Advice
Are you having trouble with foreigners? Too bad, because wherever you
are from, most other people are foreigners to you. In today's world you need to
be able to work with them. I can help you understand how you differ
from them and what you have in common. That will be good for business, for
negotiations, even for conflicts.
Topics that are especially
troublesome across cultural boundaries are: leadership, incentives, rewards,
and teamwork.
Why do collaborations and
mergers fail? If you happen to think that it's nothing to do with culture
then you are wrong - and unlikely to be proven so because you can always
blame something else. If you think that culture is never the only cause then
you are right.
Diversity is a fashionable topic. It is usually used
in the sense of individual differences. Yes, everyone is different - but not
only at the individual level. There are also differences at group level.
First, there can be differences in group identity. This is about the
group labels that people attribute to themselves, e.g. religious, national,
or gender-based identities. Then, there are differences in culture.
Most people are not aware of these, but they play a role in all social
situations.
