A. Culture and cultures.

Alexandra Adler is an expert in doing business across cultures. She says: ?Culture is ?the way we do things here?. ?Here? may be a country, an area, a social class or an organization such as a company or school. You often talk about:

? company or corporate culture: the way a particular company works, and the things it believes are important;

? canteen culture: the ways that people in an organization such as the police think and talk, not approved by the leaders of an organization.

? long-hours culture: where people are expected to work for a long time each day;

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? macho culture: ideas typically associated with men: physical strength, aggressiveness, etc.

But you must be careful of stereotypes, fixed ideas that may not be true.

?. Distance and familiarity.

Distance between managers and the people who work under them varies in different cultures.

Look at these two companies:

Defense and distance may be shown in language. Some languages have many forms of address that you use to indicate how familiar you are with someone. English only has one form, ?you?, but distance may be shown in other ways, for example, in whether first names or surnames are used.

C. Names.

In the English-speaking business world, people use first names, even with people you do not know very well. But if you aren?t sure, use Mr and the family name for men, and Mrs or Miss and the family name for women, depending on whether they are married or not. Ms often replaces Mrs or Miss. You don?t use Mr, Mrs, Miss or Ms with only a first name or by itself.

Here are some examples:

a) Tom Brewster, Marketing Director

(?Tom? - first name, ?Brewster? - family name or surname.

?My real name?s Thomas, but please call me Tom?.)

b) J.G. Cutler, Tax Inspector

(J.G. ? initials)

c) Gouglas R. Baxendale Jr, Chief Executive Officer

(R. ? initial. I?m from the US. The ?R? stands for Robert - that?s my middle name. My dad is also called Douglas R. Baxendale, so he puts ?Sr? (senior) after his name, and I put Jr (junior). This is unusual in the UK.)

d) JAMES CASSIGY, Sales Director

(Sales Director - a job title)

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e) KAREN A. ESPOSITO, B.S., C.P.A.

(C.P.A. ? qualifications ? Certified Public Senior Partner Accountant)

D. Dress

In Alphaland businesspeople dress quite formally. The business suit is common, but for men, wearing non-matching jacket and trousers is also a possibility.

In Betatania, the dark business suit is obligatory for men. Some companies allow women to wear trouser suit.

In Gammaria, the business suit is also as necessary as in Betatania, but with more variation in colours. Some companies require employees to wear formal clothes from Monday to Thursday, and allow less formal ones on what they call casual Fridays or dress-down Fridays. In some places, many banks and shops require people dealing with customers to wear uniforms, so that they all dress the same.

In Deltatonia, people dress more casually at work than in the other countries. For men suits and ties are less common than elsewhere. This is smart casual.

Date: 2016-06-12; view: 531