As English is the world language language of business, is it necessary necessary for UK managers to learn a foreign language and also foreign culture?
Ak eyt obei ngs uc ces sf ul i nbus i nes si nt er nat i onal l yi st ounder s t andt her ol eof c ul t ur ei ni nt er nat i onal bus i nes s.What ev ers ec t ory ouar eoper at i ngi n,c ul t ur al di ffer enc eswi l l hav eadi r ec ti mpac tony ourpr ofi t abi l i t y .I mpr ov i ngy ourl ev el of k nowl edgeofi nt er nat i onal c ul t ur al di ffer enc ei nbus i nes sc anai di nbui l di ng i nt er nat i onal c ompet enc i esaswel l asenabl i ngy out ogai nac ompet i t i v eadv ant age. Howev er ,ont heonehandwher ei ti si mpor t antt obeawar eofc ul t ur al di ff er enc esof di ffer entc ount r i es ,ont heot her ,i ti sal s ohar dt obeawar eofev er ysi ngl eas pec tof eac hc ount r y ’ sor gani s at i onal c ul t ur e.Ther ef or e,y ous houl dbeawar eoft hek ey f ac t or st hatha v eadi r ec ti mpac tonbus i nes s .Thes ear e:
Bei nga war eofbas i cc us t omerneedsi sani mpor t antas pec tast hi swi l l gi v e t headv ant ageofc onv e y i ngy ourmes s age.I ns i mpl et er ms ,i fy ouar ea war eoft he c us t omer ’ sc ul t ur al bac k gr ound,t heny ouwi l l beabl et oadoptbet t erandmor e s ui t abl eadv er t i s i ngme met hods .
Bef or el au nc h i n gama ma r k e t i ngc ampai g n,al wa y sc ondu ctr es ear c ht obec o me me a wa r eo fy o urt ar ge ta udi e nc es i nc ec us t ome rd ema nd,d ec i s i onmak i ng ,gen der v i ewsandi deol ogi esgr eat l yv ar yi nc ul t ur es .
The influence of the different cultures in the global business world is essential for building successful International Relations. This issue is based o n the new global business perspectives and what is important to consider in developing an International Business plan. Companies have the challenge of presenting and expanding into new horizons, and it is really important to fully understand those new marets that the company is planning to expand in.
!owadays, a company"s company"s business dealings are are increasingly more international, and the need for effective cross#cultural cross#cultural communication communication has become essential$ nowing a foreign culture is a long# term process of assimilation, comprehension and integration and is undoubtedly the ey to successful business expansion globally.
Taing Ta ing time to now the culture of the country in which you are going to be doing business with is really important as it shows a sign of respect and it will be strongly appreciated% in fact, not doing
so will cause uncomfortable situations between companies &that could result in the failure of the business.' (o it is important to say that those who effectively respond to the culture and lifestyle of the country where they plan to expand have more possibilities of developing successful businesses than those who don"t.
(o, if you are going to start any business or negotiation with a different culture, be sure to investigate and learn how one does business in that country, and, even more important, what one should never do. )hat for your culture might be something of good taste, might be considered an offense by other cultures.
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+ere are some more examples of business protocol in different countries$
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In (outh -merica it is common to do business face to face.
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In Russia, decisions have to be approved by several committees, which can mae business agreements tae much longer.
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In 0apan, they have learnt the art of silence in negotiations and many times -mericans are not used to it and desperately thin that something has g one wrong and feel pressure to close the negotiation when it is not needed.
1ach culture has a different social structure% some are more defined and closed than others, thus being more difficult to establish business.
-nother important aspect to be considered when expanding to a different country is the language, the local expressions and the way they express themselves, 2iteral translations are not always effective and can lead to misunderstandings, for example, when promoting or naming the products that the company wants to launch in a different maret.
This is why companies that want to expand need a specific localization, which is the modification of a business, product, content, that can satisfy both the language and cultural differences of the targeted maret.
Business expansion internationally usually occurs through internal growth, mergers or acquisitions. UK anagers should learn foreign language ! culture if they want to be successful in international
business. "uring the past decade, technology, trade agreements, standardi#ation, supply chain management and inno$ation in operational ! managerial practices ha$e all influenced globali#ation. %e$eral medium and large organi#ations ha$e globali#ed $ia organic ! inorganic expansion. &or globali#ation firms go through close monitoring by sta'e holders. (&orbes, )*+) ! (-entures, )*+ Although globali#ation has its ad$antages but it comes with some hurdles and barriers, among which difference of cultures and coping up with differences to maintain harmony among business units operating internationally is at the top of the list. (/ofstede, +001 defined culture as 2a collecti$e programming of mind which distinguishes the members of one group of people3category from another.4
5hen an organi#ation decides to globali#e, then it cannot depend upon its current practices and procedures of conducting business internationally, as e$ery country has a set of different $ariables, for instance, rules ! regulation, currency, taxation, holidays etc that can be new for an offshore company. 6i'ewise, each organi#ation7s culture differs from other organi#ation. anagers must 'now and understand organi#ational culture for de$eloping meaningful strategies that are beneficial for the organi#ation. Barney (+089 argued that organi#ations that $alue the importance of culture are able to gain efficiency ! competiti$e position. E$ery culture goes through cultural diffusion and the cultural $alues that pro$e to be beneficial are adopted ! integrated into different cultures $ia intelligent selection, :nternational organi#ations also see' to adopt ! unify culture to lessen the friction between different business units. ;he $itality of cultural understanding in successful international companies can be seen from their mar'eting strategies that are based upon the cultures of target industries.
Another usual barrier is communication or language, as difference languages are a challenge for international companies. /owe$er, it is management7s responsibility to understand different cultures in different countries and de$elop strategies accordingly.
Communi c at i oni st hek e yt osuc c es sf oran ybus i nes s ,whe t hery ouar eoper at i ng nat i onal l yori nt er nat i onal l y ,butwhenoper at i ngi nt er nat i onal l yi tbec omesev enmor e i mpor t antduet ol anguagebar r i er s .Pas s por tt oT r ade2. 0pr oj ec tai mst or emov et hi s bar r i erbypr ov i di ngt r ai ni ngmat er i al si nt hel anguagesoft hec ount r yy ouar e oper at i ng.
Bodyl anguagei sanot herk eyf ac t ori nc ul t ur al di ffer enc e.Asdi ffer entc ount r i eshav e di ff er entwa y st oc onv e yors har et hei rmes s age,f ori ns t anc ei nGer man ypeopl e t endt os peakl oudl ywhens har i ngi deas ,wher easi nJ apanpeopl es peaks of t l y , i t v e r yi mp or t a ntt ok no w wh aty o urb odyl a ngu ag es hou l dbedo i ngwh eni nt er a ct i ng wi t hpeopl ewhet heri t ’ syourbus i nes spar t nerorani nt er v i ewer . (Korob'in >, )*** mentioned in a study regarding international negotiations between organi#ations, that besides technical proficiency, i.e., communication technique, that successful negotiations require, they should also understand the context in which those negotiations were held, to secure profitable contracts.
ultural reasons A new language opens up a whole new culture. A foreign language gi$es us access to another culture, and our li$es ta'e on a new dimension. ;he great @erman poet, ohann 5olfgang $on @oethe, said in +8)C D5hoe$er is not acquainted with foreign languages 'nows nothing of his own.D %een li'e that, learning a language is almost comparable to a ourney of disco$ery = and if we remember the great explorers and the +8th century gentlemanFs grand tour, you might almost call it a British in$ention. on$ersely, to lose a language is to lose a whole culture. ;his realisation has led to determined efforts to preser$e minority languages, including, for example, in Britain, with the renaissance of the 5elsh and @aelic languages. ;here are similar widespread efforts in Britain to promote community languages, for example by pro$iding application forms in Urdu or other languages. :t is a fundamental truth that cultures define themsel$es through languages. Economic reasons ;he typical profile expected from future business leaders fully reflects the demands of the globalised world. British language graduates find a good ob more easily than others. Knowledge of @erman in particular impro$es oneFs chances on the ob mar'et. any @erman companies abroad, and many foreign companies in @ermany and companies with close lin's to @erman=spea'ing countries loo' for employees with language s'ills. :n spite of all the current economic difficulties in @ermany, we are now, than's to the @o$ernmentFs reform policies, well on the way to o$ercoming our economic wea'ness. @ermany is still the most important trading partner for almost all the European countries and many countries outside Europe. A person who spea's @erman will be able to communicate better with business partners in the worldFs third=biggest economy and one of the foremost exporting countries.
Languages are the bedrock of the world’s cultural heritage. Every language oers a rich and unique insight into dierent ways of thinking and living as well as into the history of the myriad of cultures and peoples across the globe.
The language needs of U business !"ndicator #$ The second source of evidence used in relation to the current language needs of business is the %onfederation of &ritish "ndustry’s #'() Education and *kills *urvey. #' "t reports that +' per cent of responding businesses value language skills among their employees, particularly in helping to build relationships with clients, customers and suppliers. -rom this report the top ten languages most in demand are shown in %hart ). U government future trade priorities !"ndicator )$ "n its strategy for future international business engagement, Trade and "nvestment for rowth, #( the U government stresses the continuing importance of trade with e/isting partners including the EU, mentioning in particular ermany, -rance and &enelu/, as well as the 0ordic and &altic countries. &ut it also mentions "ndia, &ra1il, *outh orea, 2e/ico, the ulf *tates, *outh 3frica, Turkey and "ndonesia. "n part this adds further weight to erman, -rench, 4utch, *wedish, *panish and 3rabic which have already been mentioned above, but it also introduces some new languages into the mi/5 6ortuguese, orean, Turkish and "ndonesian as well as the languages of "ndia and *outh 3frica. 3ll these languages have been treated equally and not put into any rank order.
Emerging high growth markets !"ndicator 7$ Evidence was used from the 8oint %&"9 Ernst : ;oung publication growth markets in less developed countries, citing not only the so>called &?"%!*$ countries but also the @0e/t ((’ identiAed by oldman *achs and the @#B high growth markets’ set out by Ernst : ;oung. %ombining the @0e/t ((’ and @#B high growth markets’ produces the list of countries and associated languages shown in Table 7. This listing introduces a number of languages not yet mentioned, as well as giving further weight to some of those already identiAed. *panish and 3rabic score particularly highly on this indicator. 2aking predictions for future economic importance can be precarious, and political events may intervene to change e/pectations, as can be seen in Egypt, in the time since this analysis was undertaken by the %&" and its partners. -or this reason a range of sources has been used for this research to balance the score.
There is no denying the importance of English as a common means of communication across the world, or its strength as the Arst foreign language of choice for most non>3nglophone countries. &ut 4avid raddol’s #''C analysis of global language trends was a timely warning against complacency regarding the predominance of English worldwide. ) De predicted that the competitive advantage of English will ebb and that monolingual English speakers, unable to tap into the multilingual environments en8oyed by others, would face a bleak economic future. *tudies for the European
%ommission have shown that the economic beneAts of competence in more than one language are not limited to English 7 3 wide range of languages are needed to e/ploit the beneAts of the single market and keep improving trade between peoples worldwide. Even when others have a high level of proAciency in English, this does not mean that their languages can be ignored. "n order to develop relations between countries and individuals based on mutual respect and trust as well as to do business eectively, there is a need for an understanding of the social, political, and technical systems of a country, as well as the innumerable aspects of daily life that are important to that nation’s identity and culture &usiness beneAts *i/ 3rabic speaking countries appear among the U’s top B' e/port market in goods, with a combined value to the economy of over (# billion in #'(# F more than the value of U e/ports to *pain, %hina or "taly.7+ The ulf economies are booming as they diversify away from oil and gas, open up their economies and bring down barriers to trade and investment. *igniAcant opportunities e/ist for &ritish companies, particularly in supporting the vast infrastructure work planned in the region. Egypt, *audi 3rabia and the United 3rab Emirates have all been identiAed by the %onfederation of &ritish "ndustry as priority markets.7G This is endorsed by the 4epartment for &usiness, "nnovation and *kills Language aids in information gathering and evaluation. Language provides access to local society. Language capability is increasingly important in company
communications. Language provides more than the ability to communicate because it
extends beyond mechanics to the interpretation of contexts that may influence business operations. Language can be divided into: verbal and non-verbal ultural theories pro$ide a powerful conceptual frame for analysing and
explaining international $ariations in communication and mar'eting practices. 5hile care needs to be ta'en to a$oid o$erly deterministic lin's between such
theoretical perspecti$es and actual manifestations of mar'eting within national or regional settings, which denies the significance of enterprise autonomy and independent corporate strategies, complementarities exist in the Gpredictions7 of cultural theories.
Conc l us i on: This essay considers the impact of culture on international business through various different angles. 21st century is dubbed as the century of globalization where trade and other barriers have been put down either willingly to support business or unwillingly after notwithstanding the wave of technological advancement. Flow of information is more than ever, markets are approachable and the company with the right product will always want to cater as many consumers as possible. This is where the problem starts.
As an organisation moves into a region with different culture it faces many hurdles such as different language, norms and beliefs, tastes and preferences etc., if the organisation does not align itself with the prevailing culture then it cannot reap benefits of epansion. !t was observed that effective cross cultural communication can only happen it the contet of communication is understood. !n the case of epansion method, it was observed that although it is beneficial for companies to ac"uire subsidiaries in order to understand the culture from on#going operations rather than setting up entirely new units. The later however, is still more favored.
The importance of cultural understanding with regards to marketing strategy was analysed and it was found that culturally incompatible marketing can backfire and damage an organisation$s reputation in many ways.
%ased on the literature reviewed and the analysis made, it can be safely assumed that managers who do not understand other culture have a high probability of failure in the case of operating in other cultures.
