Malaysia Culture

1. Malaysia Culture Reem Khalifa Al Darmaki 200919095 BUS-207-004

2. Different Etiquette and Customs Greetings: • Malaysians would shake hand to greet each other with a salaam. • Men should not shake hand with women unless the women started the initiative. They should just bow with placing their hands on their heart. There is a general tendency to introduce: • The most important person to the lower ranking person. • The older person to the younger person. • Women to men.

3. Different Etiquette and Customs Gift giving to Malays: • You should never give alcohol. • Do not give toy dogs or pigs to children. • Do not give anything made of pigskin. • Avoid white wrapping paper because it symbolizes death and mourning. • You avoid yellow wrapping paper, because it is the color of royalty. • Offer gifts with the right hand only or both hands if the item is large.

4. Culture and Values Malaysians tend to care less about time and more about getting to know each other. They tend to arrive a little late to occasions and parties. They can be classified as a polychromic culture. They are a high context culture, they use non-verbal communication to maintain harmony. They usually give out body language, and try to save face. They care a lot about avoiding shame. They are group oriented, which makes them a collectivistic culture. They tend to consider the ranking between them and the positions of each one of them. They have high power distance cultural values.

5. Doing Business There are many values, customs and etiquette of Malaysians you should take care of when doing business with a Malaysian company. Some of these etiquette and customs are: • Greetings should with proper respect, and after the introductions you should exchange business cards. • Use two hands or the right hand only to exchange business cards. • You should examine any business card before you put it away, because the respect you show to a person's business card is an indicative of the respect you will show to the individual. • It is important to use professional titles and honorific titles in business, such as doctor and professor.

6. Doing Business  It is a good idea for the most senior person on your team to entre the meeting first. This gives face to both parties because it shows respect towards the Malaysians and their culture, and shows that you respect hierarchy within your company. You should think about the high power distance that Malaysian have in their culture. • Usually leaders sit opposite each other around the table. • Many companies sometimes will have their team seated in descending rank. • There will be a period of small talk, until it would end with the senior Malaysian being comfortable to get into business discussions. • Malaysians prefer first meeting to be about getting to know each other.

7. Malaysian Culture “Silence is an important element of Malaysian communication. Pausing before responding to a question indicates that they have given the question appropriate thought and considered their response carefully. Many Malaysians do not understand the Western propensity to respond to a question hastily and can consider such behavior thoughtless and rude.”(“Malaysia-culture, customs, language and etiquette”, n.d.)

8. References: • Malaysia-culture, customs and etiquette. (n.d.). Retrieved March 17, 2012, from CultureCrossing.net: http://www.culturecrossing.net/basics_business_student.php?id=125 • Malaysia-culture, customs, language and etiquette. (n.d.). Retrieved March 17, 2012, from Kwintessential: http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/resources/global-etiquette/malaysia.html