BUSINESS ACROSS CULTURES 1 BUSINESS VOCABULARY IN USE

 

BUSINESS VOCABULARY IN USE 45. BUSINESS ACROSS CULTURES 1

 

A Cultures and culture Alexandra Adler is an expert in doing business across cultures. She is talking to a group of British businesspeople. ‘Culture is the “way we do things here”. “Here” may be a country, an area, a social class or an organization such as a company or school. You often talk about: B Distance and familiarity Distance between managers and the people who work under them varies in different cultures. Look at these two companies: Difference and distance may be shown in language. Some languages have many forms of address that you use to indicate how familiar you are with someone. English only has one form. ‘you’, but distance may be shown in other ways, for example, in whether first names or surnames are used. EXERCISES 45.1 Look at A opposite. Which word combination with ‘culture’ describes each of the following? 1. The men rally dominate in this company, they don’t make life easy for women at all. All they talk about is football. 2. Among the management here we try to be fair to people from different minorities, but there are still elements of racism among the workforce. 45.2 Read this information about two very different companies and answer the questions. The Associated Box Company (ABC) and the Superior Box Company (SBC) both make cardboard boxes. At ABC there are three levels of management between the CEO and the people who actually make the boxes. At SBC, there is only one level.

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