A Home for Culture Vultures

Business case studies are a great way of learning.

If you want to learn more about Japanese business culture and practices, then this case study will give you some great insights.

Being aware of cultural differences is crucial if you work in international business.

Anyone who believes that “everyone does business the same” will soon get a shock once they start to work with other cultures.

'Cultural Training’ course content should include everything necessary to help people new to a country, understand and navigate the local culture.

This understanding gives learners an advantage when working in or with a foreign country by equipping them with shortcuts on how to work effectively.

Working across cultures means adapting to differences.

Those unwilling, or unable to, usually find that things can get tough.

Before we answer this question, here’s one for you!

How do you know that you are not already culturally aware?

If you’re a business professional working in an international setting, then you’ll understand the importance placed on cultural competence.

Whether it’s recruitment, promotion or performance development - the need for cultural competence is of increasing importance in business.

Communicating clearly is crucial if you want to hit your targets on the global stage.

Learning how to shape your message and adapt your delivery to the audience, makes you more effective.

Let's look closer at a few examples of cultural awareness.

They come from the real-life experiences of our clients as well as more high-profile examples.

How do we become more culturally competent?

What steps can we take in order to work with people from other countries and cultures more effectively?

Let's explore the definition of cultural awareness.

Within the training, education and research fields you will hear many terms, sometimes used interchangeably.

What would you draw to illustrate the meaning of 'culture'?

This is a little exercise we commonly use in cultural awareness training courses to get people thinking about how culture works.

Foreigners working in Thailand can misunderstand the local culture in many ways.

Thais tend to be judged against values and standards that are alien to them which leads to their behaviours and actions being seen incorrectly.

Does Cultural Awareness training work?

Will investing in such training really offer any sort of ROI and help your staff?

Where did 'culture' come from? What does 'culture' do?

In order to understand cultural differences, you need to take a step back.

Culture is a complex thing.

It affects everything we do from the way we raise our kids to the way we do business.

Working with the Japanese in a professional capacity can be tough.

For some cultures, such as for Americans, Canadians, Germans, Australians and British, the Japanese culture can seem a little alien.

Need examples of cultural misunderstandings in business?

Well, we are going to share real-life examples of cultural misunderstandings from our cross-cultural training work.

Would you sacrifice one life to save many?

This is the question researchers posed to people around the world, gaining some fascinating insights into values, beliefs and cultural differences.

Doing business in China? Then you'll be attending lots of meetings!

If you’re attending meetings in China, then it’s important to understand a little about Chinese culture and how meetings are run.

Over the past 15 years a continuous theme, which has never ceased to amaze us, has been the way in which businesses significantly underestimate the impact of cultural differences.

It typically takes something to go wrong before stakeholders take notice.