Sometimes you have many ideas of business, especially in international business; we create a context where we negotiate with other people and we think that everybody acts the way we do, but is not that simple. The world is huge and people don’t act the same way, for example Colombian people greet each other kissing in the cheek but in East, people do not use physical contact, they greet with a bow without touching. We can’t go to another country, making decisions the way we make in our country, this could be a big mistake and the consequences could damage the negotiation.
As Nick B. Meyer explained in his conference "Dealing with Cultural Differences", is very important to know the people, their culture, and their way of thinking, speaking, relating, and understanding the way of life so in the moment you have to share with other cultures, you already know and take into account the habits, attitudes and all you need to establish a conversation about anything.
I want to focus on power distance. I’m going to give an example of some countries that have a high power distance: China, India, Russia and Arabic speaking countries; and some countries that have low power distance: Japan, Australia and Canada. Now, to be more specific I’m going to explain the difference between those characteristics. (Taken from http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/intercultural/power-distance-index.html).
Many companies use different methods to make decisions. Exist the organizations that have a shape of pyramid, where the communication is more complicated, because people who are in the surface, in the lower area, to do and express something, have to ask their superiors for consideration and permission, and for sure also these employees have another boss, so when information gets to the top of the pyramid it arrives filtered, generating misinformation and waste of time. These companies are characterized because of the distances that have employees with their bosses, they are not too close, so the employees don’t represent an important part of the company and class divisions are more evident.
The other type of companies are the ones that works in shape of a chain, here people work together, the decision making is more easy, people are more prepare to take control of their work. The communication between boss and employees is closer, they are treated like important people and as I mention before their decisions are important to the company. The work environment is more pacific, don’t exist competition. Maybe some people have a better job title but they are characterized for being respectful with each other.
As Geert Hofstede said power and inequality are fundamental facts in a society. We all know and accept that power is distributed unequally. “All societies are unequal, but some are more unequal than others”. Inequality is going to exist forever but I think is a situation that could be manage, especially in the companies that focus on the team work and the opinions of the members that work there. (Taken from http://www.geert-hofstede.com/)
Monic i like very much the way you explain the dimension of power distance, the examples are very clear and also interesting data that are useful to us, to understand better and take care when we are going to negotiate with another culture. I really like your job. =)
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