The Culture Map: Breaking Through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business

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Though the author is referring to the works of the above-mentioned gentlemen, she took a completely different approach than my class, when it comes to theory and its real-world application. Moreover, understanding varied cultural backgrounds and thus the inherent perceptions can help in reducing miscommunication. Although flexible-time culture may resemble themselves this in no way means that all Asian Cultures follow the same scheduling standards. If you learned the formula first and focusing on the theory before finishing up with conclusion and recommendations, you are most likely from a principles-first culture, such as Vietnam, France or Spain.

The Culture Map” is a unique book – so it’s unsurprising that it was met with positive reviews from the public and professional reviewers alike.And if you find yourself working with people from lower-context cultures, Meyer recommends being as transparent, clear, and specific as possible. Erin Meyer’s book provides great insights both in terms of the backgrounds to differences in collaboration and communication styles and how to best navigate these differences. For example, while communicating with a person from a culture that is high-context and indirect feedback like Japan, the manager should avoid giving feedback in front of others.

I’d add that we should avoid using the “shit sandwich” as this construction of negative feedback sandwiched in between ‘positive’ comments often feels dishonest and inauthentic. Decision making impacts every step of the business strategy and the processes ensuring that those strategies are properly implemented. According to the insights of the leading scale, and the stories shared in the book, not everyone thinks this way. An international business expert helps you understand and navigate cultural differences in this insightful and practical guide, perfect for both your work and personal life. Hierarchical structures such as Nigeria and China have gaps between levels that are clearly visible.By understanding both your own and another culture’s position on each axis, you can relate to each other better so that you can accomplish your business goals. I felt that we are trying to squeeze people and situations into predefined "cultural" buckets created by Hofstede and Edward T. On the other hand in countries where a strong organizing power/state was not always present through the ages, people had to rely much more on themself.

In Asian cultures, giving negative feedback is an art, and when placed in a new cultural environment, a manager should invest some time in figuring out the feedback culture before heading into a staff review meeting. Trust can be divided into cognitive trust and affective trust, where cognitive trust refers to the trust that is built by working with someone for a long time and establishing reliability, and affective trust stems out of emotions. Cognitive trust is task-based , and if you are an American, you know what it means: business is business. We highly recommend you take the time to read this book and start making your life easier when working with groups around the globe. The principles-first reasoning uses general principles and deduction to draw conclusions by questioning the ‘why’.

When it comes to decision-making styles, it is best for managers to stick to one style, and decide early on, whether the decision-making system itself will be fixed or whether the management is open to flexibility. According to Erin Meyer, the reason why Americans have trouble understanding British humor and the British consider American humor all but stupid is fairly simple.