Cultural Awareness of Arab

Cultural Awareness of Arab

Introduction

Building cultural awareness is not an easy task, and no foolproof method exists for doing so. Culture consists of specific learned norms based on attitudes, values, and beliefs, all of which exist in every nation. Visitors remark on cultural differences, experts write about them, and international businesspeople find that they affect operations. Yet controversy surrounds these differences because people disagree on what they are, whether they are widespread or exceptional differences, and whether the differences are deep-seated or superficial. Further, culture cannot easily be isolated from such factors as economic and political conditions. For example, an opinion survey of a country's citizens that measures, say, attitudes toward buying a new product may reflect a response to temporary economic conditions rather than basic values and beliefs that will have lasting effects on the product's acceptance.

Some differences, such as those regarding acceptable attire, are discerned easily; others may be more difficult to perceive. All people have culturally ingrained responses to given situations and sometimes expect that people from other cultures will respond the same way as people in their own culture do. In the opening case, the British salesman for PRI budgeted their time and so regarded drinking coffee and chatting about nonbusiness activities in a café as "doing nothing," especially if there was "work to be done." In fact, their compensation system did not give them the privilege of spending much time on each business transaction. The Arab businessmen had no compulsion to finish at a given time, viewed time spent in a café as "doing something," and considered "small talk" an indication of whether they could get along with potential business partners. Because the Englishmen believed "you shouldn't mix business and pleasure," they became irritated when friends of the Arab businessmen joined their conversations. In contrast, the Arabs felt "people are more important than business" and saw nothing private about business transactions.

Some people seem to have an innate ability to do and say the right thing at the right time, and others offend unintentionally or misrepresent what they want to convey. Nevertheless, there is general agreement that business people can improve their awareness and sensitivity and that training about other cultures will enhance the likelihood of succeeding in those cultures.

Discussion

Researching descriptions of a specific culture can be instructive. But managers must carefully assess the information they gather because it sometimes presents unwarranted stereotypes, offers an assessment of only a segment of the particular country, or reports outdated information. In a given society, managers can also observe the behavior of those people who have the respect they would like themselves. It helps to study the overseas market directly.

There are so many cultural variations that businesspeople cannot expect to memorize all of them for every country. Wide variations exist even in addressing people. For example, it may be difficult to know whether to use a given name or surname, which of several surnames to use, and whether a wife takes her husband's ...