Executive planet

C h

a p

t er

F o

u r Communicating

across Cultures

After studying this chapter, you should be able to do the following:

LO4.1 Describe characteristics of cultural intelligence, its importance for global business leaders, and approaches to developing it.

LO4.2 Explain the major cultural dimensions and related communication practices.

LO4.3 Name and describe key categories of business etiquette in the intercultural communication process.

Learning Objectives

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Why Does T his Matter?

You are living in one of the most exciting times because of opportunities to work and interact with people from across the globe. Only a few decades ago, few busi- nesspeople worked closely with members of other cultures. Now, however, global business connections have increased rapidly, and you will undoubtedly work across cultures throughout your career. For example, you will probably have some chances to travel internationally for work assignments. More frequently, however, you are likely to work across cultures by collaborating with work teams in India, videoconferencing or emailing with customers or suppliers in China, or working in a culturally diverse office in your hometown. The pos- sibilities are immense!

The rapid growth in intercultural business con- nections is driven by technological and cultural forces of globalization. Technology has allowed people to nearly instantaneously communicate with people around the world, transact business, and move capital. These technologies include the Inter- net, the digitization of work, ATMs, credit cards, smart cards, and GPS. Furthermore, convergence of many business standards and platforms has made conducting business easier and more predict- able. These common standards and platforms in- clude English as a global business language, trade agreements that specify rules for commerce (the World Trade Organization and North American Free Trade Agreement), and quality standards in manufacturing (e.g., supplier-customer relationships driven by ISO 9000 quality standards). Also, many non-Western ex- ecutives are trained in business schools in the United States, Australia, and Western Europe, creating a more homogeneous business culture around the world. 1

Throughout this chapter, you will see a variety of national cultures compared. The countries selected for this chapter are among the most important trading partners for the United States and Canada. In terms of trade volume, countries such as China (including Taiwan), Mexico, Japan, the United Kingdom, and Germany dominate. (See Table 4.1 for the most important trading partners of North America.) Of course, you will likely work with business professionals, clients, or customers from many other national backgrounds. Your business discipline, company, and industry will factor into the national cultures with which you most frequently interact. Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Nissan and Renault, explained the necessity of learning to work and communicate effectively across cultures:

Companies are going global, but the teams are being divided and scattered all over the planet. If you’re head of engineering, you have to deal with divisions in Vietnam or China, and you have to work across cultures. You have to know how to motivate people who think very dif- ferently than you, who have different kinds of sensitivities, so I think the most important message is to get prepared to deal with teams who are multicultural, who do not think the same way. 2

Read the following case about Carlos Ghosn. Throughout the chapter, you will read more advice from him and other business executives. 3

? TABLE 4.1

Top Trading Partners with North America (United States and Canada)

Country Total Trade ( in millions of dollars )

1. China

2. Mexico

3. Japan

4. United Kingdom

5. Germany

6. South Korea

7. France

8. Netherlands

9. Brazil

10. Italy

$494,244

326,802

167,520

114,592

109,488

77,247

69,009

52,952

50,327

44,917

Note: China fi gure includes Hong Kong and Taiwan. Total trade combines total imports and exports with the United States and Canada. Based on 2009 trade fi gures.

Hear Pete Cardon explain why this

matters.

bit.ly.com/CardonWhy4

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88 Part two Principles of Interpersonal Communication

Chapter Case: Carlos Ghosn and Working across Cultures at Nissan

Carlos Ghosn , president and CEO of Nissan and Renault • Held many international management positions: Michelin in France, 1978–1985;

Michelin in Brazil, 1985–1989; Michelin in the United States, 1989–1996; Renault in France, 1996–present; Nissan in Japan, 1999–present.

• Speaks six languages: Arabic, Portuguese, Spanish, French, English, and Japanese. • Born in Brazil, grew up in Lebanon, and moved to France for university studies. • Industry analysts comment that Ghosn “epitomizes a new breed of borderless global

managers. . . . These executives are multilingual, have worked around the world, and seem impervious to jet lag.”4

In March 1999, Carlos Ghosn was asked to lead the turnaround at the struggling Japanese car- maker Nissan. The company was $23 billion in debt, had suffered declines in domestic market share for 27 straight years, was unprofitable on 43 of the 46 products it sold, and had lost money for seven of the prior eight years. Many viewed Ghosn, who was nicknamed Le Cost-Killer and renowned for his turnaround abilities, as the best hope to fix the crisis. Yet, many industry analysts thought the situation was impossible. They also wondered how a foreigner could succeed in the Japanese work environment. Within 18 months, Nissan was restored to profitability and has sustained annual profitability for all but one year (during the recent worldwide recession) since then. Within five years of Ghosn’s arrival in Japan to run Nissan, the debt of $23 billion had been turned into a $7 billion surplus. It now sells and markets cars in nearly every country in the world and runs manufacturing facilities in nearly 20 countries. Nissan is currently developing some of the most innovative cars, including the Nissan Leaf, the first zero-emissions car. Ghosn credits much of this turnaround at Nissan to his ability to work across cultures and to build on the best parts of each culture involved.

Who’s Involved

The Situation

Questions to Consider as You Read • What types of attitudes do business professionals need to communicate effectively across cultures? • How can business students learn about and prepare to work with members of other cultures? • How can understanding cultural dimensions help business professionals work cross-culturally? • What advantages accrue to companies with a global mentality? • What is the value of global leaders?

Companies depend on business professionals who can manage across cultures. Com- panies such as Coca-Cola sell more products abroad than they do locally. In fact, Coca- Cola sells more drinks in Japan alone than in the United States. In Chapter 2, you read about emotional intelligence (EQ), your ability to manage emotions in interpersonal situations. Similarly, cultural intelligence (CQ) is a measure of your ability to work with and adapt to members of other cultures. Like EQ (but unlike IQ), CQ can be de- veloped and improved over time with training, experience, and conscious effort. 5 Business professionals with high CQ understand differences and similarities be- tween and among cultures. Culture includes the shared values, norms, rules, and

Developing Cultural Intelligence LO4.1 Describe

characteristics of cultural intelligence, its importance for global business leaders, and approaches to developing it.

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Communicating Across Cultures Chapter Four 89

behaviors of an identifiable group of people who share a common history and com- munication system. There are many types of culture, such as national, organizational, and team. We discuss principles of intercultural communication in this chapter in the context of national cultures, which tend to be more permanent and enduring than other types of culture. The norms and values of national cultures are instilled in young mem- bers through a shared language, shared history and traditions, school systems, and political and economic systems. When working with members of other cultures at the home office or abroad, business professionals with high CQ are skilled at forming goals, discussing and succeeding on joint projects, resolving differences, and negotiating mutually beneficial outcomes. They understand new markets and can develop global plans for marketing and supply chain management. When people with high CQ encounter unfamiliar situations, they implement a variety of the skills displayed in Table 4.2 and discussed throughout the chapter. 6 Developing cultural intelligence is more than possessing favorable attitudes toward members of other groups. It also requires developing skills and knowledge. In this sec- tion, we focus briefly on several characteristics of cultural intelligence.

Respect, Recognize, and Appreciate Cultural Differences Cultural intelligence is built on attitudes of respect and recognition of other cultures. This means that you view other cultures as holding legitimate and valid views of and approaches to managing business and workplace relationships. Ghosn, when first sent to Japan from France to turn around Nissan, demonstrated this view of cultures:

People who try to impose one system onto another only wind up destroying it. This has never been our strategy. If Renault had wanted to do that, they would have picked anyone but me, because I’m completely convinced of the opposite course. Nissan had to be changed from the inside. If you’re French and you come to Japan, you have no chance, zero, of budging the system an inch. I’m convinced of this. My conviction is both human and professional, and it’s bolstered by the experience of having lived on several continents. Right from the beginning, I told them: “You’re not missionaries. You’ve come here not to change Japan but to straighten out Nissan with the men and women of Nissan. We’re the ones who have to assimilate with them—it’s not up to them to adapt to us.” 7

In recent years, many public and educational campaigns have focused on embrac- ing diversity. In this book, we refer to diversity as the presence of many cultural groups in the workplace. Business professionals with high cultural intelligence em- brace diversity as a moral imperative and as a means to achieve higher performance. A great deal of research has examined the role of cultural diversity in the workplace. These studies have shown that a mix of cultural groups in terms of national culture,

TABLE 4.2

Cultural Intelligence in the Workplace

Characteristics of High Cultural Intelligence

• Respect, recognize, and appreciate cultural differences. • Possess curiosity about and interest in other cultures. • Avoid inappropriate stereotypes. • Adjust conceptions of time and show patience. • Manage language differences to achieve shared meaning. • Understand cultural dimensions. • Establish trust and show empathy across cultures. • Approach cross-cultural work relationships with a learner mind-set. • Build a co-culture of cooperation and innovation.

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90 Part two Principles of Interpersonal Communication

ethnicity, age, and gender leads to better decision making. 8 Nissan, like many com- panies, has recognized the moral and business value of diversity and explicitly states this on its website:

At Nissan, we believe that diversity is a source of strength. . . . Nissan is committed to diversity to ensure that we meet the diverse needs of our customers and achieve sustainable growth for all stakeholders. Each and every employee will respect diversity and take full advantage of it. . . . We believe that embracing and leveraging this cultural diversity gives us a competitive advantage. 9

Be Curious about Other Cultures As a college student, you are in a stage of life that gives you unique opportunities to acquire cross-cultural experiences. Consider the following options: studying abroad, learning a language, developing friendships with international students on campus, and taking an interest in and learning about a particular culture. 10

Study Abroad Living in another culture is perhaps the best approach to learn- ing about one. It allows you to immerse yourself in another way of living—to observe and experience up close how members of another cultural group communicate, work in groups, manage relationships, celebrate successes, and deal with disappointments. When asked, “What’s your best career advice to young graduates?” Quintin E. Primo III, co-founder and chief executive of Capri Capital Partners, responded in the follow- ing way:

Leave the country. Get out of here. That’s what I tell everybody—just go. I don’t care where you go, just go. Because the world is changing. It is no longer acceptable to speak only English if you are 25 and younger. . . . You have little chance of being successful if you speak only one language. If you don’t understand Islam, you’re in trouble because Islam comprises somewhere between 1.6 billion and 1.8 billion people, and there are markets that are untapped that need to be tapped. So you’ve got to get out of your front door, get out of the comfort and quiet of your home, and your safety zone, and step into a pool of risk where you have no idea what the outcome is going to be. Out of it all, you will have a much broader understanding of the world’s cultures, and you will have a much clearer idea of how the world perceives our culture, and all the value, and the benefits, and the beauty of our culture. There is nothing more important. I don’t care where you went to business school. I don’t care whether your grades were good or bad. You have to leave the country.” 11

As freshmen, most university students express a desire to study abroad and even be- lieve that they will have an opportunity to do so before they graduate. However, just 3 to 5 percent of university students actually do. 12 So, if you want to study abroad, make it a priority. Plan for it now. Furthermore, consider choosing locations and programs that are most important for your career. Typically, business recruiters value study- abroad programs that are at least one semester long, involve the development of busi- ness skills, and include language study. Also, business recruiters are more impressed with study-abroad programs located in countries that are considered strategically im- portant business partners. Whereas most students choose locations in Western Europe and Australia, recruiters see more value in countries such as China, Japan, Brazil, Mexico, or India. Of course, this varies by discipline and industry. For example, if you are going into the fashion design industry, experience in Italy or France would be extremely valuable. When you study abroad, learn all you can about adapting to the culture. However, avoid developing strong preconceptions and remain flexible. When you arrive in your chosen destination, open yourself completely to the experience. As Ghosn said about entering the Japanese culture, “I did not try to learn too much about Japan before com- ing, because I didn’t want to have too many preconceived ideas. I wanted to discover Japan by being in Japan with the Japanese people.” 13

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Communicating Across Cultures Chapter Four 91

Learn a Language Although English is considered the global business language and business managers in other parts of the world increasingly speak it well, you can benefit from learning another language for a variety of reasons. It gives you many insights into how people of other cultures think. It helps you appreciate the richness of other cul- tures. It fosters tremendous goodwill with others. And you may find yourself in situations where your language ability allows smoother communication than relying on English. Ghosn, who now speaks six languages, commented on the reasons and the benefits: “Learning languages quickly became one of my passions. The study of language is the best way of understanding the connections between people and cultures.” 14 Of course, learning languages takes a lot of time. Also, it requires forcing oneself into authen- tic and sometimes uncomfortable situations. Ghosn was determined to learn English while studying in Paris. So, twice each month, he invited Americans living in France to dinner to practice his English. 15

Develop Friendships with International Students on Your Campus Your university likely has hundreds or even thousands of international students. This presents you with a rare opportunity to experience the world. You can learn more about other cultures by befriending international students than you can by taking a group tour of another country. Also, you can help these students feel at home. One reason you can learn so much from international students is that they are experiencing the challenges of living in and adapting to a new culture. During your career, you are most likely to interact with business professionals who are the current generation of international students.

Take an Interest in a Culture and Routinely Learn about It Each culture has its own complexity. Ideally, you should seek an in-depth understanding of one culture. Once you’ve done this, you can more quickly adapt to and learn other cultures. One of the best ways to gain an in-depth understanding is to take an inquisi- tive approach—asking questions and seeking the answers to how other cultures view knowledge; how they reason and approach problems; how they work, worship, and view the world; how they view time, and so on. 16 You can routinely learn about cultures of interest in some of the following ways: 17

● Watch films, television, documentaries, news, and other video of the culture . It’s increasingly easy to access video of other cultures. This allows you to observe many aspects of the culture in context with visual and auditory cues.

● Follow the business culture of a country . Many websites contain global business news sections with both text and videos. For example, consider the following: Bloomberg Businessweek, CNBC, Time, Foreign Exchange, and CIBERweb.

● Take courses and attend events related to particular cultures . Your university offers numerous opportunities, including taking courses about international and intercul- tural topics and attending symposia that feature international speakers.

● Make friends with people who live in other cultures and communicate online . You might try to make friends abroad and communicate frequently via email, chat, and online calls. One of the most common means of communicating internationally is via online call services such as Skype. Read the Technology Tips box on page 103 about online calls.

Avoid Inappropriate Stereotypes When Ghosn moved to Japan, he selected a team of roughly 20 executives from Renault in France to join him. As he selected his team, he was adamant that each team member must be open to the Japanese:

However competent a candidate may have been, however motivated, if I sensed that he or she was even slightly close-minded about cultural differences, that person was

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92 Part two Principles of Interpersonal Communication

excluded. . . . I wanted competent, enthusiastic, open-minded people capable of engaging in a real dialogue. 18

We naturally develop stereotypes, or generalizations, to try to understand the at- titudes and behavior of people we do not know, especially those of different cultures. It is an attempt by the brain to group and categorize in complex situations. Stereotypes can make interactions less complicated since they serve as a starting point for under- standing the motives and values of others. For example, people may have a stereotype of tax accountants as credible, professional, competent, helpful, and detail-oriented. This stereotype allows people to go to a tax accountant’s office with the assumption that the professional will help them and provide excellent service. Similarly, people who work across cultures often form stereotypes of how members of that culture com- municate and approach work problems. These stereotypes can be productive as long as they are only a starting point, they are flexible, and they are primarily positive. 19 Stereotyping about cultures can also be dysfunctional, counterproductive, and even hurtful. People tend to form two types of stereotypes when interacting with members of other cultures: projected cognitive similarity and outgroup homogeneity effect . 20 Projected cognitive similarity is the tendency to assume others have the same norms and values as your own cultural group. This occurs when people project their own cultural norms and values to explain the behaviors they see in others. Take the case of an American interviewing a Japanese man for a new position. The Japanese man might downplay his own achievements and give credit to the teams he has worked on. The American interviewer, based on the American cultural lens, may think the man lacks self-confidence and independence or initiative. The Japanese applicant, by contrast, is most likely displaying Japanese norms and values associated with modesty, politeness, and collectivism. Outgroup homogeneity effect is the tendency to think members of other groups are all the same. Psychologically, this approach minimizes the mental effort needed to get to know people of other groups. Practically speaking, it is counterproductive to developing effective working relationships with members of other cultures. The real- ity is that all cultures contain a lot of diversity—individuals of many backgrounds, worldviews, interests, and approaches to life. In the “Individualism and Collectivism” section of this chapter, we will illustrate more about the nature of diversity. Negative stereotyping can easily emerge from popular culture. Research has shown that television depictions of particular cultural groups as criminal, cruel, backward, or dishonest affect the stereotypes viewers have of those cultures. 21 Similarly, viewing members of other cultures through a political lens based on news stories about the political relations between countries often leads to unjustified negative stereotyping. While you should be careful about forming negative or rigid stereotypes of members of other cultures, you should also be aware of stereotypes that others may have of you. Many people you interact with will have already formed some impressions of your cul- tural background and what to expect from you. Members of other cultures often form stereotypes of Americans based on news stories as well as popular culture (i.e., films, television shows, music). Typically, most people around the world hold mixed views of Americans (see Table 4.3 ). Even in countries where the majority of adults view Americans as dishonest or greedy, they also view Americans as hardworking and inventive. 22

Adjust Your Conceptions of Time One frustration that most people experience when communicating and working across cultures is dealing with time. This is because people have a lifetime of experiences, related to their particular culture, that form their expectations for when things should happen during any given process. People high in CQ show patience. They understand that most tasks take longer when working across cultures because more time is needed to understand one another and cooperate effectively. Furthermore, many cross-cultural work projects are conducted

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Communicating Across Cultures Chapter Four 93

across great distances. Naturally, this requires additional time due to the communica- tion tools and organizational decision-making processes. Guy McLeod, president of Airbus China, explained why business managers arriving in China need to adapt their pace: “When people have just arrived, they want to change things. But making quick moves in the wrong way isn’t the right thing to do. You need to have patience, patience, patience. It is one of the clichés you hear in China, but it is true. You need to make a long-term strategy and stick to it.” 23 Also, people of various cultures conceptualize time differently. What seems fast in one culture may seem slow in another. One recent study ranked pace of life in various cultures by measuring walking speed over a distance of 60 feet, the average time for a postal worker to complete one request, and the accuracy of clocks in public. Coun- tries such as Germany, Japan, and Italy were considered fast-paced cultures, whereas countries such as China, Brazil, and Mexico were considered slow-paced ones (see Figure 4.1 ). 24 The point is that cultures establish expectations about what is consid- ered timely, late, rushed, and hectic. Cultures also differ in their priorities related to focusing on the present versus focusing on the future (as discussed in the “Future Orientation” section in the upcoming pages). As you can see, you will need to adjust your sense of time to coordinate effectively with members of other cultures. A final time consideration relates to adjustment. You need time to get accustomed to and proficient in working with other cultures. When traveling to a new culture or taking an international assignment, you should allot time for adjusting. Ghosn noted the difficulties he and his family had when they moved to Japan:

The language barrier was huge. When you first get to Japan, you’re really constrained, because you feel dependent on other people for everything. . . . The culture’s different. The customs are different. . . . As time passed, however, our family got its bearings. 25

Manage Language Differences English is increasingly considered the global business language. Many global compa- nies such as Nissan, which are composed primarily of non-native English-speaking

TABLE 4.3

Perceptions That Members of Various Cultures Have about Americans

Hardworking Inventive Honest Greedy Rude

Canada 77% 76% 42% 62% 53%

China 44 70 35 57 44

France 89 76 57 31 36

Germany 67 56 52 49 12

India 81 86 58 43 27

Jordan 78 68 37 63 64

Netherlands 84 69 46 67 26

Russia 72 56 32 60 48

Spain 74 53 45 58 39

UK 76 64 57 62 35

Note: Red shading indicates a majority of adults in a country have a negative view. Green shading indicates a majority of adults in a country have a positive view. Source: Pew Global Attitudes Project. Reprinted with permission.

Faster Pace of Life

Slower Pace of Life

Germany

Japan

Italy

UK

Netherlands

Hong Kong

France

USA

Canada

S Korea

China

Brazil

Mexico

FIGURE 4.1

Pace of Life across Cultures

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94 Part two Principles of Interpersonal Communication

business professionals, have adopted policies of conducting meetings in English. Yet, even with the strong push for English as a business language, many professionals around the business world speak limited English. Also, many forms of English exist— that of the United Kingdom, Australia, Singapore, and India, to name just a few places. Thus, standard English is a matter of interpretation. As you conduct business across cultures with those who have limited English ability, consider the following advice: 26

● Avoid quickly judging that others have limited communication proficiency . Many non-native English speakers take time to warm up. The first moments—or in some cases days or weeks—of your interactions with them are not representative of their real language abilities. Many business professionals have studied English for years yet infrequently have opportunities to speak it in an authentic encounter.

● Articulate clearly and slow down . Many Americans inadvertently run their words together. Make sure you pronounce each word distinctly and slow your pace slightly.

● Avoid slang and jargon . Slang and jargon can be particularly confusing to members of other cultures. For example, Americans are well known for using sports slang in business (e.g., striking out, throwing a curve ball, hitting a home run). Use as much literal language as you can.

● Give others time to express themselves . Allow those with limited English ability enough time to process their thoughts into English. You will often find that non- native English speakers, given time, express their thoughts with a more precise, creative, and even accurate use of English words than native English speakers.

● Use interpreters as necessary . In some situations, you will rely on interpreters. Spend some time in advance getting to know the interpreter’s abilities and prefer- ences for facilitating an exchange. During interpretation, focus on the person you are communicating to rather than the interpreter. That is, focus on the person with whom you are trying to build rapport.

Ghosn made several excellent points about overcoming language barriers:

Of course there are frustrations that always exist with language barriers: where you don’t operate in an environment of spontaneous communication; where you have to go through a translator (you know that when you go through a translator, about 40 percent of your intended meaning is lost); where you’re not sure that what you want to get across to people, on the shop floor or in meetings with customers, is actually being communicated the way you intended it. These are what I consider small frustrations; if you accept these and other things that perhaps are part of the fact that people don’t think or act the same way in France or in Japan, it is easier to deal with such things as language barriers. When you have taken the time to understand that, and when you are really motivated and mobilized by a very strong objective, then the cultural differences can become seeds for innovation as opposed to seeds for dissention. 27

In this section, we describe recent research on cultural norms and values among busi- nesspeople throughout the world. This research, conducted by the GLOBE group (which includes dozens of business researchers around the world), is based on surveys and interviews of about 20,000 business leaders and managers in 62 countries. 28 The GLOBE group found that cultures can be grouped into eight dimensions. Cul- tural dimensions are fairly permanent and enduring sets of related norms and values and are classified as (1) individualism and collectivism, (2) egalitarianism and hierar- chy, (3) assertiveness, (4) performance orientation, (5) future orientation, (6) humane orientation, (7) uncertainty avoidance, and (8) gender egalitarianism. By understand- ing these eight dimensions, you can get a good sense of the underlying motivations and goals that impact acceptable behaviors within a culture.