When working internationally, there are certain principles
that are good to remembe

1. Acknowledge differences exist
2. Understand and analyse why those differences exist
3. Appreciate the unique values, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviours of different cultures
4. Adapt your behaviour — including your cross-cultural communication style — to meet the needs of others.
5. Be sensitive to feedback and adapt accordingly.

When things just don’t seem to be going right… Remember:

Don’t take things personally!

This comes from personal experience. When you don’t understand why people are behaving the way they are or people aren’t doing things the way you thought they would, don’t jump to the conclusion that they are doing it to annoy/upset you.

The first lesson of intercultural communication is to STOP BEING SELF-CENTRED. You’ve probably stumbled across a cultural difference which has prompted a form of Culture Shock.

My other articles related to culture shock can be found here:

What Is Culture Shock?

The Stages of Adjusting To A New Culture

10 Culture Shock Principles For Working Internationally

Before You Go: What To Do Before You Leave

Overcoming Culture Shock

The Classic 5-Stage Culture Shock Model

Rhinesmith’s 10 Stages of Culture Shock

Collective Culture Shock

Advice For  Expats Moving to the Arab World

Edward T Hall (Anthropologist)

How difficult can it be?

A significant amount of overseas investment is wasted each year because there are invisible core differences between the American and British cultures. These are not always appreciated by corporations and leaders. Consequently the result can be culture clash. The damage to US – UK relationships leads to an absence of trust, the erosion of communication and cooperation and failure to achieve the common goal. When management time is applied to the ensuing crisis often only the symptoms are tackled.

So, what are the differences, how did they occur and what can we do to get over the shock and pain of culture clash?

Time is Money

The first obvious difference concerns pace, speed of response and the choice between urgent and important actions. In the US time is money. When the Founding Fathers and the settlers were staking land claims and working together to create a survivable environment time was life death. The threat was from starvation and exposure. The solution was food warmth and shelter. Critical survival decisions were taken quickly and persistently allowing the best prepared to make it through to spring.

Man has largely tamed the extreme effects of climate and scarcity of food but, whilst the enemy is different, (competition, cheap foreign labour, commoditization of mature products etc,) modern fears and behaviours are comparable. Money and wealth are now taken as signs of survival and   success. Rather than “appropriate” actions being taken, the UK view can be that, for the US, any action is preferable to none at all.

For some an hour of scheduled time has a dollar value and correspondingly a missed hour has a dollar cost.

Power and How it is Used 

If we take another dimension of difference – hierarchy – we can see an historical difference in the source of power, how power is manifest and the different ways in which it is perceived today.

The newly settled America had sheriffs and Mayors. Having been meritocratically elected or chosen they had real status and power but were also accountable to the mood of the crowd. This can easily be related to the modern US CEO. Whilst in power and being successful, they had authority and permission to give direct orders and put the company’s staff under pressure to act and perform to standards they have set and for the people to make personal sacrifices and take risks to get to those goals.

It could be a black and white existence with a large price paid for failure. If we look at the pharmaceutical, investment banking or automotive businesses we see that management styles can be explicit, direct and commanding in nature. Teams are expected to decide rapidly and take action quickly. Efficiency and deadlines are critical. It is “hard work now” for dream of “rewards in the future”.

The employee is automatically expected to have values that fit with the corporate ethos- ambition, intensity and focus and the desire for salary, bonus, promotion and ever more responsibility. Status is important and is measured by title, salary, office and trappings.

What is the solution to these contrasting styles? Can a foreign manager in the UK have it their way regarding reporting, deadlines, open communication and measures of quality and customer satisfaction? 

Can an American leader develop a UK team to have a sense of dynamism, accountability and pace that would match the US model? 

 So it’s impossible, right?

The symptoms and differences are shocking but not insurmountable. Britain and America would not enjoy such high amounts of mutual investment if it could not be made to work and to work well.

The shock experienced by US Leadership as they enter the UK is probably more extreme than the underlying differences themselves.

At this point it may be useful to avoid the stereotype trap and that of being judgmental. It is a waste of time and talent to judge either nation as good or bad, easy or difficult, right or wrong. They are simply different.

Post imperial Britain is a complex and confused place. We have lost our superpower status, our world ranking, and much of our credibility as innovators and pioneers.  We have lost our manufacturing base, our certainty and comfort. No longer are there jobs for life with large British firms paying good pensions at the end of a predictable career at the age of 60 or 65. As a nation we do not have a clear single identity, threat or goal. We have post – Empire confusion and nothing to unite against.

There are, though, fundamental differences. The US is imperial, the UK is post – imperial, the US is still a superpower, the UK is not. The US has a short history the UK a long one and the US has a Presidential system the UK a Monarchy.

How do the British do business?

Regarding feedback British managers will soften criticism, harsh realities, the appraisal or review process to the point where it difficult to directly detect what is being said. Difficult issues are not tackled in a straightforward manner but by writing lines that must be read between or by starting a whispering campaign around the coffee machine. 

The key difference though is subtle and unconscious. The UK is a relationship-based country. It’s who you know and who’s in the gang, on the inside, in the club or “one of us.”

Pace, action and urgency are not ranked as highly in UK culture companies. It is more about pragmatically getting to the result “somehow.”

Class?

Finally class, though disguised, is alive and well in the UK. Upper class values tell us that hard work is acceptable only if it does not show. That to look as if achieving something has cost you effort undermines the thing you are trying to achieve. The modern version of this is COOL.

We can quickly build up a picture of just how far apart our cultures actually are. 

What tools can help?

Everyone is free to use the knowledge that relationships are core to UK commercial life.

We need good manners, indirect speech and equal status communication to break through, bond and to form UK working relationships that are robust. This is the most powerful tool in translating US objectives into UK delivery.

By employing small talk, active listening and coaching techniques based on eliciting facts and answers from the person sitting opposite you the foreign manager will get a lot further than by giving commands or talking about shareholder value. If we can mobilize an employee using that employee’s own resources we will have created an empowered, independent and proud UK worker who will contribute more. 

The American manager, when shocked to discover that he has 10 or a hundred of these tricky Brits to manage, can begin by looking out for individuals that might bridge the cultural gap. These people will be identified by their values which will seem closer to home. Test them, recruit them and invest the most precious resource in them – MANAGEMENT TIME. They can spread the message in a UK friendly manner. They can also test the temperature and tell if things have gone too far.

During the US leader’s 6 – month or 3 – year assignment in the UK he can make an impact with the corporate team. It will not be achieved by shouting at them like a recruiting sergeant or by asking them about company vision and mission statements. It will come about by adjusting his communication styles by 5 or 10% to radically change the relationship with the British team. The start may seem slow and painful but the reward will be worth it as cooperation begins, and differences are leverage to create a positive outcome.

So? 

Adjusting tone, pace and vocabulary should make the leader more effective as his amplified message creates rapport and a strong platform for useful dialogue.

Without engagement, relationship and trust, and outsider should not expect to be successful in effecting change in an established British team. However using the techniques described above it should be possible to begin to break through and to learn something about how we can continue to develop communication and leaderships skills to be ever more effective both with foreign culture teams and our own.

 By Matthew Hill 

Matthew Hill is a Leadership Trainer and Intercultural Coach who aims to provoke but never offend (Unless he does.) He can be heard, now, at; http://www.ipadio.com/phlogs/MatthewHill/

Posted via email from The World At Work

My own quick research, on Google, revealed that there appears to be more awareness of this anti-smoking day and more campaigning done by non-Western countries than those who have been exposed to the tobacco industry’s marketing for years and already enjoy a significant positive reaction to anti-smoking.

Dubai: World No Tobacco Day

Saudi Arabia, for example, has come out strongly against smoking and the Kingdom has released a booklet on the hazards of smoking. The Health Ministry is focusing on the theme that smoking has destroyed men and is now targeting women.  This year’s slogan carries messages describing smoking as an epidemic and to warn people that tobacco companies are targeting young women.

They have started to deceive girls and women through direct and indirect misleading slogans,” according to Majid Al-Muneef, general supervisor of the Health Ministry’s tobacco-control program.

I suppose it is no surprise that non-Western countries should protest the loudest.

Philippines World No Tobacco Day

Men are still the main breadwinners and if the husband of the family were to die early or suffer chronic disability this would, more often than not, render their families financially crippled and cause many social problems. No wonder non-Western governments and citizens alike are calling out for change. Verbal warnings on packages no longer suffice and many governments have legislated that pictures should be displayed on all tobacco-related products and in shops to depict the harmful effects of tobacco.

The pictures that are going to be printed are of diseased lungs and a chest X-ray for smoking forms of tobacco. A scorpion will be depicted for chewing or smokeless forms of tobacco. ‘Smoking Kills’ and ‘Tobacco Kills’ will be some of the verbal warnings.” According to the Director of Public Health in Chennai, Dr S Elango.

Singapore: World No Tobacco Day

Although only 200 million of the 1 billion world’s smokers are women, about 9%, the WHO theme for 2010 is “Gender and tobacco with an emphasis on marketing to women”.  It appears that the tobacco industry constantly and aggressively seeks new users to replace the ones who quit and the current users –up to half – who will die prematurely and women constitute one of the biggest target opportunities for the tobacco industry to replace them.

China: World No Tobacco Day

Click Here: Chinese Business Etiquette Instructional Video

You may also find these links useful:

See my blogs:

Far East: Top Ten Tips for Doing Business in Each of Five Countries
and
The Art of Business Card Giving: An East West Perspective

From China-Business-Connect:

Expert Site on China

China: 5 Things You Should Know

Leadership and Management in China and US

Free China Business Toolkit

Bribery is one of the greatest hindering factors to Russia’s investment climate. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev pledged to fight corruption when he entered office in May 2008, highlighting the issue as one of the country’s most serious problems.

How Much Is A Bribe?

The average size of a bribe in Russia nearly tripled between 2008 and 2009, despite a weakened global economic climate, according to a Russian Interior Ministry report published in March 2010. ”The size of a bribe, both commercial and personal, was more than 23,000 rubles ($776) last year,” the ministry’s Department of Economic Security report said. In 2008, the average size was 9,000 rubles ($304).

The Clean Up Campaign

A series of scandals involving police in 2009 culminated in a presidential decree ordering a major overhaul of the Interior Ministry, with personnel cuts of 20% over two years to be balanced by higher salaries for remaining staff.

“In 2009, 4,300 crimes were registered in commercial and other organizations, including 4,200 to the interior ministry itself. Some 1,700 of those were linked to corrupt business practices,” the report said. Around 4,000 people were arrested for bribery in 2009.

“The figure is unlikely to change in 2010. Two elements contribute to the problem of corruption: the bribe taker and the bribe maker,” says, Alexander Nazarov head of the Economic Security Department. He noted, however, that the number of such cases did decrease by 7% in the first two months of 2010.

A decrease of 7% isn’t exactly a sign of global victory but it does mean that the measures taken in 2009 are working.”

Russia’s Corruption Ranking

Russia was ranked 146th of 180 in the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index 2009, below countries like Nigeria and Ecuador. It moved up one place from 2008, when it was ranked 147th.

See my blogs on:

Russia: Insights Into the ‘Blat’ Economy

Russia: Bribery, Corruption & the High Price Of Bad Business

Russia: Cost of A Bribe Nearly Triples In One Year

What’s Your Country’s Corruption Perception Index

Useful Links:

Book: “Russia’s Economy of Favours: blat, networking, and informal exchange” by Alena V. Ledneva.

Transparency International, the organisation that publishes the world Corruption Perception Index

Trace International, a non-profit organisation providing compliance solutions for multinational companies and their commercial intermediaries

Posted via email from The World At Work

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Posted via email from The World At Work

What is ‘blat’?

There is a pseudo legitimacy in “blat,” the term for ‘the informal exchange of favours,’ which is the practice of using personal networks and informal contacts to obtain goods and services in short supply and to find a way around formal procedures. It is grounded in personal relationships and in access to public resources – and has become all pervasive.

According to Alena Ledeneva, (author of Russia’ Economy of Favours’) ‘blat’ should be considered as the ‘reverse side’ of an over-controlling centre, a reaction of ordinary people to the structural constraints of the socialist system of distribution – a series of practices which enabled the Soviet system to function and made it tolerable, but also subverted it.

An ordinary Russian sees the ‘official system’ and bureaucracy as making life difficult, so s/he will always find ways to get around it. For most Westerners, the official version and reality are the same. Thus, for us, we have no need to develop the ‘blat’ mechanism or try to get around the system.

Foreigners may think of ‘blat’ as a kind of art, conferring an ability to read between the lines which Westerners are totally lacking – while for the locals it is nothing special at all – just a daily routine, habitual and automatic. Something taken for granted.

My Own Experience

I visited Russia with my husband and were waved through the customs gate, even though most others were being stopped to have their Customs Declaration stamped.  When we came to leave Russia at the end of our stay, a customs official looked at their Customs Declaration (unstamped) and said he would have to confiscate our foreign currency and jewellery.  When we protested that we had been waved through on arrival, and that the cash and jewellery had been brought into Russia from England, he just shrugged and kept repeating, “It’s your problem”.  This went on for several minutes, with mounting frustration on both sides.

Finally, the Russian official decided to take direct action to resolve the situation.  He asked for our dollars, removed $80 and handed the rest back.  Only then did we realise that, when the official said, “It’s your problem” he was expecting to be asked, “What do we have to do to solve it?”  His choice of language provided the prompt, but it could only work with people who knew the system. We couldn’t ‘read between the lines’!

The Anti-Corruption Taskforce

The Russian Government is taking steps to clean up and the anti-corruption taskforce have prosecuted about 15,000 cases in the first few months of this year, 2000 of which were Government officials accepting bribes. This is just a tiny tip on an enormous iceberg.

Western Anti-Corruption Legislation

Unfortunately, Western managers working in Russia face a huge dilemma. The ‘blat’ system, the term for ‘the informal exchange of favours,’ is grounded in personal relationships and in access to public resources – and has become all pervasive. However, the companies they work for and the countries they come from mostly make a strong stand against corruption. This year, in Germany, two Siemens’ executives were found guilty of paying bribes in Russia and Nigeria. In New York, in March, Daimler Benz was fined $185 billion after admitting to paying bribes in various countries including Russia.

See my blogs on:

Russia: Insights Into the ‘Blat’ Economy

Russia: Bribery, Corruption & the High Price Of Bad Business

Russia: Cost of A Bribe Nearly Triples In One Year

What’s Your Country’s Corruption Perception Index

Useful Links:

Book: “Russia’s Economy of Favours: blat, networking, and informal exchange” by Alena V. Ledneva.

Transparency International, the organisation that publishes the world Corruption Perception Index

Trace International, a non-profit organisation providing compliance solutions for multinational companies and their commercial intermediaries

Bribery and corruption are so rampant in Russia, according to Transparency International, that many large Western firms are deciding to leave Russia for good. The cost of the ‘dark’ side of doing business has soared. The price of a minor building contract saw Moscow government officials pocketing £40,000 in bribes, according to Rupert Wingfield-Hayes – the BBC’s Russia correspondent.

The IKEA Experience

Such has been the experience of IKEA, the Swedish furniture manufacturer, that they froze all their investments in Russia in 2009. With ambitious plans to build giant malls across the country, they undertook to never pay bribes. However, their first project saw them needing 300 different permits to build and they agreed with the local government to start building and to finalise the paperwork later. Towards the end of the project the officials had changed their minds, resulting in IKEA having to spend £3 million on local infrastructure and projects to become ‘official’ so they could open.

Repeated experiences of a similar kind tried IKEA’s patience and sense of propriety. Inevitably there would be a straw to break the camel’s back which happened on their project in a town called Samara. On completion of the mall, local officials said the store would not be able to open because it did not have a permit to say the building was hurricane proof. That was their last project.

How Much Does It Cost To See The Russian President?

Incidentally, when IKEA tried unsuccessfully to see the Russian President with a long list of grievances they were told, “IKEA won’t like to see the President. IKEA is known for liking not to pay too much and it would cost US $5-10m to meet the President” (source: IKEA’s first boss in Russia).

Western Anti-Corruption Legislation

Unfortunately, Western managers working in Russia face a huge dilemma. The ‘blat’ system, the term for ‘the informal exchange of favours,’ is grounded in personal relationships and in access to public resources – and has become all pervasive. However, the companies they work for and the countries they come from mostly make a strong stand against corruption. This year, in Germany, two Siemens’ executives were found guilty of paying bribes in Russia and Nigeria. In New York, in March, Daimler Benz was fined $185 billion after admitting to paying bribes in various countries including Russia.

The Anti-Corruption Taskforce

Bribery is one of the greatest hindering factors to Russia’s investment climate. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev pledged to fight corruption when he entered office in May 2008, highlighting the issue as one of the country’s most serious problems. The Russian Government is taking steps to clean up and the anti-corruption taskforce have prosecuted about 15,000 cases in the first few months of this year, 2000 of which were Government officials accepting bribes. This is just a tiny tip on an enormous iceberg. The average size of a bribe in Russia nearly tripled between 2008 and 2009, despite a weakened global economic climate, according to a Russian Interior Ministry report published in March.

See my blogs on:

Russia: Insights Into the ‘Blat’ Economy

Russia: Bribery, Corruption & the High Price Of Bad Business

Russia: Cost of A Bribe Nearly Triples In One Year

What’s Your Country’s Corruption Perception Index

Useful Links:

Book: “Russia’s Economy of Favours: blat, networking, and informal exchange” by Alena V. Ledneva.

Transparency International, the organisation that publishes the world Corruption Perception Index

Trace International, a non-profit organisation providing compliance solutions for multinational companies and their commercial intermediaries