Culture: Inside the Company and Outside the Country

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