Culture: Inside the Company and Outside the Country
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About this ebook
Why Should You Read This Book?
Good question. The simple answer is because it'll help your company and employees thrive. True enough, but the complete answer is a little more complicated. To simplify for brevity's sake, understanding culture —both within and without an an organization—is critical to its success. Since every company has a culture, its leaders have a choice: let that culture happen by accident, or help shape it to fit their needs and vision. As for outside the company, it's very clear by now that business today is global in nature, which means companies do a great deal of business in other countries, often even own facilities in them. And just as every company has a culture, so does every country, which means organizations would do well to understand other countries' cultures and accommodate them, the better to do business in them. Bottom line: this book will help you shape your own culture and deal with that of other countries.
ArLyne Diamond
ArLyne Diamond, PhD, is an internationally recognized leadership, management, professional-development and organizational-development consultant specializing in people and processes in the workplace. She offers training in avoiding sexual harassment, discrimination and bullying. The author is president and founder of her own consulting firm, Diamond Associates, established in 1981 and based in Santa Clara, Calif. A prolific writer, Dr. Diamond has published hundreds of articles and five books, the latest being Culture: Inside the Company and Outside the Country. She currently publishes a monthly newsletter, Diamonds to You, and is a guest writer for several magazines.
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Culture - ArLyne Diamond
Culture
Inside the Company and Outside the Country
ArLyne Diamond, Ph.D.
Culture Inside the Company and Outside the Country
Copyright © 2017 by ArLyne Diamond, Ph.D.
Smashwords Edition
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopies, recording or otherwise, without the prior written consent of the author.
Acknowledgments
There are many people to thank for the production of this book and the information that’s enabled me to write it.
I owe my gratitude primarily to Bernie Silver, my editor and friend; to my niece Gabrielle for the illustrations; and to Alicia Robertson, my wonderfully supportive and helpful publisher.
Also, thanks so much to those of you who took the time to read drafts of this book and contribute your ideas. A special thanks to David Cowan, E.J. Dieterle, Dr. Arlene Simmonds and Todd Snyder, Ph.D.
As for the information I’ve acquired, I learned much from many guest lecturers when I taught an MBA course on International Business.
And while I counseled at ProMatch, numerous people shared their views of the companies and cultures in which they’d worked.
The many books I’ve read about different cultures, companies and countries contributed to my desire to write on this subject in the first place.
And the three courses I created on company and country culture for Illumeo form the basis of this book.
Finally, my own travels have taught me much about how to observe, understand and respect the values and behaviors of those who are different from me.
List of Illustrations
The Kitty
Professional Dress
Standing too close – too far away
Beckoning
Pointing
Ok sign
Crossing fingers
Rubbing fingers together
Thumbs Up
Cut
V for Victory
Talking with your hands
Pictures from Safari
Bowing and giving a business card
Namaste
Contents
Introduction
Company Culture
What it is in short (with a little repetition)
Who creates the culture?
One size doesn’t fit all
The acquisition factor
Why does it matter?
Vision and Mission
Creating the vision statement
Creating the mission statement
Values
So, again, why does it matter?
Types of cultures
A great company culture
Country Culture—General
Some definitions
Other customs and habits to be aware of
Emotions
Words
Contrasts
Other areas of difference
Nonverbal communication
Verbal communication
Terminology
Other things to know
No right or wrong
Country Culture—Specific
Some undiplomatic facts
Disclaimer
Romance Cultures
France
Italy
Latin America
Mexico
Muslim Countries
Tunisia
Turkey
Morocco
Africa
Egypt
Sudan
The Congo
Angola
Katima
South Africa
On Safari to Kenya and Tanzania
Asia
China
Japan
India
Singapore
Malaysia
Taiwan
Korea—South
Europe
England
Belgium
Germany
Russia
Czech Republic
Scandinavia
Denmark
The Netherlands
Finland
Switzerland
Israel
USA
Their view
Our view
Some Final Thoughts, Plus a Few Tips and Reminders
Drinking
Time
Questions, questions
Some tips and reminders
One Final Thought (No, Really)
Bibliography
About the Author
Introduction
So why write a book about company and country culture? Answer: because culture dictates how we behave and think; thus understanding culture, both within and outside the company, is critical to an organization’s success.
The culture within helps determine who a company will attract, to what degree those people will thrive, and therefore whether the company will succeed.
The critical nature of understanding cultures outside the company becomes clear when we consider that Globalization is the norm today.
Not only are we trading with people from other countries, we’re working with people who come to us from all over the world, and we’re living beside people who have been raised quite differently from us. For our sake and the company’s, we don’t want the biases we’ve probably developed living in our own neighborhood
to affect how we treat people from other cultures.
Trading with others was the start of getting to know people who were different from each other. Perhaps it started with people rowing bravely to another island to meet and trade with its inhabitants. Today trade is the norm. It is international and frequent.
Think about the car you drive. Where did the parts get manufactured? Where did they get assembled? What about the clothing you are wearing as you read this, or the computer you use? As you can see, so much of what we take for granted today comes about because of the interaction of people from all over the world.
Since trade takes place worldwide, it is sometimes used as a weapon in what are commonly referred to as trade wars.
Instead of using guns and grenades, governments often impose tariffs, or duties, on imports and exports. This is done either in retaliation against tariffs imposed by another country or to apply pressure on a nation to conform to international law or opinion. Or a government might levy a tariff to gain a trade advantage or bring in more income.
Some governments create rules that make it difficult for someone from another country to do business – to – business. The government must be involved.
In the past, most of our interactions were with people just like us. They grew up in the same village or town, went to the same schools and the same churches. Understanding each other was so much easier because of the similarities in the way we were taught to think and behave. But people from far away were raised somewhat differently from us, and because of those differences we often misunderstand and misevaluate each other. The dissimilarities lead to confusion.
Learning about other cultures helps alleviate the misapprehension and bewilderment.
Take how people nod or shake their heads when talking with you. In the USA, we typically nod to mean yes
or we’re still paying attention.
In India, people shake their heads to acknowledge they’re paying attention and we often interpret that, mistakenly, to mean they’re saying no.
Not only do we sometimes have difficulty working with people from other lands, but also with people from our own country because of age, gender and regional differences, as well as upbringing, all of which can make it difficult to communicate with each other.
It’s these differences that confuse what we’ve been taught as the right
way to behave. That’s part of what we mean when we talk about culture.
This book is about culture. People differences, regional differences, country differences and differences in companies based here in Silicon Valley – which is where I live.
So, let’s try to define our terms!
Culture is an interesting word. We use it and its derivatives in several different ways, each of them only one element of what we call culture.
Let me give you a funny example of an expansion and tortured use of the word:
When she was in her teens, one of my sister’s friends remarked one day: Trudy, how come you are so acculturated?
Of course, what her friend meant to ask was how was it that my sister, growing up in the Bronx (like me), was well-mannered and socially comfortable.
We also think someone is cultured if they like music and the arts. People often assume that if someone is rich, that makes them cultured.
So on the one hand, we are using the term culture
to apply to a level above the ordinary. On the other hand, we are describing a way of being, a way of life among a relatively large and identifiable group of people, and how it shapes the behaviors and beliefs of individuals in that group.
Our culture teaches us how to behave, how to think, what to believe and what is right and wrong. If the only thing we know is what we’ve been taught, then whatever our unique culture teaches is the right way
and anything different from it is the wrong way
by definition.
In this book