'Why they are complaining?' 'Why do they treat me this way?' 'Why are they offending my team?'Intercultural misunderstandings are a pain. Fact-oriented cultures and relationship-oriented cultures clash. They have different styles of communication, different views on the same things, and contrary core values. The Germans are fact-oriented. Their habits make doing business with them a challenge. This book educates managers and professionals on how best to work with Germans and helps them avoid intercultural misunderstandings. It reveals the three key characteristics for consideration to make business with Germans a success: directness — adherence — commitment.
Many business leaders, when they begin to work overseas or interact professionally with teams abroad, are surprised by how much they thought they knew about the other culture, but how little it counts for on the ground. The reality is that communication is multi-dimensional, and simply knowing a foreign language doesn't mean one automatically understands the culture that goes with it. Idiom, psychological factors and cultural nuance all come into play. To grasp a culture, and communicate meaningfully to it, you need familiarity with language, of course, but also with non-verbal communication, customs, perceived values, and concepts of time and space. "Melissa Lamson," with years of experience in creating and nurturing high-performing global teams, understands how "It's not enough to know the language!" In her book, " No Such Thing as Small Talk," she focuses on Germany, a major business partner for the United States, and the country in which she has lived and worked for over a decade. Business leaders today expect to face cultural differences when they do business with, for example, China or Brazil. But with a Western, industrialized country like Germany, one that displays a business etiquette and work ethic similar to the United States, it is easy to overlook the differences simply because so much appears, on the surface, to be the same. The differences are not in your face but subtle. And these small, yet critical, differences are exactly what Melissa's book will help you identify, respect and bridge. Melissa succinctly presents what she calls seven keys, or principles, to unlocking the German business mind. Her principles, whether they relate to process, punctuality, discipline or email communication, are insightful, personal and compelling. Not only does she clearly lay out the differences, but she also offers a cultural perspective that is rich with personal narrative. If you plan to be in any way professionally engaged with Germany--whether you wish to participate in trade fairs, carry out negotiations with partners or colleagues, discuss schedules or terms with customers, or even apply for a job in Germany--the appropriate cultural understanding, as this book describes, will create mutual trust and will quite likely be the key to your business success.
Sylvia Schroll-Machl writes about German cultural standards. Although her work is empirically ascertained and presented in a systematic way, she is able to maintain a certain self-critical levity. Her target groups are Germans and foreigners, who vocationally have something to do with Germans. Her goal is to promote mutual understanding and to offer assistance for intercultural interactions.
Seminar paper from the year 2019 in the subject Communications - Intercultural Communication, grade: 1,0, Fresenius University of Applied Sciences Hamburg, language: English, abstract: The following work aims to highlight cultural differences between Germany and China and their relevance for international relations. It will also give recommendations for business negotiations between German and Chinese parties. After this introduction a definition of culture follows and the reader is introduced to two different models that help develop an understanding of cultural differences. The first one is the model of cultural dimensions by Geert Hofstede, the second one is the model of cultural dimensions by Fons Trompenaars.
Today People’s Republic of China is emerging as one of the major global economies. But a lot of negotiations between German and Chinese businessmen have failed in China because German entrepreneurs have not been sufficiently prepared for the different cultural peculiarities of negotiations with Chinese business partners. This dissertation will analyse the cultural peculiarities of negotiations with Chinese business partners. Different theories about culture, communication and negotiations and their interactions are examined. The researcher will analyse differences between the German and Chinese business culture including the values influencing the German and Chinese business behaviour and communication style. A comparison of the German culture and negotiation skills with the Chinese culture and negotiation skills will be drawn. Prerequisites to commitment in China will be investigated and the Chinese framework of communication will be identified. Furthermore the Chinese bargaining and negotiation tactics as well as the purpose and format of Chinese negotiations will be discovered and the importance of “guanxi” and “mianxi” and their effects on business behaviour will be identified. The researcher will also advance the hypothesis that China has faced and will face the influence of materialism as a force undermining traditional values. To prove this hypothesis, she will analyse potential factors and forces that influence Chinese culture and with it the negotiations with Chinese business partners.
A must-read guide for every businessman.Which abilities' needs today a businessman working for a company that claims not only in domestic market but also in the German market? This book aims to raise awareness of the environment and the German typical errors that can be easily avoided if there is some concern in trying to understand the German mentality, the German market and the situations you will encounter when approaching the market. Doing business with Germans can be difficult, but it need not be. This guide to doing business in Germany is intended to highlight some important key areas that one may encounter in Germany. After ten years in Germany, I know the country inside out. Readers should understand that this book, although it concentrates on business culture, is intended to be useful to anybody planning to deal with Germans in any way.
This book provides a framework and tools, for navigating with cultural intelligence in a Vietnamese business context. The book includes insights and knowledge about motivators and trust drivers, leading to successful partnerships, leadership, collaboration, and great teamwork in Vietnam. To support you in reaching the results you are aiming for, you will find advice from experienced Vietnam expats and a broad range of action strategies, ready to use. Providing a foundation of knowledge and understanding of ways to build fruitful relationships, collaboration, and productivity in a Vietnamese cultural context, the book is intended to serve as a handbook for anyone, who wants to do successful business in Vietnam. Project leaders, business executives at all levels, employees, and students.
The book addresses the question of whether, in an age of internationalisation and globalisation, cultural differences are still relevant to German-Irish corporate relationships? The first three chapters establish the theoretical framework for the analysis by exploring the notion of culture, profiling the business cultures of both countries, and examining existing approaches to the study of parent company-foreign subsidiary relationships. In the following three chapters, using interviews carried out with two sample groups (fifteen German parent companies and fourteen of their Irish operations; seven Irish parent companies and nine of their German operations), the parent companies in both groups are examined to see whether they demonstrate characteristics which are in keeping with their national business cultures. Their foreign operations are then analysed as is the parent company-foreign subsidiary relationship to determine whether any parent company influences are visible. The general approaches adopted by the two groups of parent companies to their foreign operations are compared and contrasted. Finally differences in national attitudes and values are identified and their impact assessed.
Transparency in Global Change examines the quest for information exchange in an increasingly international, open society. Recent transformations in governments and cultures have brought about a surge in the pursuit of knowledge in areas of law, trade, professions, investment, education, and medical practice—among others. Technological advancements in communications, led by the United States, and public access to information fuel the phenomenon of transparency. This rise in transparency parallels a diminution of secrecy—though, as Burkart and Leslie Holzner point out, secrecy continues to exist on many levels. Based on current events and historical references in literature and the social sciences, Transparency in Global Change focuses on the turning points of information cultures, such as scandals, that lead to pressure for transparency. Moreover, the Holzners illuminate byproducts of transparency—debate, insight, and impetus for change, as transparency exposes the moral corruptions of dictatorship, empire, and inequity.
