culture protocols. culture drama body language gestures proximity facial expressions emotional...
TRANSCRIPT
CulturePROtocols
CULTURE DRAMA
Body Language
• Gestures• Proximity• Facial expressions• Emotional animation• Degree of formality• Posture
• Keep your hands still in public
• Emotional control• Neutral-to-pleasant
facial expression• Dress conservatively,
esp. women• Voice volume control
CULTURE DRAMA
Greeting etiquette
• Eagles with eagles; sparrows with sparrows?
• Women included? Ok for them to proact?
• 100% choreographed? • Photo opt?• Translators?
• Greet entire entourage?
• Who are the “seeing-eye” dogs?
• For show or for real? • Who’s the power
behind the power?• Talk any business?
• Months of “getting to know you” background info & “champion” meetings before the first formal meeting
• Let French execs take the initiative in initiating the greeting.
• Asian business card exchange ritual
CULTURE DRAMA
BUSINESS GIFT-GIVING ETIQUETTE
ETIQUETTE ISSUES• Professional vs.
personal gift?• Status-appropriate• Public or private
opening? • Open gifts in front of
giver?
• For top eagle only or the company as a community?
• Invisible gift around others
• Culture-iconic?• Honorary display
location?
Japan’s standard
U.S.A. Gifts Etiquette• Legal bribery (Foreign
Corrupt Practices Act)• PAC group campaign
financing• Stadium luxury box hosting
& entertainment• Gift value parameters• Tax write-off legal
loopholes
CULTURE DRAMA
Cross-cultural meetings
• Participants?• Punctuality?• Seating
arrangement?• Agenda?• Speaking order?
• Language?• Communication
style?• Conflict• Compromise• Small talk• Closure
CULTURE DRAMA
CROSS-CULTURE PRESENTATION
ETIQUETTE
• Non-literal translation• Body language• Use of humor• Sales pitches• Monolog or dialog?• Eagle to eagle• No surprises
CULTURE DRAMA
International Negotiating
Japanese
Latin America
• Personalizing a professional relationship
• Non-legal approach• Flexible, evolving
implementation (“flex friendship”)
• Don’t push for compromise
• Long meals• Flexible, evolving
implementation• Simpatico
Russians
Out sitting & out-drinking you—
endurance marathon
Chinese
• Last minute sandbagging
• Attacking informal inconsistencies
• Invisible benchmarking you
Middle East
• Exaggerated rhetoric & buddy-buddy
• Gifts & sucking up• Putting you on the
spot one-on-one in awkward situations
• Conservative entertaining
Germans
• Technicians first• Direct, exact, serious• Be/do what you say• Accuracy > feelings• Privacy of people &
corporate info
Asians
• Face matters dealt with behind the scenes
• Aggressive, forthright Koreans
• No public negativity or doubt
• Status groupings• No social
embarrassment
U.S. Americans
• Humor & informality• Hyped salesmanship• Delegation disunity• Legalistic• Impersonal• Short-term
CULTURE DRAMA
BRIBING ETIQUETTE• Bribery or facilitating
business?• Institutionalized (legal)
bribery)
• It’s mostly legal; use “consultants” when it’s not.
• Sometimes in the job description
• Govts do most of it.• Natural part of paternalistic
culs• Corps are the goose that
lays the golden egg in DCs.
• Bribery to facilitate business activities vs. to buy influence
• Do it with respect in non-institutional culs.
• Don’t imply anything illegal; phrase it for what it is: pay for a service rendered.
• If you can’t take the heat, stay home.
• “I know how expensive it is to process our papers.”
• $$$ taped to the bottom of your driver’s license
• “Mr. Wang is my good friend!”
• “I’m from the Garza family.”