Business Etiquette and Protocol

Business Dress

• What is considered appropriate business attire varies by geographic region, day of the week and industry.
• In general, people in the East dress more formally, while people in the West are known for being a bit more casual.
• Executives usually dress formally regardless of which part of the country they are in.
• Casual Friday is common in many companies. High technology companies often wear casual clothes every day.
• For an initial meeting, dressing conservatively is always in good taste. Women can wear business suits, dresses or pantsuits. Men should wear a business suit unless you know the firm to be quite casual.

Greetings

• The hand shake is the common greeting.
• Handshakes are firm, brief and confident.
• Maintain eye contact during the greeting.
• In most situations, you can begin calling people by their first names.
• Most people will insist that you call them by their nickname, if they have one.
• In formal circumstances, you may want to use titles and surnames as a courtesy until you are invited to move to a first name basis, which will happen quickly.
• Business cards are exchanged without formal ritual.
• It is quite common for the recipient to put your card in their wallet, which may then go in the back pocket of their trousers. This is not an insult.

Communication Styles

Americans are direct. They value logic and linear thinking and expect people to speak clearly and in a straightforward manner. To them if you don’t “tell it how it is” you simply waste time, and time is money. If you are from a culture that is more subtle in communication style, try not to be insulted by the directness. Try to get to your point more quickly and don’t be afraid to be more direct and honest than you are used to. Americans will use the telephone to conduct business that would require a face-to-face meeting in most other countries. They do not insist upon seeing or getting to know the people with whom they do business.

Business Meetings

Arrive on time for meetings since time and punctuality are so important to Americans. In the Northeast and Midwest, people are extremely punctual and view it as a sign of disrespect for someone to be late for a meeting or appointment. In the Southern and Western states, people may be a little more relaxed, but to be safe, always arrive on time, although you may have to wait a little before your meeting begins.

Meetings may appear relaxed, but they are taken quite seriously. If there is an agenda, it will be followed. At the conclusion of the meeting, there will be a summary of what was decided, a list of who will implement which facets and a list of the next steps to be taken and by whom. If you make a presentation, it should be direct and to the point. Visual aids should further enhance your case. Use statistics to back up your claims, since Americans are impressed by hard data and evidence.

With the emphasis on controlling time, business is conducted rapidly. Expect very little small talk before getting down to business. It is common to attempt to reach an oral agreement at the first meeting. The emphasis is on getting a contract signed rather than building a relationship. The relationship may develop once the first contract has been signed.

GERMANY

Facts and Statistics

Location: Central Europe, bordering Austria 784 km, Belgium 167 km, Czech Republic 646 km,
Denmark 68 km, France 451 km, Luxembourg 138 km, Netherlands 577 km, Poland 456 km, Switzerland 334 km

Capital: Berlin

Climate: temperate and marine; cool, cloudy, wet winters and summers; occasional warm
mountain (foehn) wind

Population: 82,424,609 (July 2004 est.)

Ethnic Make-up: German 91.5%, Turkish 2.4%, other 6.1% (made up largely of Greek, Italian, Polish,
Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Spanish)

Religions: Protestant 34%, Roman Catholic 34%, Muslim 3.7%, unaffiliated or other 28.3%

Government: federal republic

Languages in Germany

The official language of Germany is German, with over 95% of the population speaking German as their first language. Minority languages include Sorbian, spoken by 0.09% in the east of Germany; North and West Frisian, spoken around the Rhine estuary by around 10,000 people, or 0.01%, who also speak German.

Danish is spoken by 0.06%, mainly in the area along the Danish border. Romani, an indigenous language is spoken by around 0.08%.
Immigrant languages include Turkish, which is spoken by around 1.8%, and Kurdish, by 0.3%.

Why not learn some useful German phrases?

German Society & Culture

A Planning Culture

. In many respects, Germans can be considered the masters of planning.
. This is a culture that prizes forward thinking and knowing what they will be doing at a specific time on a specific day.
. Careful planning, in one's business and personal life, provides a sense of security.
. Rules and regulations allow people to know what is expected and plan their life accordingly.
. Once the proper way to perform a task is discovered, there is no need to think of doing it any other way.
. Germans believe that maintaining clear lines of demarcation between people, places, and things is the surest way to lead a structured and ordered life.
. Work and personal lives are rigidly divided.
. There is a proper time for every activity. When the business day ends, you are expected to leave the office. If you must remain after normal closing, it indicates that you did not plan your day properly.

The German Home

. Germans take great pride in their homes.
. They are kept neat and tidy at all times, with everything in its appointed place.
. In a culture where most communication is rather formal, the home is the place where one can relax and allow your individualism to shine.
. Only close friends and relatives are invited into the sanctity of the house, so it is the one place where more informal communication may occur.
. There are many unwritten rules surrounding the outward maintenance of one's home.
. It is imperative that common areas such as sidewalks, pavements, corridors (in apartments), and steps be kept clean at all times.

Date: 2016-03-03; view: 1030