The World's Business Cultures and How to Unlock Them

Citation

Latemore, G.M. (2011), "The World's Business Cultures and How to Unlock Them", Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 32 No. 3, pp. 311-314. https://doi.org/10.1108/lodj.2011.32.3.311.2

Cultural sensitivity is all about perception and understanding the cultural background of others. The integrating concept in this book is “cultural style”, that peculiar mix of variables that influence how we see people from other countries and how well we relate to them.

The culture experts Charles Hampden‐Turner, Fons Trompenaars and Geert Hofstede would be well known to students of international business and organisation behaviour. What is interesting about this book is that such ideas are presented in a tightly‐written, accessible, and well‐integrated book.

There are 12 chapters which build and relate to each other: risky business; how people think; cultural behaviour; how to increase your cultural sensitivity; communication; leadership and decision making; teams, motivation and feedback; meetings and negotiations; gift‐giving and hospitality; sixteen key markets; and fact files.

So what is “business culture”? The authors highlight three ingredients of culture as attitudes and values, cultural knowledge, and behaviour. They also distinguish national, regional, company and, curiously, individual culture – which they assert consists of one's ethnic background, religion, generation and gender.

How does a business traveller “unlock” another culture? Their suggestions make good sense. They begin by decrying the “curse of anecdotes” and urge the reader to avoid stereotypes and generalisations. The authors' approach is clearly intended to provide some helpful hints for the busy business traveller. However, at times, Tomalin and Nicks appear to confuse culture with cultural sensitivity – is “cultural knowledge” really a dimension of “culture”?

The best aspects of this book are the simple guidelines offered in the first few chapters. The early chapter on “how people think” is particularly insightful in its outline of cultural fears, values and the aspects of an individual's personal motivation. These techniques are intended to foster acceptance and sensitivity in international relations. For example, to build cultural competence, Tomalin and Nicks suggest five Cs:

1. 1.

   cultural knowledge;

2. 2.

   cultural behaviour;

3. 3.

   cultural values and attitudes;

4. 4.

   cultural preferences; and

5. 5.

   cultural adaptation.

They further advocate that one builds trust through rapport (building good relations) and credibility (matching communication styles). To build rapport and credibility, they encourage showing interest by gathering information about the culture, understanding values and attitudes and understanding business behaviour.

Their advice is not all about being sensitive to others: it is not all one way. The authors offer some ways of dealing with discrimination from other cultures should this arise. They suggest that one remain true to one's principles, lead with one's business card and ensure that team support is absolute – especially if a woman is the most senior person in the visiting negotiating team.

Their “six rules” for finding out what is going on in a culture are clear and practical: don't assume, be quiet, look, listen, feel, and ask questions. Further, to test whether a problem in dealing with another person from another culture, they recommend three questions: is it personal, is it professional, or is it cultural. An acronym to facilitate understanding and resolution is offered – RADAR, that is, recognise that you have a cultural communication problem; analyse the problem; decide what to do; act; and then review the outcome.

The authors postulate that the characteristics of intercultural sensitivity are: tolerance of ambiguity, behavioural flexibility, communicative awareness, knowledge discovery, respect for otherness and empathy. Another good insight is the need to transcend an “ethnocentric” viewpoint to an “ethno‐relative” one. The authors highlight some six stages in such an evolution from denial, defence, minimization, acceptance, adaptation through to integration.

The main device employed to help business people unlock other cultures is a “cultural profile”. This is a list of ten aspects: communication style (direct or indirect); working style (formal or informal); discussion style (fast or slow); business attitude (progressive or traditional); leadership style (flat or vertical); business relationship (relationship‐focussed or task‐focussed); decision‐making style (individualistic or collective); basis for decision making (facts or instincts); attitude to time (scheduled or flexible) and work‐life balance (live to work or work to live).

The most practically useful section of the book is Chapter Eleven where “Sixteen Key Markets” are outlined employing this “cultural profile” – Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, the Gulf, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, Spain, the UK and the USA. The fact files on each of these countries highlight the size of the country, its population, capital city, ethnic make‐up, the economic base, gross domestic product per head, language/s spoken, religion, currency, climate and information about whether visas are required. The sub‐headings and little tables within each market are succinct and memorable. For example, one way of succeeding in the UK is arriving at meetings punctually, while a way of failing is to be patronizing towards women.

I liked the many examples of their conversation topics while doing business overseas and their “ice makers” versus “ice breakers”. For example, an ice breaker in China is talking about the fact the some 40 million people world‐wide are learning Mandarin, while an ice‐maker is talking about your feelings on China's approach to Tibet.

For all its practical utility, there are some puzzling aspects to this book. First, it is difficult to see the link between their introductory models of culture and their main device, the “cultural profile” for the 16 countries selected. Second, the research basis behind the dimensions of this cultural profile is not available: the dimensions read like unsupported (albeit reasonable) propositions, and external research support for this profile is not evident. One sees parallels with Hofstede but they are not consistent. Third, the audience for the book is clearly business travellers and business negotiators; however, there seems to be little for those who deal with Governments or not‐for‐profit organisations, even though the parallels might be close. Finally, while the authors acknowledge additional culture experts in one page called “further reading”, how these experts' ideas were actually employed in this book is never clear. There are no citations or quotes from any other source: this is clearly not a reference list.

Curiously, there are numerous sources mentioned throughout this book but they are not referenced – writers such as Farrer, Friedman, Lewis, Pareto, Koch, Bennett and Byram. The book would have been strengthened by clear citations to such experts in the field, and some overt linkages with the growing literature on diversity.

This book does advance the idea that our own culture is only one of many, and that international relations and communication across cultures are best served by acknowledging that other cultures see things differently. Two of their insightful quotes about cultural understanding reflect this idea well:

Understanding a culture too often becomes something you do after the event, when your relationship with a client has broken down. But that's shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted (p. 4).

The people whose faces are most like yours may conceal the greatest cultural differences (p. 5).

The World's Business Cultures is not meant to be similar to the Frommer's Guide or the Lonely Planet as it is obviously not intended for tourists or holiday‐makers. While it might lack academic referencing and a wider research base, the depth of insight and real‐world experience from the authors is nonetheless evident.

For busy business travellers, keen to understand their overseas clients or colleagues, I recommend this book.