International Cooperation

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International Cooperation USA
Germany Facilitator Patrick Schmidt
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70 of failures are directly due to soft
factors.
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How do people understand one another when they
dont share a common cultural experience?
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Americans and Germans?
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Similarities
Anglo-Saxon background
monochronic
direct and honest
being on time
competitive and practical
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The Trap of Similarity
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Wal-Marts billion euro fiasco in Germany
arrogance and ignorance
managers culturally naïve, simple-minded
driven by time is money
didnt create enough economies of scale
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The unconscious projection of values is the
source of cultural mishaps.
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The Cardinal Rule
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Understanding oneself and ones own culture
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Who understands others as well as oneself will
be granted success in a thousand encounters.
3000 year-old Chinese proverb
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Culture hides more than it reveals and strangely
enough what it hides, it hides most effectively
from its own participants. Years of study have
convinced me that the real job is not to
understand foreign culture but to understand our
own. Edward Hall
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Plan
Culture
Communication
Meetings - Presenting - Negotiating
Intercultural Competence
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Theories of Intercultural Communication
How do people understand one another when
they dont share a common cultural experience?
Positivist Relativist
Constructivist
Derived from Milton J. Bennett,
BID-LLC_at_comcast. net
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Culture ?
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Culture ?
Life style of a people, I.e. the learned and
shared patterns of beliefs, behaviors and values
of a group of interacting people. (Bennett)
Culture is the collective programming of the
mind. (Hofstede)
Culture is the water we live in. It surrounds us
and defines us. (Chinese definition)
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We hold these truths to be self-evident, that
all men are created equal, that they are endowed
by their Creator with certain unalienable rights,
that among these are life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness. The
Declaration of Independence, 1776
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Think about your own culture How did
socialization take place in your own life? Try
to recall some of the behaviors and values you
were taught early in life.
How do they affect you now?
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Culture is to us what water is to a fish.
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Culture is like an iceberg
observable
Not observable
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Observable
Not observable

• Manners
• Clothes
• Food
• Newspapers, books
• Monuments
• Rituals, festivals

• History
• Friendship
• Time and space
• Negotiation style
• Communication style
• Solutions to problems

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a. b.
12 88 9 91 33 67 42 58 66 34
5 95 32 68 16 84 74 26

• Holland
• Great Britain
• Singapore
• Greece
• Venezuela
• USA
• France
• Germany
• South Korea

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Interculturalcommunications
Everything is relative no right or wrong
solutions
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Success abroad
Understanding the inner logic of a culture
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The Four Secrets of Effective Global Managers

• They know that they dont know
• Assume difference until similarity is proven,
  not the other way around.

2. They emphasize description Observe what
is actually said and done rather than
interpreting or evaluating.
3. They practice role reversal (empathy)
Attempt to understand an international situation
through the eyes of others.
4. They treat explanations as guesses, not as
certainty. Check with colleagues from home
and abroad if guesses are plausible.
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Definition of a theory

• mental viewing of how something might be
• not meant to be exact

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German American (Ger) (Am)
Serious Easy-going

• Ger stereotype 3 Ger exception
• 2 Am exception 4 Amr stereotype

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HofstedesDimensions

• Individualism / collectivism
• Respect toward hierarchy
• Desire for structure
• Masculinity / femininity

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Individualism
Collectivism

• we society
• group identity
• important harmony
• relations over tasks
• extended family

• me society
• self-identity
• important pro-active
• tasks over relations
• success of individual

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Individualism
Collectivism
GRE
JAP
ITA
FRA
PORT
CAN
GER
SLO
NETH
SING
GB
KOR
USA
PL
0
20
40
60
100
80
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More Hierarchy
Less Hierarchy

• Inequalities not OK
• Privileges/status not OK
• Boss democratic
• Flat hierarchy
• Staff gives advice

• Inequalities OK
• Privileges/status OK
• Boss paternalistic
• Strong hierarchy
• Staff follows orders

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More Hierarchy
Less Hierarchy
ITA
USA
FRA
JAP
NETH
PL
SPA
GER
SIN
GRE
GB
POR
SLO
SWE
20
40
60
100
80
0
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More Structure
Less Structure

• Uncertainty O.K.
• Willing to take risks
• Non-orderly situations
• Hope for success
• Rational generalists

• There must be order
• Many rules
• Consensus
• Desire for security
• Experts und knowledge

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More structure
Less structure
SLO
PL
KOR
ITA
SWE
GER
SPA
SIN
GB
NETH
JAP
CAN
POR
FRA
USA
GRE
0
20
40
60
100
80
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Should a manager have precise answers to
subordinates questions?
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Should a manager have precise answers to
subordinates questions?
78
66
53
46
44
38
28
23
18
17
Yes
DEN
NETH
USA
CH
BEL
GER
FRA
ITA
JAP
GB
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Five years after the merger
8
77
France
USA
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Understanding new behavior D detect I
interpret E evaluate
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• American meetings
• An informal, relaxed attitude
• Confident, positive approach
• Brainstorming
• Come to the point quickly
• Active participation
• Give credit for others achievements (piggyback)

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Joint Problem Solving

• engineering point of view
• Americans cowboy mind
• less communication later
• Americans many questions
• decision is binding
• leader is mediator

• brain-storming
• Germans over analyze
• more communication later
• Germans impersonal
• decision is a guideline
• leader is decision-maker

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Working on Projects
Germans Americans Americans Germans
tend to. tend to think tend to. tend to
think PROJECT ...collect Why are
they chat informally Why arent they IDEA
information doing this? about an idea doing
anything? PROJECT get down to They are
cold and begin with small They are
wasting MEETINGS business unfriendly. talk t
ime. present detailed How can they begin
with They are not plans discuss the
details brainstorming prepared for the at
this stage? meeting. express
criticism They dont like be enthusiastic They
are not openly each other. about all the
ideas sincere. PROJECT work
individually They dont hold frequent They
are too PROCESS on the tasks communicate
or meetings change many meetings we
assigned to them work as a team. tasks as
circum- cant get our work stances
change done. believe clearly believe
continuous defined milestones contact
guarantees guarantee success coordination
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Cognitive Styles of Germans and
Americans Interaction with reality, extracting,
organizing and applying knowledge
BASIC Germans Americans OUTLOOK tend to be
more cautious, conceptual tend to be more
optimistic, pragmatic OPENING Do we really
need? Can we have? QUESTION ACQUIRING Structu
red way of knowing Hypothesis, testing way of
knowing KNOWLEDGE Want solid theories,
coherence Speculate with probabilities, risk
taking Deductive acting on the basis of
ones Inductive understanding a situation
through thorough understanding of the
situation experimentation Declarative
thinking focusing on Procedural thinking
focusing on how to get description and
explanation of situation things done Gather
information from experts, logical Active
experimentation learn from peers, analysis of
ideas brainstorming, think out of the
box Importance of background
information Importance of measurement data, and
facts (historical context, Zeitgeist,
sociology) (how tall, how much, statistics,
etc.) APPLYING Development of strategic
analysis Ability to get things done KNOWLEDGE Syst
ematic planning Trial and error, learn by
doing, can do Decisions are binding Decisions
are guidelines
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Masculinity
Femininity

• Good working atmosphere
• Care for others
• Harmony
• Solidarity
• Modesty
• People over materialism

• Performance
• Polarization
• Assertive
• Competitive
• Displaying success
• Materialism over people

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Masculinity
Femininity
GB
USA
FRA
NETH
CAN
SLO
GER
ITA
SPA
PL
SWE
SIN
JAP
POR
KOR
GRE
0
20
40
60
100
80
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Culture is communication Edward
Hall
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Halls Definition
Culture determines the style of communication
indirect or direct
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Direct (low context)
Indirect (high context)

• Explicit
• Context not important
• Thinking-focused
• Result-oriented
• Masculine

• Implicit
• Context important
• Feeling-focused
• Relationship-oriented
• Feminine

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Direct
Indirect
ITA
NETH
PL
GER
SPA
FRA
CH
GB
USA
JAP
0
20
40
60
100
80
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German directness
British indirectness
Jürgen wird an die Decke springen. Jürgen
might tend to disagree. Kommen wir gleich zur
Sache. I was wondering if could talk. Du sagst
nur Blödsinn. I am not quite with you on
that. Das kann nicht wahr sein. Hm, thats an
interesting idea. Wir werden dies nie
unterschreiben. Well have to do our homework.
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Monochronic
Polychronic

• One activity at a time
• Schedules very important
• Task-oriented
• Linear
• Punctual

• Parallel activities
• Plans are changed
• Relationship-oriented
• Interruptions
• Punctuality unimportant

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Monochronic
Polychronic
ITA
NETH
PL
GER
SPA
JAP
FRA
CH
GB
USA
0
20
40
60
100
80
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Management conflict between American and German
managers
Differences perceived Differences regarded as
difficulties
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US perception of D as difference
difficulty process-oriented
yes yes specialised, expert yes rule-bound
yes precise, data-oriented yes formal
yes yes surnaming / using titles yes direct
yes German-speaking, multilingual yes
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D perception of US as difference
difficulty unstructured
yes yes informal yes
yes first-naming yes yes humour yes
yes English-speaking,
monolingual yes exaggerated optimism yes
yes fluid agreements (trial and
error) yes yes
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• Underlying regularities
• American low uncertainty avoidance (low UA)
• vs. German higher uncertainty
• avoidance (high UA)
• American higher context communication (hcc)
• vs. German low context communication (lcc)
• American relationship orientation (r o)
• vs. German task orientation (t o)

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How can these differences in regularities
be explained?
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US perception of D as difference difficulty
regularity process-oriented yes yes
higher UA specialised, expert yes
higher UA, t o rule-bound yes
higher UA precise, data-oriented yes
higher UA, lcc formal yes yes
higher UA surnaming / using titles yes
higher UA direct yes
lcc German-speaking, multilingual yes
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D perception of US as difference difficulty
regularity unstructured yes yes
low UA informal yes yes higher
cc, r o first-name yes yes
low UA, r o humour yes yes low
UA, r o English-speaking, monolingual
yes exaggerate optimism
yes yes fluid agreements (trial error)
yes yes low UA
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• Lesson to be learned
• US-German communication and co-operation
• might not be as simple as it appears
• especially for Germans

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Why do we stereotype?
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Why do we stereotype?
Natural impulse to categorize when reality is
too complex to handle.
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Stereotypes are helpful when

• consciously aware its a group norm
• descriptive and not evaluative
• modifiable

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Cross-cultural perceptions
perception of Americans
perception of Germans

• process-oriented
• specialized, expert
• systematic, orderly
• precise, data-oriented
• too formal
• direct

• unstructured
• energetic
• first-name
• seem happier
• overly self-confident
• narrow perspective of world

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Visitors perceptions of Germans
Those who speak German
Those who dont speak German

• perfectionist
• slow to get to know
• meticulous about deadlines
• systematic, orderly
• fair to a fault
• eager to do right

• excessively detailed
• standoffish
• pushy
• stubborn
• obsessed with rules
• afraid of making mistakes

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Cultural Perception Americans are
According to Brazilians Serious Reserved Introver
t Cautious Restrained Composed Methodical
According to Chinese Friendly Spontaneous Extrove
rt Reckless Uninhibited Emotional Impulsive
?
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Attitudes for better intercultural communications
Tolerance for ambiguity Low goal/task
orientation Non-judgmental Flexibility Sense of
humor Warmth in human relationships Strong sense
of self Ability to fail
Open-mindedness Empathy Communicativeness Curiosit
y Motivation Self-reliance Perceptiveness Toleranc
e to differences
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Differences between German and American
presentation styles?
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American Presentation

• start with a big bang (hook them)
• show them how they can profit from the talk
• emphasize entertainment aspect jokes,
  anecdotes
• conclusion is often enthusiastic, visionary
• guaranteed to be a success!
• audience-centered and interactive
• lots a smiles, speaker wants to be socially
  accepted

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Deductive and Inductive Thinking
Major Point
Proof
Fact
Deductive German Approach
Inductive American Approach
Fact
Proof
Proof
Fact
Background Information
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Presentations styles

• Focused on listener
• Enthusiastic, optimistic
• Inductive
• Benefit orientation
• Showmans effects
• Use of personal examples
• Get to the point
• Easy-to-remember statements

• Focused on content
• Start with straight introduction
• Factual (sachlich)
• Deductive
• Clear transitions
• Distant through formality
• Serious (bestimmt auftreten)
• Detailed explanations

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Communication
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Exchanging ideas, feelings, symbols, meanings
to create commonality
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Misunderstandings
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Interpreting foreign behavior in terms of our
own culture
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The Cardinal Rule
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Understanding oneself and ones own culture
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Communication breaks down people build up
barriers
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us versus them
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Good, intercultural communication is not just
good intentions.
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Receivers perception determines the real
message, not the one we send.
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The greatest barrier is culture, not language.
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Communication

• Natural and simple
• Takes places in ones culture

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80 90 of information non-verbal signals
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Why we dont see objectively

• Perception is
• selective
• learned
• culturally determined
• consistent
• inaccurate

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ONCEIN AA LIFETIME
PARISIN THETHE SPRING
BIRDIN THETHE HAND
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Reasons for intercultural faux pas

• Think seldom about communication
• Non-verbal signals underestimated
• Perceive things differently

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Communication Styles
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Communication styles
emphasizing content downplay relationships
appearing credible being objective
accentuating content accentuating personal
being liked being socially accepted
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direct in stating more upgraders more modal
verbs more imperative
direct in expressing more downgraders more
conditionals more questions
Credibility
Likeability
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Complicated Over analytical Formal und
detailed Objective Wants to be creditable
Simple Short and concise Informal
Friendly and easy going Wants to be liked
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The German Desire for Clarity
Jetzt werde ich mit ihr deutsch reden müssen
(Klartext) The German adjective deutlich
(clear, plain) and the German verb deuten
(explain, interpret) have the same linguistic
roots to the word Germans use to refer to
themselves and their language deutsch.
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Peach and Coconut Metaphor
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Communicating with Americans

• Donts
• Forget to repeat
• Tell ethnic jokes
• Forget the small talk
• Expect critical feedback
• Be irritated by interruptions
• Hesitate to ask questions
• Be so critical

• Dos
• Look for common opinions
• Focus on the results
• Use simple language
• Expect fewer details
• Be less direct
• Listen non-verbally and participate
• Expect agreement

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Opening lines for small talk
I hear you are going to be transferred to Rome.
That sound great! You and Elke have been married
for three years now. When will you have
children? I like that pair of shoes you have on.
Where did you buy them? John, you look like
youve gained a few kilos these last few
months. Did you see that great Formula 1 race on
TV yesterday? Schumacher left all of
his competitors in the dust. This weather is
fantastic. Its a great day to go hiking, dont
you think? Ive heard you come from Zurich.
Thats in southern Germany, isnt it? I just got
a great offer. If I accept the job in Chicago,
Ill make 70,000 a year, plus a annual 25,000
bonus. Who will you vote for in the upcoming
election? Have you heard that latest rumor?
Beatrice is going out with the boss.
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U.S. negotiating style

• Americans tends to
• make a small talk at the beginning
• look more at strengths weaknesses of others
  than issues
• maximize benefits to themselves than best
  solution for all
• create a friendly, personable atmosphere

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The typical U.S. negotiator
always keeps a poker-face
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Milton
Bennetts Developmental Model of Intercultural
Sensitivity
Experience of Difference
Minimization
Integration
Acceptance
Adaptation
Defense
Denial
Ethnocentric Stages Ethnorelative Stages
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Denial
ones culture is the only real one unable to
construe cultural difference aggressive
ignorance Munich lots of buildings, too many
cars, McDonalds
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Defensive

• ones culture is the only good one
• we are superior they are inferior
• highly critical of other cultures
• Americans are superficial and uncultivated

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Minimization

• ones culture is viewed as universal
• obscure deep cultural differences
• insistently nice
• We bankers are all the same all over the
  world.

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Acceptance

• ones culture is viewed as one of many complex
  systems
• judgment is not ethnocentric
• curious about cultural differences
• I want to learn German so I can understand Hans
  better.

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Adaptation

• internalize more than one complete worldview
• empathy
• may intentionally change behavior to
  communicate better
• Im beginning to feel like a member of this
  culture.

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Integration

• ones self is expanded to include different
  worldviews
• cross-cultural swinger
• ability to facilitate contact between cultures
• I truly enjoy participating fully in both of my
  cultures.

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Intercultural competence
No longer attached to original cultural group
Relativity of values Cross-cultural
swinger Multi-lingual Other-culture awareness

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Question for reflection
What are the characteristics of an effective
multinational team?
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Effective multinational teams
recognize diversity members selected for
task-related abilities mutual respect equal
power super ordinate goal external feedback
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Team Charter (example)
A commitment to
assume difference until similarity is proven
emphasize description, not interpreting or
judging practice role reversal more use of
conditionals to be more open to compliments
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Advantages of multinational teams
expanded horizons less groupthink
increased creativity and flexibility
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Basic German Values

• Strong sense of group welfare Sozialmarktwirtscha
  ft
• Confidence to do the job right due to thorough
  training
• Extremely fair towards others have vision what
  is right and wrong
• A serious and factual attitude toward life
• Excellent listeners
• Meticulous about deadlines and appointments
• Perfectionism very neat and orderly, pay
  attention to details
• Precise execution of activities and products
  brilliant organizers
• Höchste Leistung bringen obsession for high
  performance
• with passionate intensity
• 10. Durchsetzungsvermögen very thorough and
  effective in work

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Basic American Values

• Very proud of political system and the American
  way of life
• High self-confidence rely on own strength and
  capability
• Volunteerism very engaged in community services
• Trust in people relaxed friendliness and
  spontaneity
• A can-do optimism openness to improvement and
  change
• Anti-authoritarian attitude dont bow to a
  higher authority
• Equality and the rule of law every person is
  equal before the law
• Individualism everyone has the right to
  self-actualize
• Restlessness and impatience desire to move up
  the social ladder
• Pragmatism prefer the concrete over aesthetic
  and conceptual

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Understanding others
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Understanding others doesnt consist of only
appealing to logic and reason. It consists of an
emotional opening to the others
Jawaharlal Nehru
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You have been great participants