In northern European cultures it’s considered professional to keep business and family separate, but not in Russia. Here, people expect to be able to discuss personal problems at work and think it’s fine if their boss calls late at night or on the weekend to talk about business. In other countries, at half past six workers are in private time.
This means what you, a foreign manager, might consider good business management, is actually not. Family and work are more mixed in Russia – it’s what you call a diffused culture – and this may create conflict.
In Russia if you want to succeed in business as a manager, you must show interest in your employee’s life. You must ask your employees how their granny feels and whether their children did well in their exams. And this goes both ways; employees also expect to take an interest in your personal life.
If you manage your staff in this way, should you ask an employee to come in Monday at 8 AM instead of 9 AM to settle important issues, the employee will agree gladly because he or she is grateful to help and feels connected to you personally.
Of course in Russia there is a style of management, called management by walking around, that builds on this more personal work environment. In this model, employees expect the boss to know everything; the boss is like a teacher. Overseas, your typical teacher may take time to think about a student’s question, but in Russia if you ask the teacher a question he is expected to answer at once, even if he doesn’t have the right answer. That what your worker will expect of you.
Relationships between manager and employees in Russia versus the West.
Work in Russia is very hierarchical. The boss always remains your boss, and you know and feel your status. In the West, business-unit like organization is popular. People work cooperatively on projects, adopting different roles at different times
This has a huge impact on performance assessments. In a business-unit-type organizations people are eager to praise their colleagues’ performance because they hope their colleagues will do the same for them in the future. In Russia one must be more careful and assessments may be muted – everyone looks average.
As some theorists assume there are inner-oriented and outer oriented cultures. Americans tend to be internally oriented, they manage by setting objectives targets: you do the job on time and you get a bonus, in other words: you control your destiny. Russians tend to operate with a more external orientation.
Problems arise as the foreign managers, looking critically at how each group operates, decide to assign cultural blame. Foreigners think Russians are lazy, Russians claim foreigners can’t understand their country. In the end everyone gives up, saying, “this is just how thing are in Russia”, which is the worst conclusion to draw.
The only way to handle such a situation is anticipate it; you know you are tasked with creating one effort across culture, so get ready to deal with it. At start, work out a flexible strategy for handling the cultural differences, coming up with several scenarios just in case one doesn’t work out. This is a great tool to use in all countries where people feel they are being controlled by nature, like in Russia.
Having a poor understanding of the influence of cross cultural differences in areas such as management, PR, advertising and negotiation scan eventually lead to blunders that can have damaging consequences.
It is crucial for today’s business personnel to understand the impact of cross cultural differences on business, trade and internal company organization. The success or failure of a company, venture, merger or acquisition is essentially in the hands of people. If these people are not cross culturally aware then misunderstandings, offence and a breakdown in communication can occur.
The need for greater cross cultural awareness is heightened in our global economies. Cross cultural differences in matters such as language, etiquette, non-verbal communication, norms and values can, do and will lead to cross cultural blunders.
To illustrate this we have provided a few examples of cross cultural blunders that could have been avoided with appropriate cross cultural awareness training:
- An American oil rig supervisor in Indonesia shouted at an employee to take a boat to shore. Since it is no-one berates an Indonesian in public, a mob of outraged workers chased the supervisor with axes.
- Pepsodent tried to sell its toothpaste in Southeast Asia by emphasizing that it “whitens your teeth.” They found out that the local natives chew betel nuts to blacken their teeth which they find attractive.
- A company advertised eyeglasses in Thailand by featuring a variety of cute animals wearing glasses. The ad was a poor choice since animals are considered to be a form of low life and no self respecting Thai wouldn’t wear anything worn by animals.
The soft drink Fresca was being promoted by a saleswoman in Mexico. She was surprised that her sales pitch was greeted with laughter, and later embarrassed when she learned that Fresca is slang for “lesbian.”
- When President George Bush went to Japan with Lee Iacocca and other American business magnates, and directly made explicit and direct demands on Japanese leaders, they violated Japanese etiquette. To the Japanese (who use high context language) it is considered rude and a sign of ignorance or desperation to lower oneself to make direct demands. Some analysts believe it severely damaged the negotiations and confirmed to the Japanese that Americans are barbarians.
- A soft drink was introduced into Arab countries with an attractive label that had stars on it—six-pointed stars. The Arabs interpreted this as pro-Israeli and refused to buy it. Another label was printed in ten languages, one of which was Hebrew—again the Arabs did not buy it.
- U.S. and British negotiators found themselves at a standstill when the American company proposed that they “table” particular key points. In the U.S. “Tabling a motion” means to not discuss it, while the same phrase in Great Britain means to “bring it to the table for discussion.”
In addition to interpersonal cross cultural gaffes, the translation of documents, brochures, advertisements and signs also offers us some comical cross cultural blunders:
- Kellogg had to rename its Bran Buds cereal in Sweden when it discovered that the name roughly translated to “burned farmer.”
- When PepsiCo advertised Pepsi in Taiwan with the ad “Come Alive With Pepsi” they had no idea that it would be translated into Chinese as “Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the dead.”
- American medical containers were distributed in Great Britain and caused quite a stir. The instructions to “Take off top and push in bottom,” innocuous to Americans, had very strong sexual connotations to the British.
- In Italy, a campaign for Schweppes Tonic Water translated the name into “Schweppes Toilet Water.”
- In a Yugoslavian hotel: The flattening of underwear with pleasure is the job of the chambermaid.
- In a Bangkok dry cleaner’s: Drop your trousers here for best results.
- In an East African newspaper: A new swimming pool is rapidly taking shape since the contractors have thrown in the bulk of their workers.
- At a Budapest zoo: Please do not feed the animals. If you have any suitable food, give it to the guard on duty.
In conclusion, poor cross cultural awareness has many consequences, some serious others comical. It is imperative that in the global economy cross-cultural awareness is seen as a necessary investment to avoid such blunders as we have seen above.
1. What levels are there in the process of intercultural learning?
2. What a re the roots of cross-culture differences?
3. Are there any universal principles to deal with cross-cultural problems?
4. What is a crucial task of management in multinational environment?
5. How can you explain the concept of ‘glocalization’?
6. How do managerial principles differ in north-American and north-west European cultures on the one hand, and in Latin south-European and south- American cultures, on the other hand?
7. What is the difference between Protestant cultures and Latin and Asian countries?
8. Why is the American concept of pay-for-performance unpopular in Italy, and in Asia?
9. Why the idea of “matrix management” doesn’t work in France?
10. Why do ‘universalists’ disapprove of ‘particularists’?
11. What things can be of potential hazard when you are dealing with people of other cultures?
12. What can be a measure of your success when you are abroad? Why?
13. What you should do and shouldn’t do while you are on business abroad?
14. What was the reason for appearance of the concept of cross-cultural management?
15. In what situations do you become aware of your own culture? Why?
16. What does a “culture shock” mean? Give your examples?
17. What does cross-cultural management teach people?
18. How to cope with cultural issues when your company is coming into a new culture?
19. What does “walking around” style of management mean? Do you think it useful or not?
20. How do relationships between a manger and employees differ in Russia from those in western cultures?
22. What consequences can a poor understanding of cross- cultural differences lead to?
23. Why is the awareness of cross-cultural differences so important in present global economy?
24. Can you give some examples of misunderstandings in cross-cultural relations?
Vocabulary to Unit10
1. unawarenessn неосторожность, опрометчивость
2. observationnвысказывание, замечание, наблюдение
3. tolerance n терпимость, толерантность
4. distrust n недоверие, сомнение, подозрение
5. suspicion n подозрение; Syn.: doubt
6. defense mechanism защитныймеханизм
7. predisposition n предрасположение, склонность
8. close ranks сомкнуть ряды
9. collaborative adj. общий, объединенный, совместный
Syn.: combined
10. managementbyobjectives управление по целям, целевое управление
11. loseface ударить лицом в грязь, потерять престиж, быть униженным
12. quantifyvопределять количество, измерять, мерить
13. ambiguitynнеопределенность, неясность, двусмысленность
14.aggressive manager энергичный, предприимчивыйменеджер
15. on the contrary наоборот
16.accord n одобрение, согласие, договоренность
17. assertiveadj. 1)чрезмерно настойчивый, самоуверенный
2) позитивный, утвердительный
18.matrix management матричное руководство
19. precedencenпревосходство, старшинство, ранг, приоритет
23. hazard n риск, опасность
24. offensive adj. обидный, оскорбительный
25.conventionnсобрание, соглашение, договоренность; правила поведения
26. empowervпоручить, давать возможность; оказывать поддержку
27. obeyordersподчиняться, повиноваться приказам
28. be condensed бытьсжатым, кратким
29. goabombпотерпеть провал, фиаско
30. equatev уравнивать, считать равным, приравнивать
31. bedeprivedofбыть лишенным чего-либо
32. expatriaten эмигрант, экспатриант, переселенец (в другую страну)
33. getridofsmthизбавиться от чего-либо
34. comeupwithsmthсравняться с (чем-л.); предлагать (план, проект)
35. blundernгрубая ошибка, промах, просчет
36. oilrigбуровая установка
37. beratev бранить, ругать, поносить (кого-л.)
38. mobn толпа, сборище, большая группа людей
39. outragedadj. оскорбленный, взбешенный
40. chasevгнаться, преследовать
41. sales pitch партиятовара
42. be at a standstill бездействовать
43. culturalgaffes - ошибки, оплошности при межкультурном общении
Syn: blunder
44. innocuous adj. безобидный, безвредный
45. flattenv1)сглаживать; 2) снижать активность, становиться вялым
46. connotation n подтекст, скрытый смысл