Canada is the top country in the world for an American business to expand because of its very similar culture to the United States. Geert Hofsted a prominent psychologist has studied the Canadian way of life and has set up a ranking system that proves why Canada is so ideal for American businesses to operate. Hofstede’s ranking system is based on analyzing 5 dimensions that target key aspects of a country’s society. These dimensions are power distance, individualism, uncertainty avoidance, career success and planning for the long term horizon.
What does a review of the current press reveal about the attitudes of Canadians in terms of global business and international trade?
Overall business in America and Canada resemble each other closely. “The two countries share a lot of political and economic ties as well as similar laws in many areas.” However, with business they are different in ways such as working over time, terminating an employee, and the language.
In a business perspective, the oriental and western cultures remain a huge difference. Low-context societies such as American egalitarian culture, they emphasize on logic and facts, verbal messages are more direct and concise, individualism and extremely tolerant to changes. However, high-context societies such as Chinese hierarchy culture, they prefer non-verbal methods to express meaningful communications, group-oriented, and pay more attention to interpersonal relationships during business interactions. For example, a successful business interaction will count on interpersonal relationships among businesses and government. On the other hand, business dealings can be completely transactional with Americans, without building relationships to do so.
Americans have a very straight forward and practical approach towards business. They believe in driving hard bargains and negotiating, while the Chinese put more focus on respect, friendship saving face in their business conduct. Mr. Smith was a typical American businessman who in spite of knowing that
Canada is Canada is the 2nd largest country in the world with population over 30 million. Canada’s two largest and most important industries are logging and oil. The eight dimensions of business culture in Canada and the differences with US. Things to consider for US business retailers who wants to expand to Canada. How the free trade agreement between US and Canada started and settled into NAFTA. The investor wanted to invest in Canada can get benefit from NAFTA provisions. Canada has bilateral trade agreements between, European Union and Asia. SWOT analysis of doing business in Canada
North America’s culture certainly affect international business activities, the same happen among all countries and continents in the world. Culture and tradition have a particular role in person’s critical thinking, communication barriers and behavior. In the business environment negotiation is an important skill in where all parties needs to be pleased, at the end you have to give for you to be able to receive, either is entering into a contract or building a
People coming from countries such as China to the United States or Americans doing business in China. The first imprint is the aggressive and doubtful attitude of Americans. The foreigners find Americans very unsocial and less friendly. In U.S it is unusual to get frank with strangers and start talking about the common interest. In reality, Americans are very clear to distinguish between friends and business associates. While on other side they are usually consider reserved and unfriendly as compare to Americans, Chinese people seeks very clear and genuine personal relationships with their associates of
There are some differences in conducting business in the United States compared to India and other countries. “Building business relationships in a foreign country takes time, emphasize etiquette experts. In the U.S. where time is money (and both are often in short supply), business deals are secured overnight (Tulshyan 2010). In India and other countries the business contracts may take several weeks to achieve, due to they do not perceive time the way Americans do and in the additional business encounter’s trust is being established. Word Count: 85
“Business communication is quite direct in Canada; there will be no need for you to decipher and read into messages. Emails and telephone calls should also be direct and succinct” (Doing Business in Canada, n.d.). Not only are Canadians expected to be direct, they also expect to heard and listened to regardless of their rank and status. Business usually operates from 9:00am to 5:00pm, Monday to Friday with meetings being held first thing in the morning. “Canada is officially bilingual in French and English-be prepared to use these languages in meetings. An interpreter might be required” (Doing Business in Canada, n.d.). It should be noted Canadians consider it rude to speak in a foreign language in the presence of other people who do not understand the language. Prior to business meetings, Canadians enjoy small talk about sports or general topics, however todays translations advise to avoid conversation about conflicts with the French and comparing Canada to the U.S (Doing Business in Canada, n.d.). Business meeting dress code is conservative with Canadians dress according to the weather. Punctuality is a priority for business meetings and it’s considered rude to decline an invitation out for drinks unless you have a very good reason for not going. Before Henry Inc. can conduct any business the employees must learn how to speak French and the company should obtain a credible
They viewed the politeness phenomena in communication as a common expression and they thought the reason behind the polite behaviors is actually “face and rationality” (1978: 63). To illustrate the point, they developed the conception of Model Person (MP) . By “rationality” , it means “the availability to our MP of a precisely definable mode of reasoning from ends to the means that will achieve those ends” (ibid) . And by “face” ,it means that the MP “ is endowed with two particular wants -- the want to be unimpeded and the want to be approved of in certain respects” (ibid). According to them, there are two types connected with the FST. One is termed as the “negative face”-- “the want to be unimpeded”. The other is the “positive face”-- “the want to be approved of in certain respects”. Everyone wants to be a gentleman and everyone has his understanding about the self-esteem, so sometimes she/he have to do a face-saving compromise. For the two wants above, people take action to interact with the others and try their best to avoid making the hearer get into trouble. Similarly business English letters often start with “Dear Sirs”, or “Dear Sir” and end with “Yours faithfully” or “Sincerely yours”, and the inside address containing the name of addressee with “Messrs”,
Executing corporate opportunities in today’s business world has advanced immensely through our use of modern communication. Through telecommunication and the internet, major deals are now being completed with a single push of a button. Organizations of different cultures and countries, who may never have communicated otherwise, are now starting to do business together. With cellular and internet communication improving every day, inevitably so has business communication. As organizations expand their social contracts, they develop potential customers in other countries. “International business programs often begin with expansion into countries with many of the same cultural conditions, such as a Canadian firm selling products in the United
We have a great need to understand the cultural differences among nations. Cultural differences can affect the success or failure of an international company in a number of important ways. In studies of international business negotiations between Americans, on the one
1. Wade (2004) highlights some of the pitfalls of doing business internationally. As cultures can vary significantly from one region or country to the next, it is important to understand some of these differences and how they affect the process of doing business, or even just basic communication. There can be differences even between regions within a country (i.e. Ontario vs Quebec; New England vs. the South) so it is important to understand the cultural dynamics of each area before doing business there. In Wade's article, he highlights some superficial issues like punctuality, gift-giving, and gestures. Wade also outlines some of the more critical issues that are seen as deal-breakers.
There are many differences in values between United States and China. Of those many differences, the two most crucial are the importance of relationships and styles of communication. According to the Houston Chronicle, Chinese like to develop and establish relationships with their business partners, while Americans value transactions first. Chinese prefer face-to-face interactions since trust is “premium” in their business culture. Chinese even send gifts, ask about your personal life as an