International Culture

Activity.

Reading about international culture.

If people want to be successful in global business, they must understand the cultures of other countries and learn how to adapt to them, or change their practices in different cultures.It's important to avoid business decisions that are based on misconceptions (mistaken ideas).

One cause of misconceptions is ethnocentrism, the belief that one's own culture's way of doing things is better than the way of other cultures.Ethnocentrism can exist in an individual person or in an organization.

To avoid ethnocentrism, it's necessary to study the different elements of culture. These include language, religion, values, customs and material elements.

Language.

The lenguage it's very important for everybody because is the most important way to communicate directly whit other people and people are usually more open in their communication with someone who speaks their language.Other reason is that knowing the language helps people to understand the culture better.

Religion.

Religion influences everything about people, including their work habits. A religion person always think in their religion before do something.

Values and Attitudes.

Values are people's basic beliefs about the difference between right and wrong, good and bad, important and unimportant. An attitude is a way of thinking or acting.Values and attitudes influence international business.

Customs and Manners.

Customs are common social practices. Manners are ways of acting that the society believes are polite. Each country have their own customs and manners for this reason International Business need to understand the customs and manners of other countries or they will probably have difficulty selling their products.

Material Culture.

Material culture means the things that people make or own. We need to think about how people make things (technology) and who makes them and why (economics). International business need to consider the country's economic infrastructure, the social infrastructure and the financial infrastructure.

These and other elements of culture help to explain the differences among people of different cultures. Without an understanding of cultures, global businesses will not be successful.

Reflection.

With this reading I can see that for a global business is really necessary know about the different ways to think and acting from the people.

Source.

Hartmann,Pamela and Blass,Laurie;Quest 2: Reading and Writing.McGraw Hill.2007.page.11