Doing Business with Germans: Their Perception, Our Perception PDF
Preview Doing Business with Germans: Their Perception, Our Perception
$ © 2016, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen ISBN Print: 9783525461679 — ISBN E-Book: 9783647461670 © 2016, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen ISBN Print: 9783525461679 — ISBN E-Book: 9783647461670 Sylvia Schroll-Machl Doing Business with Germans Their Perception, Our Perception With3Diagramsand1Table 6th Edition Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht © 2016, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen ISBN Print: 9783525461679 — ISBN E-Book: 9783647461670 Thepublicationofthisvolumewassupportedby JörgPlannererdrewthe7cartoons. BibliographicInformationpublishedbyDieDeutscheBibliothek DieDeutscheBibliothekliststhispublicationintheDeutsche Nationalbibliografie;detailedbibliographicdataareavailable ontheInternetathttp://dnb.d-nb.de. ISBN978-3-525-46167-9 Youcanfind alternativeeditionsofthisbookandadditional materialonourWebsite:www.v-r.de © 2016, 2003,Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH&Co.KG, Theaterstraß e13,D-37073Göttingen/ Vandenhoeck&RuprechtLLC,Bristol, CT,U.S.A. www.v-r.de Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisworkmaybereproducedor utilizedinanyformorbyanymeans,electronicormechanical, includingphotocopying,recording,oranyinformationstorageand retrievalsystem,withoutthewrittenpermissionfromthepublisher. TypesetbySatzspiegel,Nörten-Hardenberg PrintedandboundbylHubert&CoGmbH&Co.KG, Robert-Bosch-Breite6,D-37079Göttingen PrintedinGermany © 2016, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen ISBN Print: 9783525461679 — ISBN E-Book: 9783647461670 Contents Foreword(AlexanderThomas) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 WhyaBookaboutGermans? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 WhatthisBookHoldsforYou . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 WhichGermansareDescribedinthisBook? . . . . . . . . 17 Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 WhatareCultureStandards? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 TheBasis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 TheDefinitionofCulture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 TheDefinitionofCultureStandards . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 LimitationstotheConceptofCultureStandards . . . . . . 29 HowareCultureStandardsGenerated? . . . . . . . . . . . 31 CentralGermanCultureStandards. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 PuttingitallintoPerspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 TheHistoricalContext . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 CultureStandardsandTheirHistoricalGenesis. . . . . . . 37 PrincipalErasofGermanHistory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 CentralGermanCultureStandards . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Objectivism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 DefinitionofObjectivism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 TheObjectiveastheFocalPoint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 CommunicationStyle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 TheObjectiveLevelandtheSubjectiveLevel . . . . . . . 56 AdvantagesandDisadvantagesoftheCultureStandard “Objectivism” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 HistoricalBackground . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 5 © 2016, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen ISBN Print: 9783525461679 — ISBN E-Book: 9783647461670 AppreciationforRules,RegulationsandStructures . . . . . 69 Definitionof“AppreciationforRules,Regulationsand Structures” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 RulesandRegulationsasHelpfulInstitutions . . . . . . 72 Germans’LoveofOrganization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 AttentiontoDetail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 Ambivalence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 TheProsandConsofAppreciationforRules, RegulationsandStructures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 HistoricalBackground . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 Rule-Oriented,InternalisedControl . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 TheDefinitionofRule-Oriented,InternalisedControl . 94 Consensus:theBestBasisforRule-Oriented, InternalisedControl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 LivingtheConviction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 TheSocialComponent:JusticeandFairness . . . . . . . 102 IndependenceandAutonomy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 TheObligationtoInform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 TheMoralValueofRule-Oriented,InternalisedControl 107 TheProsandConsofRule-Oriented,InternalisedControl 109 Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 HistoricalBackground . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 TimePlanning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 DefinitionofTimePlanning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 TheTaskastheCentralFactorinTimePlanning . . . 124 TheImportanceofConsecutiveStepsinTimePlanning 124 AppointmentsasRegulatorsBetweenTasksandPeople . 126 TimePlanninginPrivateLife . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 TimeManagement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 DisturbancesandInterruptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 ViolationsofTimePlanning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 ProsandConsoftheCultureStandard“TimePlanning” . 134 Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 HistoricalBackground . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 SeparationofPersonalityandLivingSpheres . . . . . . . . 139 DefinitionofSeparationofPersonalityandLiving Spheres . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 6 © 2016, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen ISBN Print: 9783525461679 — ISBN E-Book: 9783647461670 SeparationofProfessionalandPrivate . . . . . . . . . . 141 RationalversusEmotional . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144 RoleversusPerson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 FormalversusInformal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 Self-AssuranceinOne’sRole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 RegulationofDistance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 RelationshipswithStrangers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 RelationshipswithAcquaintancesandColleagues . . . . 154 SocialContactbetweenGoodAcquaintancesand Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 OscillatingbetweentheTwoPoles . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158 TheProsandConsoftheCultureStandard “SeparationofPersonalityandLivingSpheres” . . . . . 160 Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 HistoricalBackground . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 LowContext:theGermanStyleofCommunication . . . . 169 Definitionof“LowContext” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 DirectCommunication:NoDoubleMeanings . . . . . . 171 ExplicitCommunication:WhateverisImportantwill BeVerbalised . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 ConflictConfrontation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178 Assertiveness. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 DealingwithCriticism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181 ProblemSolving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182 WhenGermansUseaHigherContext . . . . . . . . . . 184 TheProsandConsoftheCultureStandard “Low-Context:theGermanStyleofCommunication” 185 Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186 HistoricalBackground . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191 Individualism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197 Definitionof“Individualism” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198 FormsofExpressingIndividualism . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 “Individualism”andtheOtherCulturalStandards . . . 208 Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210 HistoricalBackground . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216 References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219 7 © 2016, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen ISBN Print: 9783525461679 — ISBN E-Book: 9783647461670 © 2016, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen ISBN Print: 9783525461679 — ISBN E-Book: 9783647461670 Foreword Accordingtoa3000-year-oldChineseproverbconcerningsuccessful communicationwithstrangers,“Onlyhewhoknowshimselfandhis counterpartwellcanachieveonethousandsuccessfulencounters.” Here the number onethousandreallystandsforan infinitenumber, thusguaranteeingsuccessinallencountersforthosewhotakeheed oftheproverb.Inthecontextofinternationalcooperation,amodern versionofthisancientChineseproverbcouldbe:“Onlythosewho really understand their foreign colleagues and themselves can achieve success in international business.”The truth of this state- ment becomes obvious when we think about the vast amount of knowledgeforeignersneedtounderstandthestyleof workingand living,thenormsandstandards,customsandtraditionsofthenew countryinwhichtheyareplanningtoliveorwork.Whenaskedwhat motivated themtomake theirmove,studentsplanningtostudyat a foreignuniversity,youngpeopletaking part in schooland youthex- changeprograms,experiencedmanagersandspecialiststakingpart in international professional work exchange programs and many tourists planning a trip abroad often have the same spontaneous, simpleanswer:“Iwantedtogettoknowthecountryandpeoplebet- ter”or“Iwantedtobroadenmyhorizons.”Manytrainingandqual- ificationprograms–andevenmoretravelandguidebooks–have attemptedtomeettheneedforextensiveandaccurateinformation aboutforeigncountriesandtheircustomsandtraditions. Itisgenerallyacceptedthat“globalplayers”whoarefitto“walk and workaroundthe world”needtohaveagoodmeasureofunder- standing, opennessandcuriosityaboutanythingnewanddifferent, adashoftoleranceand,toroundoffthesuccessfulrecipe,intercul- turalawareness. Experiencedtravellerswhohavenotbeenjustvisitorsandspec- tators, but who have actually come to know a particular foreign 9 © 2016, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen ISBN Print: 9783525461679 — ISBN E-Book: 9783647461670
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