Despite increasing connectivity and globalization, cultural differences remain. The more connected and international we become, the more differences between cultures appear as the varied world views, values, and communication styles become evident. This is one of the most significant challenges facing the multinational companies.
“Cross culture” in the business world refers to a company’s efforts to ensure that its people interact effectively with professionals from backgrounds different from their own. Like the adjective, “cross-cultural”, it implies a recognition of national, regional, and ethnic differences in manners and methods and a desire to bridge them.
During these series of articles, we will try to highlight how we all have our own cultural worldviews and how these world views influence our management activities. The topics we will discuss will cover all the aspects of cross-cultural management such as cross-cultural negotiations, conflict, and leadership. We will also explore different types of power, trust and different types of trust, differentiate between negotiations, bargaining, and dialogue and the different approaches for negotiations as well as the common mistakes…. etc.
Finally, please remember:
The essence of cross-cultural communication has more to do with releasing responses than with sending messages. It is more important to release the right response than to send the right message.
Edward T. Hall