What is culture? Culture-creating factors

Culture is the ideas, beliefs, customs, attitudes that are shared by particular group of people or particular organization.

How people do business internationally depends on the task that they’re undertaking on behalf of their company or organization. If you are sent by your company to live and work overseas for a long period, you will be provided a programme covering such issues as: cultural awareness, practical issues of living in, working in, as well as how to deal with culture shock which everybody goes through when they go on assignment (командировка). Organization also deal with particular issues such as schooling, health care and with security.

To have international responsibility you need a different set of learning tools and that is, first of all, a general cultural awareness and understanding of how you should really operate when dealing with people with other cultures; teaching you how to negotiate contracts; communication. The words that you choose have a very different effect on the recipient depending on which culture you’re conversing with.

Another important area these days is presentation skills. The kind of words you use on the slides, the colours you use, and indeed how to deal with questions and answers and manage your audience because of course in different cultures there’s different response.

Finally, it’s important to underpin all this with some ability to communicate in the host language.

There are some very strong personality traits (характерныечерты) that people who tend to be more successful in an international business environment tend to demonstrate. Flexibility and adaptability would be a particularly strong requirement, the ability to observe (соблюдать, замечать), participatein something and adapt your own set of skills and knowledge and your own way of doing things.

There are also some examples of typical cultural mistakes made by people doing business internationally. For example, time would be a very important cultural aspect that you really do have to learn if you are from a western culture then how you do approach time and how you do business.

Other examples are really attitudes to hierarchy. For example, there are many US corporations who have very young, high-flying business, very successful business executives.

2. Doing business across culture.The importance of cultural awareness.Factors taken into account.

The truly global size of the twenty-first century’s economy has redefined the playing field on which international companies compete. The ability to offer the right products and services in the right markets at the right prices is no longer the sole factor of success.

Having the right people with a high level of cultural awareness and intercultural competence is now key when working across cultures. Cultural awareness is essential for all employees working across cultures.
Cultural awareness is a skill that can be developed at both professional and social levels, and can make an overseas assignment, an international business meeting or cross-cultural negotiation a successful one. On the other hand, a lack of cultural awareness can lead to major miscommunication, and, ultimately, rejection by host-culture colleagues, clients, acquaintances and neighbors.

Arguably an asset for any major international employee, cultural awareness is particularly important for employees being sent abroad to live and work, organizations planning to merge with or acquire another company or individuals who work with clients around the world.

By providing your employees with opportunities to participate in a cross-cultural training programme, you will increase their cultural awareness which will help them avoid the risk of major miscommunication or international failure.

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