Abstract
By the end of the 20th century, 80 percent of the U.S. products were competing in the international market. This fact emphasizes the globalization of the world's economy. The changing environment and increasing complexity of the 21st century workplace makes communication even more important. In this globalized context, people and organisations have to change their way of communication in order to maintain healthy business relations.
Richard R Gesteland, in his book "Cross-Cultural Business Behavior", explained the differences between cultures in a business context with a lot of personal examples, thanks to his background as a Sales Manager all around the world. However, are all these statements and examples relevant in an intercultural business communication context? How can we use Gesteland's dimensions when we analyze intercultural business communication?
Firstly, we have to examine the different kinds of "intercultural business communications". There are different sorts of relationships in business; the way of behaving changes depending on whether you are on the phone with your counterpart, when you visit him abroad, when he visits you in your country and so on.
Extract
[...] Discuss the relevance of Gesteland's dimensions in relation to analyzing intercultural business communication By the end of the 20th century percent of the U.S. products were competing in the international market. This fact emphasizes the globalization of the world's economy. The changing environment and increasing complexity of the 21st century workplace makes communication even more important. In this globalized context, people and organisations have to change their way of communication in order to maintain healthy business relations. Richard R Gesteland, in his book "Cross-Cultural Business Behavior", explained the differences between cultures in a business context with a lot of personal examples, thanks to his background as a Sales Manager all around the world. [...]
[...] The vocal volume, the meanings of silence are different according to expressive cultures such as Latin Europe, Latin America and the Mediterranean Region and reserved cultures like East and Southeast Asia, Nordic and Germanic countries. For instance, expressive people will feel uncomfortable with more than one or two seconds of silence while people from reserved cultures feel ease with much longer silences. The eye contact can also means either a sign of truth or an attempt of intimidation whether you are in the Mediterranean area or in Asia. [...]
[...] They become helpful when they are more descriptive than evaluative or used as a first best guess about a situation and they must be always in evolution. To conclude, we can affirm that Gesteland's dimensions give some ideas to improve intercultural communication. Some are very relevant, especially the ones which give advices for a face to face meeting between people from different cultures. Nevertheless, we can notice some differences in his examples, which show that it is very difficult to categorize cultures. The globalisation of the world's economy obliges cultures to progress but stereotypes remain. [...]
[...] So, in the first part, I will describe Gesteland's dimensions regarding intercultural business communication. Secondly, I will analyse the relevance of his arguments according to the different sorts of business relationships. Finally, I will focus on the limits of Gesteland's ideas through the stereotype notion. First of all, Gesteland explains the two fundamental facts that he calls the 'Two Iron Rules of International Business': - In International Business, the Seller adapts to the Buyer. - In International Business, the Visitor is expected to observe local customs. [...]
[...] Furthermore, stereotypes can be helpful when they are used in an intelligent way, that is to say, in order to learn more about cultures and to know how to behave in a cross cultural situation. So, Gesteland sheds light on the main differences of communication between cultures in a business context. Understanding these differences allows avoiding some cross-cultural misunderstandings but it has to be used carefully. List of references: - http://leeiwan.wordpress.com/2006/09/08/stereotypes-and-global-business/ - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereotype - http://www.bus.wisc.edu/update/winter05/business_communication.asp - http://www.francparler.org/dossiers/interculturel_theorie.htm - Richard Gesteland "Cross-Cultural Business Behavior", 4th edition, Copenhagen Business School Press. - Adler, 2008 - Penny Carte and Chris Fox, "Bridging the Culture Gap: A Practical Guide to International Business Communication". [...]
