CULTURE, FYI

1. International Business
The Role of Culture
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2. Culture
• Composes of Value, Behavior, Customs and
Attitude
• Culture of a society will influence various rules
and policies setting in roles of a business
organization
• Culture inherits from a generation to another
e.g. parents train their children in courtesy,
seniors introduce freshmen in university’s
customs
• Culture reflects business behavior e.g.
Japanese culture has seniority and high loyalty
that create a lifetime employment and a low job
turnover
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3. Culture
• Culture succeeded by learning so, it’s
changeable. It changed by external forces
e.g. Germany after WW2 though it’s a
nation which has accumulated culture for
a long time, the behavior of its people
who live below Russia is quite different
from West Germany.
• Culture helps to identify which person
whether or not he belongs to a member of
which society
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4. Elements of Culture
Society
Structure
Culture
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5. Elements of Culture
• Society Structure Each society has a structure as a ground
to cling people on in a society
– Relatives Count How to count relatives is different in
each society. To operate a family business, Americans
don’t reckon on relatives.
– Social Classes Every society make differences upon
race, occupation, education and success level. In some
societies, the employment must concern about social
classes.
– Changes in a Society าSome societies persons are able
to change their own statuses by the education or
success especially in the society which is not highly
differentiate Proprietary Copyright@2008:Peerasak C.

6. Elements of Culture
Language
Society
Structure
Culture
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7. Elements of Culture
• Language It is a principal element to differentiate cultures
in a society. Specialists said that there’re more than 3,000
languages and up to 10,000 accents on our earth.
• Language can tell us about ways of thinking of a particular
society. If in a particular nation, there’s more than a
language, it indicates that there is a variety of cultures in
that country. It may comprise of a difference in revenues, in
work culture, and educational level. ⇨ The smart businessman will
adjust marketing strategies and business operations properly. In Canada,
Canadian-British prefers a soap for hygiene, but Canadian-French prefers a soap
for impressiveness.
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8. Elements of Culture
• Language “Business Weapon” Countries who use
English are advantageous in world trade arena
because English is used worldwide. Spain used a
language advantage to attack Latin America
market where it uses Spanish primarily. Turkey
used Turkish to invade a group of new born
countries after Soviet collapsed.
• At present English is mostly a major world
language. Countries who’re weak at English will be
disadvantageous accordingly (e.g. in a negotiation
or losing an opportunity for MNCs to establish its
offices).
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9. Elements of Culture
• Language and Local Culture
– Japanese will not say “No” because it’s not polite
in Japanese society.
– Translation from one language to another may
cause a problem because it shows a different
meaning. A good translation should aim for a
meaning, not word by word.
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10. Elements of Culture
Language
Society Communication
Structure
Culture
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11. Elements of Culture
• Communication by speaking or silent (body
language, face, action, queue, and others)
• In same culture, the communication may be
ineffective. In different culture, more
misunderstanding.
• Specialists believe that 80 – 90 % of silent
communications in same society will be
understandable. But if it’s from different society,
possible to have different meanings e.g. Americans
keep 20” distance when talking. In Saudi Arabia it
keeps 9 – 10” distance so, when they meet, Saudi
moves closer but American moves away. This
makes both misunderstood.
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12. Elements of Culture
• In U.S.A. when you nod once it means “Yes”
but in Bulgaria means “No”
• Shaking face means “No” in general. But
India, means “Yes”
• Use the thumb touches a forefinger means
“Okay” in U.S.A., “Money” in Japan, and
“Worthless” in France, and rather rude in
East Europe
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13. Elements of Culture
• Gift and Host Japanese will set up a neat
party to build up nice relationship and
increased by exchanging gifts that will not be
opened in front to avoid uncomfortable
feeling. In Arabs are the similar.
• Informing bad news will be done immediately
for Americans, done after work for Koreans,
done through third person for Japaneses
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14. Elements of Culture
Languages
Society Communications
Structure
Culture
Religion
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15. Elements of Culture
• Religion influences behavior in same and different
society
• Religion influences attitude towards job,
consumption, responsibility, way of life, and goal of
life
• Caste in India is strictly to a person’s job. Female is
not permitted to work in Muslim countries.
• You must understand and recognize doing
businesses in Saudi Arabia that has praying 5
times a day
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16. Elements of Culture
Language
Society Communication
Structure
Culture
Value
Attitude Religion
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17. Elements of Culture
• Value is the accepted principles or standards of a
person or a group in a society.
• Attitude is action, feeling and opinion that’re
reflected from the value.
• Time In each culture, the attitude towards the time
is different. For Americans “Time is Money”, time is
the opportunity to be more productive, more
money. So, time shall not be wasted. – American
businessmen will expect the meeting to be on time
and getting to the point. Keeping attendees await is
seriously impolite.
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18. Elements of Culture
• In Latin America, starting the meeting late 45
minutes is not wrong
• In Arab, the meeting starts late usually, and
during the meeting if there’s an interruption
by a friend or family’s member, it means
paying respect to all
• During the meeting, Americans usually
follow an agenda and, argument is common.
Japaneses and Saudis will introduce each
other at the beginning of the meeting
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19. Elements of Culture
• Seniority Americans for young people but Asians for
elderly
• Education Education system is an important
indicator towards attitude of a society
– In USA, stress on personal development,
creativity, and independency. Open for all
classes
– In UK, pass the test to higher classes and limit to
the qualified ones
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20. Elements of Culture
– In Germany, there’s a well developed system in
engineering and technical skills training for
young to serve its industry
– In Japan and France, stress on memorizing as to
prepare for nationwide test. Who gets the top
score, deserves to study in first ranking institutes
and mostly to be selected for jobs by big
companies
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21. Elements of Culture
• Social Status some inherit through ancestors, and
some are from personal successes
– In some European countries, lords are higher that new
successors
– In USA, admire successful persons from hard works but
their children may not be admired if cannot do the same
– In Japan, personal status depends on its family or
company so, when introduce they refer to family or
company
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22. Elements of Culture
• Elements of the culture influence the
behavior and expectation of managers and
staffs in the organization. International
businessmen will encounter these
challenges to manage and motivate staffs
who have different cultures, and must
understand these cultural elements.
• To easily understand, there’s a model to
help us explain
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23. Elements of Culture
Hall’s Low-Context-High-Context Approach
Low High
Context Context
Sw i an
Kor ese
Jap a ese
Bri t a
U.S avian
Gre s h
ne se
Chi n
nad
Spa n
Ita l h
ek
ea
ni
m
ia
n
Vie t rab
nam
is
ndin s s
Ge r
./Ca
A
S ca
◊ In Low-context culture spoken indicates certain
meaning and clear to listeners – straight talks
◊ In High-context culture spoken and conversation
content convey indirect meaning
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24. Elements of Culture
◊ Business behavior of these 2 groups are
different e.g. ad in Germany will get to the
point and be a fact. But in Japan will be
more emotional
◊ High-context group stresses on personal
relationship so, building up a familiarity is
necessary to do the businesses together
◊ Low-context group stresses on the business
directly and in a negotiation included a
lawyer
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25. Variety of Culture and International
Business Management
Some specialists say that culture
spreads through out the world upon
communication and transportation,
from MTV and CNN
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26. Variety of Culture and International
Business Management
• Understanding New Culture
– Businessman forgets that he’s a stranger
from other culture. He usually makes
mistakes e.g. American meets German and
asks about family (polite for American) but
for German is impolite to ask about family.
– Some behavior in a society are incorrect, but
in another’s may be common
– International businessmen need to learn and
understand differences of cultures
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