeks are the rule rather than the exception. Auto workers typically work twelve-hour shifts, and some Japanese salespeople put in up to seventy hours a week, with no overtime pay. Indeed, while "workaholism" is showing some signs of easing, it still characterises most Japanese workers.
Often it is not the question how much you have accomplished in a given time period, but how much hours you have worked, independent of the result. Typical Japanese workaholics might even give up vacations and holidays, fearing that if they take too much time off, they will be left out when bonus and promotion time comes around.
One reason for this are the weakness of Japanese labour unions, which means that company managers can pretty much set the rules and workers have to follow like it or not. The unions have also traditionally favoured job security for their workers, and they are willing to give in on long hours and hard work to maintain that benefit .
However an increasing number of Japanese are paying more attention to leisure time, and even object strongly to having to work beyond normal hours. There has been more talk of a standard five-day workweek recently, and more and more workers are taking vacations and spending more time with the families. According to a recent survey by the prime minister’s office, the young, especially, regard leisure as more important than any other activity. The younger people often prefer to look for a job that is not too hard and will give them plenty of vacation time.This current development could improve the situation of foreign companies in order to get local workforce, because this change in attitude is more similar to the western.
IX. SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS
Social institutions, beliefs and values refer to the ways in which people in different cultures relate to each other. Elements of social organization indude gender, age, family and kinship, dass structure and social hierarchy. Some of these issues have been covered earlier. Discussion in this section will be limited to the values, beliefs and attitudes found to be critical to effective
international business communications and operations. Some of these, which are particularly relevant to the conduct of international business, are attitudes towards work and achievement, attitudes towards change and innovation, attitudes towards material culture and technology and attitudes towards business ethics and practices themselves.
X. ATTIDUS TOWARDS WORK AND ACHIEVEMENT
These vary quite widely from culture to culture. People's attitudes towards work depends largely on their view of material gain and wealth and the level of economic development overall. Most people work to satisfy their basic physical needs of food, dothing and shelter. These human needs have been classified as a hierarchy of five needs (Maslow, 1970). According to Maslow's theory of hierarchical needs, starting with physical needs, each need must be at least partially satisfied before the individual's desire to satisfy a need at the next higher level emerges. Maslow's theory is useful in its capacity to identify people's various needs. The validity of the hierarchical classification, however, is questionable. People in different cultures attach different importance to various needs and even rank them differently. Workers in industrial societies, for example, may be unwilling to put in longer hours and work overtime in order to improve their own financial status. In some other societies, material wealth and monetary incentives may not be as strong as the need for spiritual well-being. Some countries have even developed other value systems and have come to value other needs. In Sweden, for example, social needs are more valued than personal esteem needs. In Germany, Japan, Switzerland, Italy and Australia security is valued over social and esteem needs (Hofstede).
XI. GUIDANCE TOWARDS SUCCESSFULL, CROSS CULTURAL NEGOTIATIONS(Herbig & Kramer)
1. Recognize that a foreign negotiator is different from you in perceptions, motivation, beliefs and outlook.
2. Identify, understand, and respect the other side's culture, protocol, social customs and beliefs.
4. Familiarize yourself with the other side's decisjon-making process. Learn about their personal styles of negotiating tactics, and be ready to develop appropriate counter-negotioation tactics, which are not themselves in tension with, or offensive to, potential foreign partners or customers.
5. Patience is the key to success. Be prepared for the bug terin. Do not create self-imposed deadlines. The side that uses time most effectively usually wins.
6. Understand how people in each culture view time and value punctuality.
7. Establish good personal relationships. These are a prerequisite to building long term business contacts with foreigners. Remember that very often written words are of less importance than personal ties.
8. Non-verbal communication is a key element in all negotiations. lt is therefore vital that ist ramifications are fully understood in cross-cultural settings.
9. Take the time to learn about the culture and language of the country in which you seek to do business.
10. Employ your own bi-cultural adviser and interpreter who can alert you to the peculiarities the foreign culture before you commit afaux pas on a seemingly innocent matter, but which can have major consequences for levels of success or failure abroad.
11. Pictures are worth more than a thousand words. Plan to support your presentations by instructive visuals, photographs, drawings, diagrams, copies of key documents, catalogues books and even samples of products.
12. Finally, the path to success in negotiation is ,prepare, prepare, prepare', technically as well as culturally. You should know sufficiently the country and the culture of those with whom you are planning to do business.
XII. CONCLUSION
In future it will be very important that cross-cultural connections will increase steadily, in our increasingly globalized world. Further it is essential that we respect the arguments of other countries and cultures no matter if they other than ours. This should be a good way for discussing such problems.
In a time where many european countries grow together the people must think in another way than before. If they think more global they will get a higher horizon of thinking. So it will be no great problem to live together. If this will happen in the heads of the people, perhaps we can say in future we live in Europe not e.g in Germany, Austria, UK etc.