reading reviews
Read four short articles: “It’s all About R-E-S-P-E-C-T When Communicating Across Cultures, this Author Says” by Debra Bruno, “Lost In Translation: Cross-Cultural Business” by Deborah Steinborn, “Business in a Common Tongue” by Melanie Kirkpatrick, and “Networking for Actual Human Beings” by David Burkus – all articles are attached to this submission link.
In a Word document, please respond to the following questions:
How is the information discussed in the articles similar or different compared to what you have heard/learned about international/global communication? Especially compared to the chapters from our textbook Business Writing Today.
Based on the information provided in the articles, what are some rules/conventions do people tend to follow when communicating across cultures and languages?
Which out of the four articles provoked a strong response in you? Did you agree and/or disagree with the author? Why?
Find online and bring to the class one example of an effective marketing email and one example of an effective networking email.
Your company has just completed a cross-border merger and teams aren’t getting along. You’re
planning your first business trip to China to drum up export-import business and don’t have a
clue about local wining-and-dining protocol. A business meeting with new colleagues in
Moscow one recent afternoon went wrong, and you don’t know why.
If any of these scenarios sounds familiar, you may be a prime candidate for cross-cultural
training, a fast-growing education field for the business world. As globalization more and more
becomes a reality for small and medium enterprises as well as multinational corporations, so
do its day-to-day challenges. These can be as simple as knowing where to sit in an Australian
taxi (in the front), how to handle chopsticks in China (never stick them straight into your rice
bowl), or that, in Finland it is OK to take a sauna with a client (it is the normal way to conclude
business there).
While globalization has blurred cultural lines within the business world, “culture is still such a
complex matter that we need as many ways to understand it as possible,” says Celia D’Anca,
director of the Center for Diversity in Global Management at Instituto de Empresa Business
School in Madrid.
Independent consultants found a profitable niche
in advising companies that operate
multinationally on such practical cross-cultural
matters more than a decade ago. They specialize
in areas as basic as the language and cultural
differences a Bavarian businessman might face on
a one-year job assignment in Shanghai to the
complex cultural integration required in a cross-
border merger.
Fees are lucrative: Even brief, one-day seminars
can run in the upper tens of thousands of dollars, companies that have enlisted such services
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https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB117518597057953321
Lost in Translation: Cross-Cultural Business
As Firms Go Global, a Need Arises To Learn About Local Customs
Updated March 30, 2007 12�01 am ET
By Deborah Steinborn
EXECUTIVE EDUCATION
Earning an Executive M.B.A. Past 50
China Could Boost Italian School’s Profile
Lost in Translation: Cross-Cultural Business
Virtual Business Is a Teaching Tool
India’s Boom Is Boon for Business Schools
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say.
Now, some business schools are targeting the field as an extension of their executive-education
programs. IE, for one, offers seminars open for enrollment by executives on subjects such as
cross-cultural communications and negotiations, as well as tailored seminars on how to
manage cross-cultural groups.
Its most recent addition to these offerings is “China: An Inside View,” a four-day executive
program. A version was held earlier this month in Beijing at a cost of €4,900 (about
$6,500). The seminar is offered by IE in conjunction with Cheung Kong Graduate School of
Business. In addition to attending lectures on China-specific topics, executives visited
companies and a Chinese teahouse show.
Independent consultants and business-school administrators say increasing economic ties
between Western and Eastern Europe as well as the European Union and Asia (China and India
in particular) are sparking wider interest in cross-cultural business training.
Interest in cross-cultural training has sharply increased in the “past five years or so, as more
and more European enterprises have gotten involved in Asia and vice versa,” says Sung-Hee
Lee, a cross-cultural management consultant specializing in Asia and based in Heidelberg,
Germany. Companies now request much more specific, in-depth training, and on a wider variety
of topics, than in the past, she says.
Midsize and large Scandinavian companies, which have completed a lot of mergers and
acquisitions in Asia in the past several years, are looking for ways to better integrate their
cross-cultural teams. Chinese who come to do business in Germany also have a learning curve,
she says.
Kwintessential, a U.K.-based language and culture specialist, has seen an increasing percentage
of its training business over the past two to three years stemming from British small and
midsize enterprises, says Neil Payne, an executive with the group. “That’s due to an increase in
their import-export business with China and India, and also due to outsourcing to overseas
groups and the cultural issues that arise from it,” he says.
Kwintessential offers cross-cultural consultations on topics as specific as work-place issues tied
to Muslims’ fasting month of Ramadan. In general, executives and others who participate can
expect a lot of stereotype deconstruction as well as role-playing.
“Practical consultants are oftentimes too practical, and the business schools have been too
theoretical,” says IE’s Ms. D’Anca of developments in cross-cultural training for businesses in
the past. “What we need to do in order to develop the field properly is find a bridge between the
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two. But there’s no doubt that training can help the business world to cross borders more
smoothly, culturally speaking.”
In order to move beyond that theoretical approach, in 2005 the foundation of Instituto de
Empresa, in conjunction with Fondation Ona, a Moroccan group, established a think tank to
address the cultural differences between Spain and neighboring Morocco. About 20
participants from business and politics gather once a year to discuss cultural diversity in global
organizations.
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ISTOCK PHOTO
Sometimes cultural stereotypes–Americans are positive, Africans are warm, Indians hate
aggressive behavior–can actually be useful in helping expats navigate an unfamiliar world.
In his new book about cross-cultural communications, business psychologist Gurnek Bains says
that it’s a good idea to “cherchez la difference,” so to speak.
“While things can appear familiar on the surface, over time a gradual realization sinks in that
the deep psychological and cultural instincts of different societies really are different in
profound, non-superficial ways,” Mr. Bains writes in his new book, “Cultural DNA: The
Psychology of Globalization.”
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EXPAT
It’s all About R-E-S-P-E-C-T When
Communicating Across Cultures, This
Author Says
May 14, 2015 2�00 am ET
By Debra Bruno
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Gurnek Bains AGATA
SZYMANOWICZ
That means Africans asked to take what’s meant to be a quick assessment test at the end of a
training session might struggle for hours, focusing on whether their answers to open-ended
questions are right or wrong, Mr. Bains says. Or to understand that Americans will be crushed
when they are given what they perceive as negative feedback. Cultures often give and receive
criticism differently, he notes.
Mr. Bains, who is chairman of YSC, a corporate psychology consulting
firm headquartered in London, sat down with WSJ Expat to talk about
the need for people to know the basics of what he calls “cultural DNA,”
both for global business leaders but also for those who spend time in
cultures that are not their own. Edited remarks follow.
What lessons can expats take from this?
One of the things in quite a lot of the research is that people are very
quick to pick up if you respect them or not, and respect their culture.
Respect is fundamental if you’re going to really build an authentic
relationship with other cultures. And in order to do that, you need to get under the skin of the
culture and kind of empathize to a degree.
Isn’t it dangerous to talk about stereotypes?
While stereotypes can be dangerous and research shows that you should never judge
individuals, the reality is that the longer you spend, the more you realize that cultures have
their own assumptions and beliefs. My idea is, let’s acknowledge those views and have an
honest mirror.
How is your book different from other cross-cultural books?
It’s a kind of roadmap. Other things written about cultural differences emphasize the
dimensions. My belief is that you have to understand each culture on its own terms.
For example?
One of my clients who went to China said that the copying thing used to drive him mad. Then he
learned that from their point of view, it’s considered arrogant to put your own spin on things.
And the other thing he said was that he thought the Chinese lacked creativity. But he saw that
there was a lot more going on under the surface, more originality of thinking, but people don’t
show it openly.
What about other cultures?
Another client, who is British, told me that when he read about Americans’ positivity, he always
thought they were fake. But then he realized Americans really are positive. If you understand it
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WILEY
from the root principles, you understand that it’s real and there’s good reason for these guys to
be positive.
You fill the book with dozens of examples of misunderstandings. What’s another?
An Australian guy went to India and was really frustrated by the lack of directness of people. He
never could get a straight answer. I said, ‘You’ve got to understand that one of the places this
comes from, deeply ingrained, is a huge level of not wanting to offend or be aggressive towards
anyone. It’s not a position of dishonesty, but a position of being kind and not being rude or
negative.’ He said this really helped him bond with his team and be less suspicious.
One of the more fascinating sections talks about an experience you
had with executive training in Nigeria when the participants got
stymied at finishing the questionnaire at the end of the session,
taking hours to answer what was supposed to be a 20-minute
exercise.
They thought we were trying to catch them out. In Africa, trust exists
in circumscribed situations. We were all getting along fine, but then at
the end a real wariness set in. They had completely not trusted what
we told them: that there were no right or wrong answers.
How could expats apply these ideas?
I would encourage expats to develop that deep respect. You’re going to
engage with the culture more deeply. Otherwise, you’re always going to float across the surface.
Understanding and respecting where people are coming from allows you to build a real
relationship. It’s also important to get out of your frame of reference. That’s why I think the
book is also about understanding your default cultural settings, as well.
Any exceptions to the rule?
While it’s important to understand differences, you sometimes have to treat people as people as
well. Sometimes when people are in a different culture, they tiptoe around sensitivities. People
can also be similar in many ways, and you’ve got to work with both ideas.
It sounds as if this advice could work for everyone.
Even if you don’t leave the country, you’re probably dealing with people around the world. With
globalization, you don’t have to get on a plane to experience these issues. It’s the new normal.
READ MORE: Ask an Expat: 5 Tips for Expat Business Meetings
Divorce, Global Style: For Expat Marriages, Breaking Up is Harder to Do
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I Often Feel Like a Patchwork Person: A Multi-Ethnic Expat Figures Out Who He Really Is
Debra Bruno is a Washington, D.C.-based freelance writer who recently
completed a three-year stint in Beijing. She recently wrote Survey
Shows Rise in U.S. Expats ‘Seriously’ Mulling Renouncing Their
Citizenship.
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ASK AN EXPERT AUTHORS BOOKS COMMUNICATION CULTURAL DNA
CULTURE EXPAT EXPATIQUETTE EXPATS GLOBALIZATION GUIDES
GURNEK BAINS LIFE PSYCHOLOGY
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On March 1, 2010, Hiroshi Mikitani, the chief executive of Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten,
used a video link to address a meeting of the company’s 10,000 employees world-wide.
Speaking in English, he announced that Rakuten henceforth would be an English-only
organization. In two years’ time, he said, every interaction, spoken and written, would be
conducted in English—even among the 7,100 workers whose first and often only language was
Japanese.
“Our goal is to catch up with the global market,” Mr. Mikitani said. He explained that a common
language was the only way to share business knowledge quickly and effectively across
Rakuten’s international operations. “Englishnization”—a term he coined—was an essential
aspect of the company’s growth strategy, he said. The CEO further announced a draconian
measure to enforce his new mandate: Employees who did not, within two years, score above
650 on the 990-point Test of English for International Communication would face demotion or
dismissal.
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https://www.wsj.com/articles/business-in-a-common-tongue-1503867971
BOOKSHELF
Business in a Common Tongue
The CEO of a Japan-based company declared that, henceforth, every interaction, spoken and written,
would be conducted in English. Melanie Kirkpatrick reviews ‘The Language of Global Success’ by Tsedal
Neeley.
Hiroshi Mikitani, chairman and chief executive of�icer of Rakuten, Inc. PHOTO: BLOOMBERG NEWS
Aug. 27, 2017 5�06 pm ET
By Melanie Kirkpatrick
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After the passage of those two years, it was clear that Mr. Mikitani’s radical move was working.
Some 90% of Rakuten’s Japanese workforce met the language requirement, and those who
didn’t were given a six-month grace period to improve their scores. The company was
globalizing at a fast pace, expanding its operations in the U.S. and entering other countries.
How did Rakuten do it—and was it worth it? Tsedal Neeley, a professor at Harvard Business
School, provides a detailed account in “The Language of Global Success.” Ms. Neeley spent five
years interviewing Rakuten managers and workers around the globe—in Japan, the U.S.,
Europe, South America and Asia. Her book is an interesting read, despite frequent lapses into
HBS case-study-ese.
One of her most intriguing findings has to do with the effect of the English mandate on
Rakuten’s corporate culture. Mr. Mikitani believed in “changing perspectives by changing
language,” Ms. Neeley writes. By forcing employees to speak English, the CEO wanted to move
his company “away from its traditional Japanese hierarchical system, one characterized by
rules, deference to authority, and perceptions of status, toward a perspective that would enable
openness and assertion.” He saw English not just as a tool to advance Rakuten’s global
expansion by facilitating communication around the globe but also as a way to create a more
outspoken, egalitarian mind-set among Japanese employees.
A year or so into the English mandate, Mr. Mikitani also began to emphasize Japanese practices
and cultural concepts that were essential to Rakuten’s way of doing business. These ranged
from something as mundane as the company’s requirement that every employee wear a name-
badge—a policy loathed by Rakuten’s American employees in the U.S.—to the more elusive
concept of omotenashi, which translates roughly as “hospitality.” Now English-speaking
Japanese workers were able to communicate the importance of wearing badges, practicing
omotenashi and following other Japanese customs to non-Japanese colleagues, who were
encouraged to accept them.
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The Rakuten example, Ms. Neeley concludes, shows that Western culture doesn’t have to
dominate in an English-speaking global company. At Rakuten, English became a “decoupling
force between language and culture,” she writes, allowing the Japanese company to “forcefully
assert its cultural identity.”
PHOTO: WSJ
THE LANGUAGE OF GLOBAL SUCCESS
By Tsedal Neeley
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The English mandate was most difficult for Japanese-speaking employees, who had to work
hard to reach the required level of fluency in just two years. They succeeded, Ms. Neeley says,
for two reasons: Management stayed on message, explaining repeatedly why English was
essential for the company’s success; and Rakuten provided intensive language classes, which
employees attended during their workday. Mr. Mikitani had learned English as a child in the
U.S. when his father was a visiting scholar at Yale, and he believed that immersive learning was
the best way to learn a language.
From the outset, Mr. Mikitani had envisioned his plan for Englishnization at Rakuten as a kind
of test bed for other Japanese companies. He saw English as a way to help insular Japanese
firms become globally competitive, thereby assisting in the revival of the Japanese economy.
The jury is out on that goal, as it is on another of his objectives—improving the English skills of
the wider Japanese population.
For a long time, Japanese schools haven’t taught English very well, as I discovered when I was
living in Tokyo in the mid-1970s. I became a minor celebrity among the junior-high-school set
due to my appearance on a national TV show that taught English. Wherever I traveled in the
country, I’d run into kids who would run up to me and shout, “This is a pen!”—the first line in
our textbook. Few youngsters were able to say much else in English. More recently, Ms. Neeley
notes a 2009 study of English proficiency in 30 Asian nations in which Japan ranked second
from the bottom.
Mr. Mikitani has advised Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on improving English-language education
in Japan. Mr. Abe—whose own English is good—wants more of his countrymen to speak fluent
English by the time of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. If the prime minister takes his cue from the
Rakuten example, there’s a decent chance he’ll succeed. As I learned to say during my time in
Tokyo: “ganbatte,” or “good luck.”
Ms. Kirkpatrick is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and a former deputy editor of the
Journal’s editorial page. She is the author of “Thanksgiving:
The Holiday at the Heart of the American Experience.”
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A significant body of research demonstrates that networking—making and strengthening
connections to others—is vitally important for professional success. But there’s a problem:
Most of us hate doing it. We dread the awkward small talk with strangers at a noisy cocktail
party, the pressure to deliver our “elevator pitch” and to “work the room.”
There are better ways to make these important connections, but it has to start with a clear
understanding of what’s wrong with the usual mode of corporate networking and why we
dislike it so much. The fact is, such activities strike many of us as insincere and manipulative,
even slightly unethical.
A 2014 study published in Administrative Science Quarterly found that just thinking about job-
related networking made most people “feel dirty.” The researchers asked 306 adults to
remember a time when they had made a professional contact, either for career advancement or
for personal reasons. Both groups were then asked to do a word-completion task that is used to
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ESSAY
Networking for Actual Human Beings
The research is clear: People don’t mix at mixers, and don’t feel good about trying. But there are better
ways to make meaningful connections
ILLUSTRATION: JAMES YANG
April 19, 2018 11�14 am ET
By David Burkus
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gauge subconscious feelings. Those who recalled a contact intended to advance their careers
were significantly more likely to have subconscious thoughts of feeling morally tainted. The
researchers got similar results when they tested memories of online networking.
One
resul
t of
this revulsion is that most of us don’t actually make many new contacts at networking events.
In a widely discussed experiment, two professors at Columbia Business School held a gathering
in 2007 for some 100 students in the executive M.B.A. program, all of them outfitted with
electronic tags to track with whom they interacted and for how long. Even though almost all of
the executives said that they wanted to attend such events to build new business ties, it turned
out that they spent, on average, around half their time in conversation with people they already
knew. As the study’s authors put it, people just don’t mix at mixers.
But networking doesn’t have to follow these stale formulas. In fact, it’s more likely to succeed in
making meaningful connections if the activity isn’t so relentlessly focused on acquiring new
business contacts. Herewith some tips:
Spend more time reconnecting with friends than meeting new people. Since most of us are
more likely to engage with people we already know than with strangers at networking events,
skip such gatherings altogether and invest that time in renewing older contacts. A wealth of
research suggests that your less-cultivated business acquaintances, or “weak ties,” have more
information, opportunities and potential introductions to share with you than either your close
contacts or total strangers.
Seek out shared activities instead of unstructured events. The Columbia study suggests that
we don’t really make good use of freewheeling social events with strangers. A productive
alternative is to focus on an activity. The entrepreneur and author Jon Levy has built a strong
network by hosting dinner parties with a twist: When guests arrive, they’re told not to share
their names and occupations and are given assignments for preparing the group’s dinner.
Conference organizer Jayson Gaignard takes a similar approach with activities such as
mountain biking or jeep tours.
Ask better questions. If you’re stuck attending a traditional networking event, try to go beyond
the standard opener of “what do you do?” when you encounter strangers. Instead ask questions
such as “What excites you right now” or “What are you looking forward to?” Or else give them a
chance to talk about themselves: “What’s the most important thing I should know about you?”
Or be more playful, “Who’s your favorite superhero?”
One study found that just thinking about job-related networking made most people “feel dirty.”
What makes most networking
so unpleasant is the feeling that
it’s all instrumental, a way for
us to use other people to get
ahead. So instead try a better
approach: greet all those
strangers as actual human
beings.
—This essay is adapted from Mr. Burkus’s new book, “Friend of a Friend: Understanding The
Hidden Networks That Can Transform Your Life and Career,” published by Houghton Mifflin
Harcourt .
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MORE ESSAYS
An Ancient Practice Transformed by the Arrival of Europeans September 20, 2019
Fairness in Housework Doesn’t Mean 50/50 September 20, 2019
Adolescents Go Wild—And Not Just Humans September 19, 2019
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