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Business Culture Differences Around The Globe

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Types of Business Culture

High context cultures vs. low context cultures can be summarized by analyzing the tendencies of cultural participants. In high context cultures people typically communicate through the context of the situation. People will often say less and act according to the rules any given situation dictates. Actions can and are often based on assumptions and factual observation and notation is not always necessary. Conversely, a low context culture often comes with communication that requires little to no contextual awareness. Obvious facts are restated, assumptions are not made. Low context cultures communicate directly much more often. Examples of these kinds of business cultures are the United States (Low Context) and Japan (High Context).

Business Culture and Time Management

Relating to context is a culture's perception of time. "Low-context cultures, such as that of the United States, tend to run on monochronic time while high-context cultures, such as that of Mexico, tend to run on polychromic time." The difference is the way different cultures tend to operate. Monochomic cultures tend to operate in an "ordered, precise, and schedule-driven" manner whereas polychromic cultures tend to operate in "multiple and cyclical activities" and with "concurrent involvement with different people."

Cultural Tolerance for Individualism

Furthermore different cultures can be separated into two additional distinctions, individualistic cultures and collectivist cultures. These two distinctions really are the two ends of a sliding scale of a cultures tolerance for individualism. Obviously an individualistic culture values "individual freedom and choice" and a collectivist culture values people who "subordinate their own wishes and goals to those of the relevant social unit." In reality each culture falls differently on this scale; each culture falls closer to one extreme or the other and this is one element to culture that takes the most getting used to on a personal and business level. Business cultural differences can make the difference to management in retaining customers via their permission based marketing plans.

My Experience With Culture Shock

When I was in my undergrad program, before I got my MBA degree online, I studied in Vienna for a semester learning Austrian history and politics. During my 4 month stay in Austria I found the experience to be immensely rewarding. The immersion into another culture so foreign to my own was unsettling at first but after awhile I really started to accept the ways of the locals and adapt to them.

They didn't have big grocery stores, they had small roads and everybody took public transit. The people didn't act the same; they wouldn't pay attention to you no matter what. In America we tend to casually acknowledge someone as we walk by them but in Vienna they didn't. Every little cultural nuance was small and nearly insignificant by itself but all the little differences pilled up made for some culture shock. Regardless though it was a fun experience and you learn a lot from other people and I took that with me when I finally returned stateside.

The main thing I took from this experience is that business cultures from around the world are all different and the business motivation of their people is different too. Regardless of what I believe in my own country it is worth learning about the cultural differences of business and people from around the globe.