Doing Business in Europe: Cultural Considerations

Culture is defined as a whole basis of knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, and customs that define a person or group of persons. Culture differs is so many ways and that culture is what defines each of person as an individual. This concept comes from the cultural that was taught and developed from after birth and through our adolescent years. Our culture is the foundation of who we are. It identifies the lifestyle and pursuits that are practiced in the group of people we interact with in our society. Culture beliefs, values, and practices are learned from birth.

A culture is the body of ideas, ways of looking at the world, values, and standards for conduct and behavior that a given people or nation hold in common. It includes the range of meanings that people assign to their own perceptions and behavior, as well as to the natural world around them. We can define the elements of that culture, and understand how they fit together as a culture, by examining that people's customs, language, religion, material artifacts, and social and political institutions.

According to “Longman’s Dictionary of Contemporary English”, culture is primarily defined as “the beliefs, way of life, art, and customs that are shared and accepted by people

A culture can be defined as a way of life of a group of people- their behaviors, beliefs, values that are passed along by communication and imitation from one generation to the next. It also includes the customs, arts, literature, morals/values and traditions of a particular society or group (Virginia Encyclopedia). Culture can also be considered as a way of thinking, behaving, or working that exists in places or organizations. This topic is of huge importance to our society mainly in the state of

U.S. American culture differs greatly from many other cultures in its strong emphasis on individualism and task orientation. This leads to business behaviors that are challenging for may other cultures, even when they think they understand U.S. culture from T.V. and other media.

Culture is defined as “The ideas, attitudes, customs, beliefs, values and social behaviour of a particular group of people or society that are passed on from generation to generation” (Brentnall, A., n.d.).

In most cultures, behavior can be placed on a continuum, so that not all individuals are stereotypical. Chinese mangers place more value on keeping harmony within a workgroup. Managers influence the need for co-operation and group welfare, further affect work relationships, leading to a managing philosophy based on loyalty, and collectivism. These attributes joined with a strong correlation among age and seniority and status, can translate into legitimate authority and power. The culture this creates, relies on benevolent styles of communicating with middle managers and down the line.

Culture can be defined as “the sum total of the beliefs, rules, techniques, institutions, and artifacts that characterize human populations” or “the collective programming of the mind.

For the successful business, it is must to be aware of the culture of international country with we are doing business or trading. Cultural difference in business can aid in building international competencies as well as enabling to get a competitive benefit. It is difficult to be aware of every aspect of the other country’s organisational culture.

Cultural values can be defined as standards that are considered acceptable or unacceptable to a particular culture. I examined two research articles, one comparing the cultural values of Polish and Turkish employees and the other comparing Indian and U.S. value orientations. I choose these articles because they gave a good representation of almost all our global business cultures. India with its Asian influence; the U.S., which is distinctly western; Poland with its European influence; and Turkey with its Middle Eastern influence. These two articles come together nicely to give an accurate representation of what’s important to the culture and how those characteristics influence employees in the work place and how managers can better communicate with their global employees. Furthermore, I choose this topic out of personal interest and from my experience working in an international department this past year.

This report presents a literature review on business etiquette, cultural dimensions, leadership styles, communication channels, decision-making process and managing teams and value system followed in the two different nations where different cultures are followed (Kittler, et. al., 2011). This assignment discusses the different business culture present in Bangladesh and Canada. This assignment covers the similarities and differences which exist between two different cultures followed in Bangladesh and Canada.

Organization faces different cross-culture challenges in areas such as: Mutual support, Innovation and Goal oriented. Managing through culture and not Rational management is seen as more creative way of managing. It is emotional appeal through shared values, it is soft, and it is managed through shared values and purposes. In marketing team of French company all the members belongs to different European countries, which is said to have cross-culture. It is very important for all the members of the team to understand and try to change organization’s culture by using typologies, which provides a quick way of capturing an overall impression of the organization and allow them to compare it with other organizations. There are two types of typology that can be used are Deal and Kennedy’s typology, Charles Handy’s typology etc. Deal and Kennedy argued that an organization’s culture is a product of environment in which they operate, given on the basis of degree of risk and speed of feedback. Four cultural categories are Work hard/play hard, Process culture, Tough-guy macho and Bet-your-company culture. Each of these cultures has their own strength and weaknesses. Charles Handy argues that organizations should try to match their types of cultures to the external needs of the environment. He offered four cultural categories such as: Power culture, Task culture,

Culture refers to the sum of integrated learned behavior traits shared by members of a society ADDIN EN.CITE Hofstede2001449(Hofstede, 2001)4494496Hofstede, G.Culture's Negation-Comparing values, Behaviors, Institutions, and Organization Across Nation2001USASage Publication( HYPERLINK l "_ENREF_2" o "Hofstede, 2001 #449" Hofstede, 2001). In the 19th century Edwad Tylor gave the classical definition of culture as the complex whole including; arts knowledge, morals, custom, law, beliefs and any other habits and capabilities man acquires being a member of a society ADDIN EN.CITE Ghemawat2007448(Ghemawat, 2007)44844817Ghemawat, P. Managing differences; The central challenge of global strategyHarvard Business ReviewHarvard Business Review59-688532007( HYPERLINK l "_ENREF_1" o "Ghemawat, 2007 #448" Ghemawat, 2007). This definition gives us an overall understanding that culture is obtained and observed out of interactions in the society. The international perspective of culture intimates that attributes of a given society need to be observed in business operations.

It is important for the companies to understand what culture actually means, Hofstede (1984), defines culture as “collective mind programming which differentiate one group from another culture through set of values”. So these values and fundamental assumptions held by a group of individuals are manifested into people’s attitudes and behaviors. Thus, culture difference can lead individual to view similar things in quite different ways.

There are several factors that do affect a given business, with the most outspoken being the leadership of the organization. Other factors include staffing, planning and marketing among many others. A combination of all these factors leads to a self-sustaining structure, a given way of operations within the firm, commonly referred to as workplace culture. This is displayed in the conduct of the employees and in the general relations within the firm’s staff and the society at large. This paper consists of two parts; part I which goes in to describe the specific culture, and part II that presents a sample case through an interview.