Culture In International Business

This paper will examine the culture dimension in international business while globalization has effected every aspect of business. Today's global economy poses many challenges for multinational corporations (MNCs). While international business is conducted, there is not only cross border, but also cross cultural interaction. There is a great diversity in Worlds culture and with it come the difficulty to negotiate and understand fully all the cultures that may be encountered in a business environment. The influence of the different cultures in the global business world is essential for building successful International Relations.

According to Denise Hummel, CEO of universal consensus, there are six “comprehension lenses” to examine enterprise-wide

Considering the communication in Asia and Western countries there is a big difference which can cause serious offense, while in Asia culture communication is very subtle and indirect, on the other hand, Western communication is more direct. In the case when the Chines members say “maybe,” “we shall see” and “we shall study it,” western members could not be realizing that they are saying “no.” Failure to understand these cues wastes time and money, and based on this communication standard could jeopardize the business objective. Creating a loss of credibility toward the Chinese members is devastating to the business relationship and often

In Western culture, time is a commodity and expression like “If you’re not early, you’re late” and “Time is money”. In two-thirds of the world, time happens “when it’s supposed to,” and is characterized as flexible and elastic (D. Hummel, May 2012).

According to Jeswald W. Salacuse “When Enron was still and only a pipeline company, it lost a major contract in India because local authorities felt that it was pushing negotiations too fast.” The important issue to be mention in this case is that cultural differences played an important role in international negotiation. Cultural differences profoundly influence how companies or people thing, behave and communicate between them. Salacuse suggested that successful managers should focus on ten steps presented by him as important to succeed in negation between different cultures.

1. Negotiating Goal: Contract or Relationship?

2. Negotiating Attitude: Win-Lose or