The Essential Guide to International Business - Mattocks - Book Report/Review Example

CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATION (The Essential Guide to International Business) Author: John Mattock Title: Cross-Cultural Communication: The Essential Guide To International Business Publisher: London; Sterling, VA: Kogan Page, 2003 THESIS STATEMENT: Business people can’t help but meet their clients oversea regularly due to the increasingly global nature of business. Should there be a difficulty in communicating effectively then the marketplace would be a probable land mine. Mattock had had priceless experiences in working in various cultures and thus in this book he offered numerous advices in terms of making things right. The book covers all the necessary communication skills needed for survival on unfamiliar surroundings. It also gave descriptions regarding things which can lead to misunderstandings from business people on all sides of the world. Cross-Cultural Communication: The Essential Guide ToInternational Business Those who are studying business administration should have interest in the study of business and management. Thus those who are mastering business administrations should have an excellent and critical thinking skill, good oral, quantitative and written communication skills, and they should be able to become efficient change agents. The book tackles the difficulty that businessmen would have if they have poor communication skills. As I have mentioned on my thesis statement, Mattock’s book provided us with the necessary communication skills which we would need in order to survive on foreign surroundings. As a major of business administration it only follows that I should have an excellent communication skills and the book helped me in this matter. Cross-cultural communication or intercultural communication is a field of study which deals with the way people from different backgrounds try to communicate. It is a must that we know, particularly those who are related in the field of business, how people from differing cultural backgrounds communicate with one another. One of its primary tasks is to give guidelines in order to help people of different cultures communicate with one another. John Hammock’s book tackled many relevant issues in order to better cross-cultural communication. As can be seen on the first chapter of his book, “Why Culture Counts?”, John Mattock gave emphasis on his book on cultural sensitivity and it is a good idea to be sensitive the cultures of other people if you want to earn their trust. It is very useful, particularly in business, if you are sensitive to the culture of those you are conducting your business with. For an example if you are conducting business with Japanese and thus you decided to visit him on their house, then you must at least try to study some of Japanese cultures because it could, in one way or another, help you on the pursuance of your objective. Wherein in other cultures it is considered rude to sip soup noisily, in Japan such thing is not the case. To show your appreciation of the meal prepared for you as well as to make them know that you found the meal delicious; you would have to sip your soup as noisily as you could. If the person you are conducting your business with saw how hard you have tried to please him, and if he saw how you tried to somehow adapt to his culture then it could prove to be an additional incentive for you. Conducting your business abroad could be pretty exhilarating as well as challenging especially in terms of communication as well as culture differences. Culture shocks could deter you from what you have set out to do thus it is a must that you at least know something about the culture you are dealing with before you conduct your business. It is also necessary to know about the culture of your hosts in order not to offend them and thus embitter your attitude to one another. The example I have gave earlier about a Japanese client is a clear example of the cultural-sensitivity I have been talking about. Mattock’s book is very useful particularly to those who are conducting their business abroad, it could also help one act as a proper host in your own country should you happen to have foreign business partners visiting. Mattock’s “Code of Cross-Cultural Conduct” asks one to be open-minded, to avoid typical labels and most importantly it asks one to have a great appreciation of cultural diversity. I completely agree with Hammock when he said that our way of thinking is greatly influenced by the way we are brought up, by our society, culture and the like. As an example, it is okay for some religions to do holy wars in order to circulate the word of their religions and to convert people in to joining their religions, but as a Catholic one would see things differently and thus for them holy wars are no way to justify man slaughter. Culture is relative from one another. What is right for one culture may be wrong for another and thus it would be a great help if one would be open-minded and accept other ideas apart from his/her own. One should not box his/herself inside the beliefs of the society you are in and thus one must welcome the clash of divergent beliefs no matter how different that particular belief is from your own. On Chapter two, Modeling a Culture, Mattocks proposed that one at least builds a model of the culture one is about to venture to. This could be done by making observations regarding the way people in a particular culture lives and through this you could at least have an expectation of the cross-cultural problems or difficulties which may await you. On the Chapter three of the book, Communication across Cultures, Mattock focused more on communication. He gave his readers numerous tips on what rewards one may have in terms of solving various cross-communication problems simply by improving one’s listening and talking skills. He gave his reader ideas on how to be concise, convincing and how to what are the proper impressions one should use in dealing with individuals who have got a completely different background than yours. On Chapter four, A Handful of Cultures, Mattock toured his readers on various regions of the world and showed them or at least gave them an idea on what kinds of attitudes one may expect from various regions in the world. He gave numerous examples of these regions and some of their central attitudes. In Eastern as well as Central Europe, for example, people do not trust the use of propaganda because the experience of communism made them very suspicious of the said kinds. Thus, they are highly critical of “corporate values”. Finally, the last chapter, Using Resources, Mattocks gave us a list of different resources we may use during business travels. He also pointed out that learning things does not only happen by reading books, one can also learn a lot of things by befriending people, chatting with them, sharing some experiences and the like. Basically what the author is trying to tell us is that we ought to respect the culture of others no matter how different their culture is from us. There ought to be some sort of a unity within diversity. All that is needed to achieve that unity is to respect each other, try to adapt to at least some of their culture and to get rid of the idea that your culture is a whole lot superior to the culture of another. It wouldn’t do much to deny that each of use were raised in different surroundings, we are raised in a particular culture different from that of another and we all have our own set of values. The things that are most important for us vary from one person to another. We have our own set of morality and it is on this basis that we couldn’t help but judge the culture of other people when we notice the difference of their culture from us. This kind of perspective is most clearly defined on the term known by us as cultural relativism. Cultural relativism is the set of beliefs we all have as individuals. Our beliefs and activities are often decided based on our own particular culture. We decipher things to be right or wrong based on the way our culture views what is right and wrong. John Mattock, on his work, showed us that such form of beliefs should be avoided especially when we are conducting our business abroad or if we have client or business partners who are raised on a different culture than ours. Of course, I certainly agree with Mattock that we shouldn’t let ourselves be boxed on certain beliefs we have as an individual. Just because our society views things differently does not necessarily means that our society is superior or right on most things to that of other’s society. Such line of thinking should be avoided. If I am to be a business partner with someone, of course I would want that particular person to respect me for who I am as well as for what I am. I don’t think that in conducting business matters, we should focus all our attentions at the business at hand. We should learn to reach out to other people or to our business partners because it could help stabilize the relationship you have or you will have in the future. Aside from that, if we could be open minded we will not just earn the trust and the probability of conducting business with other people. Keeping our mind open to things which are completely different from what we have grown up to, could in a way help us grow. By keeping our mind open to everything we will benefit ourselves in the end by learning a whole lot of things that narrow-minded people failed to learn. It is in this respect, that I have allowed myself to completely agree to what Mattock has in mind. One of Mattock’s greatest advice he gave us is when he asked us to build a model of the society or culture we would venture to in order to give us an idea on what to expect from a particular culture. If we could at least have an idea of what that particular culture we’re going to conduct our business with is like, we could easily determine which kind of tactics or techniques we could use in conducting our business. This is also a good strategy if one intends to put up a branch of one’s business on another side of the world. Before putting up a branch of your business on another country one should at least conduct a survey of what that particular country is like. For example, if you are a doing a good business with your restaurant and you decided to put up another branch on a Muslim country it should only follow that you do not sell pork on your restaurant because doing so would enrage the Muslims and would cause them to not appreciate or buy your product. Chapter three of Mattocks book is also helpful to his readers because he gave his readers tips on how to improve one’s communication skill. Communication is one major problem in resolving issues and conflicts with one another. There’s a great chance that one would misunderstood what somebody said and thus it may promote conflict. Another form on where we can see this communication problem is in terms of translating a particular work from one language to another. This can be seen through works of Chinese people. Most of their words are hard to translate, even in the English language, and thus there’s always a great risk that the original idea of the author may be altered through this translations. I used this example to show how communication is important to every one of us. The success of most negotiations lies within excellent communication skills and most successful businessmen have excellent skills in terms of rhetoric. This particular skill is very important for a businessman because it is through rhetoric where he can convince people to conduct business with him. I certainly agree with Mattock that one should improve one’s communication skill in order to conduct business more efficiently. This particular skill may be found on someone who sells insurance. I remember having a friend who’s on the insurance business and she’s always asking me to buy insurance from her to which I reply “I would if the time comes so stop doing your business talk with me”. After that things turned out in a way I didn’t expect it to. She told me that those on the insurance business doesn’t do sales talk because it is the life of a person who’s at risk thus what they are doing is merely giving advice and the reason why they are doing it is because they are concerned for their clients as persons. At the back of my mind I’ve wondered if what she said is true because why else would she stay in that particular business if not partly to earn her keep? However, I did not pursue the matter anymore in so as not to hurt her pride. I have used the insurance agent as an example because I think they got the talent in convincing people which Mattock had been talking about. Over all, I agree with most of what Mattocks said and I think that his handbook is really useful for those who are conducting business abroad. However, I’ve got a few doubts regarding his advice on the last chapter of his handbook. Of course it is helpful for a businessman to gather all the resources he can that would help him in conducting his business overseas but only few would really bother to take a course before taking their flight abroad to conduct their business. Of course what he proposed could be pretty helpful but the problem is it is a little impractical especially if it would only be a short trip or if you only have had a short notice. Nevertheless I really appreciate Mattocks effort in putting up his book. It is most helpful especially since what he had put there is mostly taken up from his own experiences and thus I take it that he used primary evidences on his books. He is also most concise on his explanation and advices on his book; he used an interesting approach with the help of his illustrator, Phil Hailstone. I have learned a lot of things from the book itself and thus I consider it an interesting read and a very helpful guideline not only for businessmen but for tourists as well or even for those who would be going abroad for a completely different reason than business. Reference: Mattock, John. Cultural Communication: The Essential Guide to International Business. London; Sterling, VA: Kogan Page, 2003.  Read More