Multicultural Manners At Work
How does the pace and structure of business differ among cultures?
The main thing that I would address here is decision making and in many situations here the boss makes the decision and that's it. But let's say Japan, I know I've encountered people doing business in Japan and they're so frustrated because the boss does not make the decision himself. There's a whole hierarchy and he has to get more of a consensus so you won't get a fast answer and the boss will not take total credit for it so... Again it's back to basics in terms of American let's get to it, let's make a decision, I need it now, and it's not that way in other places.
How does an employer's involvement in an employee's personal life differ among cultures?
There are different attitudes in companies depending on whether they are American-owned or owned by other countries, or cultures, which is becoming increasingly more prevalent. At a major corporation here in the LA area, employees were primarily American-born, and they were very upset when the new bosses insisted on doing exercises before work began. Even though it's a really great idea, but they were resistant to it, it's something very new and "foreign," in the negative way, to them. The attitudes of bosses wanting to know too much information about them. Actually, no one can ask you anymore about your marital status and age and things like that, but other cultures feel that they are entitled to know. They feel that they have a right to your time when you are on your day off, planning events and expecting you to be there because you are part of a family, the corporate family. And if your spouse doesn't want to go that casts a negative shadow on your performance at work.
How does commitment to a company differ among cultures?
An expression that expresses the American point of view is anteing up; upward mobility. So we may take a job somewhere but then after a short amount of time we may be over on Craigslist looking for something that's a little bit better. In other corporations, I think the Japanese probably represent this idea the most; once you join a corporation you're there for life. However, that is now changing as well. You may be expected to be there for your entire life time but more and more they're accepting and incorporating the American view that the grass is always greener on the other side and they may want to find a place where they have more opportunities, more time off, better income, better benefits. Whereas it used to be it was a lifetime commitment, the American idea is you keep bettering yourself and your position.
How do I give my business card to someone of another culture?
When you give a business card to someone from Japan, or lets say they give it to you first, which is what's going to happen, they're going to present you with a business card and they're going to present the card with two hands and you're going to accept it with two hands and you're going to look at it and then you're going to place it in your pocket. I know what I do, I usually write something on the back of the card so I know who I got this card from - bad bad bad. You never write on it, you look like you're studying it and you put it in your top coat pocket, you never put it in your back pocket because you're going to be sitting on it and its very disrespectful, and you never write on it either. Same thing when you hand them your card in return. You hand it with two hands with the writing facing toward them. It's a very formalized exchange.
How do Asian and American concepts of punctuality differ?
I know how you were about time is how you should always prefaced things. Koreans and Japanese, if it's business, they'll arrive before the hour. So you have to be careful. I don't know if you've had the experience of being a host or a hostess, and the guests come too early and you're still in the shower getting dressed. Too early is not good, but concepts of time do vary. At work it's a good idea in most American companies to be on time.
How does bargaining in business differ among cultures?
If negotiation is part of your lifestyle, you don't even give it a second thought. You know, you're just always engaged in that give and take. It's a natural. It's a given. It's not a bad thing, it's not a good thing, it just is. And it applies to people in most parts of the world. And that's why negotiation...we get frustrated when we watch, for example Middle East negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. And it's so frustrating to watch, but really it's part of how they exist, their day-to-day interactions. Not bad, not good, it's just a different style. And sometimes you pin your hopes because you've heard this has been decided, but guess what, tomorrow it's been undecided. And so it seems to be kind of continuous.
