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Doing business across cultures

Doing business across cultures. Usunier (1998) Marketing across Cultures Prentice Hall. The key to success. Choosing the right partners, agents, etc high cost of switching so it is important to get right both: the terms of the deal the relationship between the people

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Doing business across cultures

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  1. Doing business across cultures Usunier (1998) Marketing across Cultures Prentice Hall

  2. The key to success • Choosing the right partners, agents, etc • high cost of switching • so it is important to get right both: • the terms of the deal • the relationship between the people • Relationships depend on trust • Cultural misunderstandings undermine trust

  3. communication is decoded according to culturally-conditioned preconceptions, • especially credibility of the source. • important to research the differences • in organisational culture • in expectations of correct business behaviour

  4. Who is a suitable business partner?Or what type of manager do you respect? • Strong • decisive • plain speaking • young with new ideas • leads from the front • Cautious • open-minded • modest • old and experienced • delegates to others

  5. Do you agree that • Managers should admit their mistakes? • Managers should not be addressed by their first names? • Managers should earn respect, not expect it because of their status? • Powerful people do not need to shout? • Successful men are usually fat?

  6. Tangled webs Masculine Feminine Individual Collective Symbols Stories Power Rituals Organisation Control Power Distance Uncertainty Avoidance

  7. Organisational cultures • High / Low Power Distance • delegated authority before consulting superiors • High /Low Uncertainty Avoidance • speed of decision-making • paper-work required to formalise arrangements • High /Low Individualism • obliged to support the company line • flexibility in negotiations • High / low Masculinity • the values and attitudes of the individuals.

  8. Approaches to negotiation • Distributive • dividing up a fixed cake • we win, they lose • Limited good • identifying with a group special interest which over-rides everything • Integrative • working together to increase rewards for both sides • solving problems for mutual benefit

  9. Mental Processes • Ideological • working towards an ideal eg socialist, green, religious, against which everything is judged • Pragmatic • solving the immediate problem now • Time frame • immediate result or long-term investment • Ethnocentricity • how much do they know or care of other cultures

  10. My word is my bond Implicit Read between the lines On-going and developing Trusting High Context culture Put it in writing Explicit spell it out Fixed and binding Suspicious Low context (Hall) What type of agreement

  11. Cultural Sensemakingbased on Osland and Bird (2000)Academy of Management Executive February • Context • Roles and Relationships • Cultural ‘scripts’ • how to act in that role and context explained by • Underlying cultural values • the influence of cultural history • see last term’s lecture

  12. Cultural Awareness spiral • Level 1 - it’s all very foreign • Level 2 - but really they’re just like us • Level 3 - or are they? • Level 4 - understanding the reasons • Level 5 - but that’s totally weird Collins 1987

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