cross-cultural training

As we repeatedly mentioned already, the globalization of business is a fact. We can’t escape it and it is very important to keep this fact in mind while hiring new staff. Not everyone has the skills to negotiate whit people from different countries, nationalities and cultures. That’s why recently training to cultural adjustment has become more important than ever.

Studies show that expatriates who take training to cultural adjustment, are better prepared, and can therefore achieve better results in there negotiations.

The training should concentrate on language, cultural differences and religion. Of course the training should be adjusted to the country the expatriates are going as well as to the company strategies.

Even though cultural training has proven to be very useful and effective, there are still a lot of companies who don’t offer this possibility to their managers.

While most companies hire and send expatriates, there is a short of this kind of training, which results in many misunderstandings and lost of time, which could easily be resolved by offering cultural adjustment training.

I think that if you do cross-cultural business, you should offer this kind of training. I am convinced it will make the companies position in the international business world stronger.

Céline Peeters

Giving feedback after a negotiation

This time I am going to focus more on negotiations, in specifically on how to give feedback. Feedback is something very crucial. It is important to give the feedback in such a way it does not cause hard feelings. The article is about Steve Jones' top 7 how to offer feedback.
1. Feedback is the most efficient when given immediately after the meeting.
2. Don't put a label on someone for his/her behaviour. For example don't say she/he is aggressive but say the way she/he spoke sounded a bit aggressive.
3. Do not only give negative feedback but also give some compliments on what they did very well.
4. If you want to make a point about something give examples, so people better understand what you are talking about.
5. Giving feedback is not a moment to show how well you do things. Explain what the best current practice is and don't impose your own way of doing it.
6.Give constructive and not destructive feedback.
7.There are 3 things you should focus on while giving feedback.
                     - behaviour during the negotiations
                     - the outcome of the negotiations
                     - the use of strategies, tool sets and precesses
It can be useful to bring in a senior executive to coach the negotiations and to help giving a good feedback. If the feedback is given in a good way it can be very useful in further negotiations.


how to give feedback

Lise Keirens

Effective multi-cultural meetings

Cultural differences are most visible during international meetings, and they will clash. The negative effects can be minimized by planning and a good organization. The chair of the meeting should clearly announce the purpose of the meeting and what he expects from the attendees.

It is important to comfort the participants by using an alternative room instead of the meeting room, for instance.

Small groups are more effective than bigger groups. If you make groups do not put people with the same culture in the same group. The head of each group should summarize their findings and bring this to the bigger meeting.

If a consensus has been agreed on a topic always confirm by repeating in a concised way what has been agreed upon. At the end of a meeting, summarize and capture the main agreements and disagreements.

In companies where participants from over the whole world attend meetings, it is very useful to take inter-cultural awareness training so misunderstandings can be minimized because there are a lot of cultural differences in etiquettes, gestures, mannerisms and ways of expression.

http://www.culturosity.com/articles/effectivemeetings.htm 

Lise Keirens 

Cross cultural advertising

There are differences in culture between various countries. Because of this differences cross cultural communication solutions are important for advertising campaigns. A campaign can be effective in one land but it might be ineffective in another land. This can be explained by the values attached to the campaign by the different cultures. First of all you have to take the language in account. If you launch a product in a country with a name that means something bad or strange in that country, not many people will buy the product. Also the slogan of the brand and the product name has to be suitable with all religions.  When you make a campaign you have to pay attention to the colors and the numbers that you use. Some countries have a lucky or unlucky color or try to avoid specific numbers. If you use images, you have to be careful which images you use because some countries are sensitive for it. And finally you also have to take cultural values into account.  (http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/cultural-services/articles/cross-cultural-advertising.html)

Eline Janssens

Intercultural training

Many people migrate to other countries because of the economic variation or the economic stability of those countries. But it isn’t easy to migrate into the culture of that country because of the differences between the countries. That is why there is so much interest in intercultural training. This training gives information about the culture and religion of a particular country. Some people say that intercultural training stereotypes people. Stereotyping isn’t good because it is based on a minimum of experimental evidence. That is why people don’t like to make judgments based on those stereotypes. Intercultural training recommends making reference on people. A strategy for this is called generalization. This is more reliable then stereotyping. People make opinions by observing people of different cultures and languages. So they traced out the commonalities in behavior and life style. Also interacting is important in this strategy, the experience that they acquire will help them later in real life. (http://crossculturalmgt.com/intercultural-training-and-steriotypes/)

Eline Janssens

Orientations in time and space

Space and time orientations can differ a lot across cultures. This is something we have to think about when negotiating with people who have a different cultural background.
In  our world it is said that there are two orientations to time, namely monochromic and polychromic. The monochromic approach is about focusing on one thing at a time whereas the polychromic vision involves the simultaneous occurrences of many things. What characterizes negotiators from polychromic cultures is, among other, the comfortability with a high flow of information and the flexibility when it comes to starting and ending meetings or taking breaks. In monochromic cultures people tend to be very punctual and they always stick to a specific, detailed way of working. Another important difference between cultures is the focus on either the past, present or future. So be mindful when you go through your plans for the future!
When negotiating with someone, you have to respect the concept of space. If you don’t do this your company may feel uncomfortable. For example, Arab cultures allow more touching whereas in Asian countries they are not so fond of it. The opinions on eye contact also differ across the world. In some cultures, eye contact is seen as a form of reliability. But, again, in Asia you are better to look down to obtain their respect. Also, certain cultures have a different approach when it comes to cross-and same-gender touching. So when greeting your potential business partner, be aware of what you can and can’t do! 

orientations in time and space 

Jeroen Manderick 

you should all take a look at this website:
http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/cultural-services/articles/crosscultural-blunders.html

There are a few examples of cross cultural business blunders. Some are very funny. It shows once again how important it is to have respect and to know the culture of your business partners.

Lise Keirens