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Sometimes people's plans fail and they have problems in reaching their goals because they have overlooked something, that is very important for their partner. Oftentimes, this "something" refers to culture. I have collected a few of such real-life cases from various sources and I sometimes discussed them with my students. Take s look at Case Study 1.

 

A company from the USA was preparing to sign a contract with a company from a Latin American country. An important manager from the US company had very successful negotiations with his Latin American counterpart via e-mail and on the phone. Now it was time to meet in person and finalise the contract in detail. The US guy flew to the capital of the Latin American country. His plane landed at 7 am and the meeting was due to be held at midday. The US manager was met at th eairport by a representative of the host company. The American guy told him that since he still had almost 5 hours before the meeting, he had just enough time to check in his hotel, have a quick shower, breakfast and be right on time for the meeting. For some reason the representative of the host company looked slightly puzzled and began saying that there was no rush and the managers of the company can wait f their guest needs more time. But, as you know, time is money and the American guy was at the host company's head office at 11.55

To his surprise, there was no one there yet. When the managers arrived half an hour later, they treated their guest much more coldly than on the phone and vie e-mail and seemed reluctant to discuss the most important points of the contract which needed to be discussed with the top management of the two companies. The contract was not finalised and its signing was put off until much later.

 

What, do you thikn, was the reason for this?

What causes such a change in attitude?

Did the American guest do something wrong?

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Sometimes people's plans fail and they have problems in reaching their goals because they have overlooked something, that is very important for their partner. Oftentimes, this "something" refers to culture. I have collected a few of such real-life cases from various sources and I sometimes discussed them with my students. Take s look at Case Study 1.

 

A company from the USA was preparing to sign a contract with a company from a Latin American country. An important manager from the US company had very successful negotiations with his Latin American counterpart via e-mail and on the phone. Now it was time to meet in person and finalise the contract in detail. The US guy flew to the capital of the Latin American country. His plane landed at 7 am and the meeting was due to be held at midday. The US manager was met at th eairport by a representative of the host company. The American guy told him that since he still had almost 5 hours before the meeting, he had just enough time to check in his hotel, have a quick shower, breakfast and be right on time for the meeting. For some reason the representative of the host company looked slightly puzzled and began saying that there was no rush and the managers of the company can wait f their guest needs more time. But, as you know, time is money and the American guy was at the host company's head office at 11.55

To his surprise, there was no one there yet. When the managers arrived half an hour later, they treated their guest much more coldly than on the phone and vie e-mail and seemed reluctant to discuss the most important points of the contract which needed to be discussed with the top management of the two companies. The contract was not finalised and its signing was put off until much later.

 

What, do you thikn, was the reason for this?

What causes such a change in attitude?

Did the American guest do something wrong?

Hmmm. Interesting... Maybe he shouldn't have mentioned the shower? I've read that in some countries you should not discuss personal hygiene

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Hmmm. Interesting... Maybe he shouldn't have mentioned the shower? I've read that in some countries you should not discuss personal hygiene

No, it wasn't what he said, it was what he did.

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No, it wasn't what he said, it was what he did.

 

Maybe he, as an important person, must be late for the meeting... :D

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Sometimes people's plans fail and they have problems in reaching their goals because they have overlooked something, that is very important for their partner. Oftentimes, this "something" refers to culture. I have collected a few of such real-life cases from various sources and I sometimes discussed them with my students. Take s look at Case Study 1.

 

A company from the USA was preparing to sign a contract with a company from a Latin American country. An important manager from the US company had very successful negotiations with his Latin American counterpart via e-mail and on the phone. Now it was time to meet in person and finalise the contract in detail. The US guy flew to the capital of the Latin American country. His plane landed at 7 am and the meeting was due to be held at midday. The US manager was met at th eairport by a representative of the host company. The American guy told him that since he still had almost 5 hours before the meeting, he had just enough time to check in his hotel, have a quick shower, breakfast and be right on time for the meeting. For some reason the representative of the host company looked slightly puzzled and began saying that there was no rush and the managers of the company can wait f their guest needs more time. But, as you know, time is money and the American guy was at the host company's head office at 11.55

To his surprise, there was no one there yet. When the managers arrived half an hour later, they treated their guest much more coldly than on the phone and vie e-mail and seemed reluctant to discuss the most important points of the contract which needed to be discussed with the top management of the two companies. The contract was not finalised and its signing was put off until much later.

 

What, do you thikn, was the reason for this?

What causes such a change in attitude?

Did the American guest do something wrong?

 

To my mind, the main reason for not signing the contract is that they were representatives of different cultures. The American guy was very punctual and his partners not. They used to be late for all their meetings and didn't consider it a bad habbit. And they even didn't expect him to have done so many things in five hours and be in the office just in time...

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To my mind, the main reason for not signing the contract is that they were representatives of different cultures. The American guy was very punctual and his partners not. They used to be late for all their meetings and didn't consider it a bad habbit. And they even didn't expect him to have done so many things in five hours and be in the office just in time...

You're almost 100% correct. The problem was indeed a sociocultural one. For Americans time is money and you cannot come late for an appointment unless something quite out-of-the-ordinary happens. In many Latin cultures attitudes to time are much more relaxed, and the more important a person is, the later he arrives. So because the American guest arrived right on time, his counterparts presumed he was not important enough to discuss the issues that were to be discussed and to make any decisions. Therefore they just politely refused to discuss the contract with someone who was "not in a position to sign it".

Tomorrow I'll write about another sociocultural riddle for anyone who wants to solve it.

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Some more cultural comment. Most cultures differe in how they treat time, and can be divided into time-precise and time-loose cultures. For a person from a time-precise culture coming late is an offence. For a person from time-loose culture coming late is not only something quite normal, but sometimes is quite advisable (as in fashionably late. Here is an intetresting cross-cultural event that S.G. ter-Minasova describes in he "Язык и межкультурная коммуникация": "Интересные данные о разном отношении представителей разных культур ко времени привел в своей работе "Культура и время" студент факультета иностранных языков МГУ Сергей Цингаленок. Он пригласил к себе на день рождения к 19 часам вечера своих друзей по студенческому общежитию. Вот как он описывает "съезд гостей": "Немцы пришли в 6.55 и удивились, что никого нет. Китайцы пришли в 7.05, долго извинялись за опоздание и объяснили причины. В 7.30 пришли русские и венгры и сказали: "Давайте начинать". Корейцы пришли в 8.30 и очень кратко извинились. Американцы пришли в 9.15, были очень рады, что вечеринка в разгаре и не сказали ни слова об опоздании. Остальные русские друзья потом шли всю ночь"."

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Here's another cross-cultural case. A big American company was getting ready to sign a large contract with a Japanese firm. The American CEO arrived in Tokio for the final discussion and the signing. As it often happens in Japan, the management of the Japanese company were members of one and the same family. The ex-president and founder of the company was now the advisor for corporate ethics, his son was the current president of the company, and some other relatives were members of the board of directors. When the contract was practically ready and the meeting was almost over, the Japanese company's ex-president suddenly stood up and said: "I think we should revise most of this contract as some parts go against our corporate ethics". The American CEO politely tried to dissuade the ex-president and made a long speech full of well-presented arguements trying to prove that the contract was in line with the ethics and corporate policy and would bring large benefits to the Japanese company. However, the more he talked, the more dissatisfied everyone else seemed to be. Finally, the Japanese refused to sign the contract.

 

What did the American CEO do wrong? What should he have done?

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Here's another cross-cultural case. A big American company was getting ready to sign a large contract with a Japanese firm. The American CEO arrived in Tokio for the final discussion and the signing. As it often happens in Japan, the management of the Japanese company were members of one and the same family. The ex-president and founder of the company was now the advisor for corporate ethics, his son was the current president of the company, and some other relatives were members of the board of directors. When the contract was practically ready and the meeting was almost over, the Japanese company's ex-president suddenly stood up and said: "I think we should revise most of this contract as some parts go against our corporate ethics". The American CEO politely tried to dissuade the ex-president and made a long speech full of well-presented arguements trying to prove that the contract was in line with the ethics and corporate policy and would bring large benefits to the Japanese company. However, the more he talked, the more dissatisfied everyone else seemed to be. Finally, the Japanese refused to sign the contract.

 

What did the American CEO do wrong? What should he have done?

 

The American CEO didn't have to do anything. He should have waited until the members of Japanese firm discussed all the pros and cons of the contract and only after that he could have made his speech.

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The American CEO didn't have to do anything. He should have waited until the members of Japanese firm discussed all the pros and cons of the contract and only after that he could have made his speech.

Quite correct. By arguing with the oldest family member he broke another important cultural principle: "respect the elders". He showed disrespect towards the old man and, as a consequence, lost his face. A better way would be to show respect, NOT argue, wait until the next day and sign the contract.

 

So another way of classifying cultures is by their attitude to age. There are cultures in which respect to older people is much more important than what people actually do, and in other cultures age is not a reason for a greater respect in itself, the individual's worth lies not in age but in achievements. In these cultures jokes about elderly people are sometimes acceptable, while in the former cultures they would be totally unacceptable.

As an example, here are links to websites with jokes about elderly people. Would they be considered offensive in Russia?

 

http://www.ajokeaday.com/Clasificacion.asp?ID=25

http://www.suddenlysenior.com/seniorjokebook2.html

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Quite correct. By arguing with the oldest family member he broke another important cultural principle: "respect the elders". He showed disrespect towards the old man and, as a consequence, lost his face. A better way would be to show respect, NOT argue, wait until the next day and sign the contract.

 

So another way of classifying cultures is by their attitude to age. There are cultures in which respect to older people is much more important than what people actually do, and in other cultures age is not a reason for a greater respect in itself, the individual's worth lies not in age but in achievements. In these cultures jokes about elderly people are sometimes acceptable, while in the former cultures they would be totally unacceptable.

As an example, here are links to websites with jokes about elderly people. Would they be considered offensive in Russia?

 

http://www.ajokeaday...acion.asp?ID=25

http://www.suddenlys...rjokebook2.html

 

I don't think so. I liked the jokes, especially "The Love dress" :rolleyes:

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Here is another situation that happened because of culture. An American delegation came to Tokio to discuss what they hoped was going to be a big contract. They met with they Japanese counterparts and, after a few preliminaries, said how much money they wanted to get for what they wer eoffering. The japanese businessmen bowed but said nothing and no one moved. Since there was no other reaction, the American businessmen thought that the asking price was too high. They discussed the situation briefly among themselves and made another offer, this tinme for a lower price. The japanese bowed and said nothing, yet again. The Americans once again lowered the price, to which the Japanese bowed. Tjhis continued until the Americans reached their lower limit and said: "Sorry, butthe price of the contract will not go down any further", to which the Japanese said "yes" and what was promising to be a big contract turned out to be a very moderate one at best.

What did the Americans failed to do for the contract to be signed earlier and with a higher price?

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