By the end of the 20th century, 80 percent of the U.S. products were competing in the international market. This fact emphasizes the globalization of the world's economy. The changing environment and increasing complexity of the 21st century workplace makes communication even more important. In this globalized context, people and organisations have to change their way of communication in order to maintain healthy business relations.
Richard R Gesteland, in his book "Cross-Cultural Business Behavior", explained the differences between cultures in a business context with a lot of personal examples, thanks to his background as a Sales Manager all around the world. However, are all these statements and examples relevant in an intercultural business communication context? How can we use Gesteland's dimensions when we analyze intercultural business communication?
Firstly, we have to examine the different kinds of "intercultural business communications". There are different sorts of relationships in business; the way of behaving changes depending on whether you are on the phone with your counterpart, when you visit him abroad, when he visits you in your country and so on.
[...] To conclude, we can affirm that Gesteland's dimensions give some ideas to improve intercultural communication. Some are very relevant, especially the ones which give advices for a face to face meeting between people from different cultures. Nevertheless, we can notice some differences in his examples, which show that it is very difficult to categorize cultures. The globalisation of the world's economy obliges cultures to progress but stereotypes remain. It is impossible to avoid them because Man systematically categorizes when he is confronted to another culture. [...]
[...] That shows that there are no real in intercultural business communication, both counterparts have to make efforts. Secondly, Gesteland, himself, admits that cultures are changing when he says that even if Japanese and Chinese are classified as polychronic people, they are following the schedule when it comes to business meeting. All cultures are evolving, so it becomes more and more difficult to classify them in boxes even if main particularities remain. This evolution leads to stereotypes. Stereotypes are standardized and simplified conceptions of groups based on some prior assumptions. [...]
[...] In monochronic cultures, being late at a meeting is associated to rudeness and to a lack of discipline while people from polychronic cultures have an aversion to rigid deadlines. Now, let's focus on the effectiveness of Gesteland's dimensions in an intercultural business context. First of all, few of these dimensions are useful to prepare a business trip. Let's remember the first Iron Rule: In International Business, the Visitor is expected to observe local customs. Generally, a business meeting in a foreign country where the culture differs from yours, should be well prepared. This preparation involves learning about the habits of this culture. [...]
[...] This fits to the second Iron Rule; someone from an egalitarian country has to take care of his attitudes and words he uses, because he can easily offend his hierarchical market's counterpart, even if it would not have been an offence in his country. Moreover, this difference can be a real disadvantage when trying to sell a good to someone from strongly hierarchical cultures. Indeed, they have some status barriers for young people of both sex, women and men, women of any age involved in international sales. [...]
[...] Gesteland uses the example of a Mexican negotiator who is in Denmark for a business trip, and his Danish counterpart doesn't go with him to the airport because he also has to travel. So, the Mexican customer decides not to sign the contract because he has been shocked by the behaviour of his Danish counterpart. Nevertheless, the Dane didn't expect such a reaction from his Mexican counterpart because he did not know that in Mexico it is impolite to let a business partner go back to the airport with an assistant. [...]
APA Style reference
For your bibliographyOnline reading
with our online readerContent validated
by our reading committee
