71 Conclusion

After learning more about cultural differences in business contexts, what advice do you have for Abe, where her country of origin culture and customs are different from the new Canadian customs she encounters? Should she assimilate and just shake hands with male colleagues? If it’s important for her to maintain some of her customs, how might she communicate about that with her new colleagues?

Check Your Understanding

Glossary

Culture – the ongoing negotiation of learned and patterned beliefs, attitudes, values, and behaviours.
Direct cultures – business conversations can move directly to business without informal conversation.
Feminine orientation – a cultural value of modest, caring values.
High-power distance culture – there are clear hierarchies of power, especially in manager-subordinate organizational roles. You may need to take extra care to elicit feedback and involve senior administrators in discussion because their cultural framework may preclude their participation.
Indirect cultures – business conversations may start with discussions of the weather, or family, or topics other than business as the partners gain a sense of each other, long before the topic of business is raised.
International communication – communication between nations, or two or more people from different nations.
Long-term orientation – relationships often marked by persistence, thrift and frugality, and an order to relationships based on age and status.
Low-power distance culture – people relate to one another more as equals and less as a reflection of dominant or subordinate roles.
Masculine orientation – a cultural value of assertive and competitive behaviour.
Materialistic culture – members place emphasis on external goods and services as a representation of self, power, and social rank.
Monochromatic time – interruptions are to be avoided, and everything has its own specific time.
Polychromatic time – more complicated, with business and family mixing with dinner and dancing, events do not necessarily start on time.
Political systems – framed in terms of how people are governed, and the extent to which they may participate.
Relationship cultures – value people and relationships more than material objects.
Rites of Initiation – marks the passage of the individual to become part of the community.
Short-term orientation – a culture whose people value immediate results and grow impatient when those results do not materialize.

Additional Resources

Global Affairs Canada, Cultural Information: Answers to your intercultural questions from a Canadian and a local point of view  https://www.international.gc.ca/cil-cai/country_insights-apercus_pays/ci-ic_ca.aspx?lang=eng

Cultures at Work: Intercultural Communication in the Canadian Workplace by Ana Maria Fantino (2006) http://volunteeralberta.ab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Cultures-at-Work-Ana-Maria-Fantino-2006.pdf

Conestoga College: Welcome to Intercultural Communication https://www.conestogac.on.ca/intercultural-communication/

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