Several salient cultural values manifested in american business practics = một vài giá trị văn hoá nổi bật được thể hiện trong các tập quán thương mại mĩ

Several salient cultural values manifested in American business practicesVinh university Foreign language department STUDENT: lÊ Thị Hơng Giang several salient cultural values manifested

Several salient cultural values manifested in American business practices

Vinh university Foreign language department

STUDENT: lÊ Thị Hơng Giang

several salient cultural values

manifested in american business practices

(một vài giá trị văn hóa nổi bật đợc thể hiện

trong các tập quán thơng mại mỹ)

GRADUATION THESIS SUBJECT: CULTURE

Vinh - 2007

Several salient cultural values manifested in American business practices

PART A INTRODUCTION

1 RATIONALE OF THE STUDY

At present, entering into the world economic family, Vietnam will not only receive a greatdeal of benefits, but also face with many immediate challenges Which solutions are best forVietnam to pass through these difficulties as well as to take its advantages?

As we see, America has a great affect on the other countries all over the world and Vietnam

is not an exception It is clear that America is being on the way to become one of the largestcounterparts of Vietnam in the present flexible and dynamic market-oriented economy Actually,what has our country's businesspersons done to make good impressions on American counterparts?And how should they behave and communicate in order not to cause regrettable misunderstandingbetween the two parties?

Possibly, we still remember how difficult Vietnamese negotiation team was in persuadingand reaching an agreement with American one within the WTO (World Trade Organization)accession of Vietnam? Which hedges made the negotiation process last in such a long time period?

Is it due to the differences in their opinion and business culture?

All of these questions have inspired me to study the typical cultural features in businesspractices of Americans It is my belief that a good understanding of culture generally and ofbusiness culture particularly would help us a lot in cross-cultural encounters with the aim to avoidpossible misinterpretations

2 AIMS OF THE STUDY

* To make clear the salient cultural features manifested in American business practices

* To help readers understand more about American cultural values

* To show the other cultures’ attitudes to American business practices

* To give some contrasts between Vietnamese and American business practices

3 METHODS OF THE STUDY

* Analytic and synthetic method

* Comparative method

* Statistic method

Several salient cultural values manifested in American business practices

4 SCOPES OF THE STUDY

Due to the limitation of time and space, the study only focus on several salient culturalvalues without covering all of the American cultural ones In addition, also due to the variety ofAmerican business practices, only some typical and popular practices will be referred to in thethesis

5 DESIGN OF THE STUDY

The thesis is divided into three main parts:

Part A Introduction

1 Rationale of the study

2 Aims of the study

3 Scopes of the study

4 Methods of the study

5 Design of the study

Part B Development

Chapter I Theoretical background

Chapter II Several salient cultural values manifested in American business practices

Chapter III Some contrasts between Vietnamese and American business practices

Part C Conclusion

References

Several salient cultural values manifested in American business practices

PART B DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

1 CULTURE

1.1 Definition of culture

Culture has been an attractive subject which many different scholars in every scientificfields through every period of time focus on studying There have been a lot of definitions given,however, their some common points are easily found Almost the conclusions are agreed thatculture is the product of human beings and related to, both spiritual and material, other humanaspects such as beliefs, religions, arts, artifacts, intellects, etc

In American heritage Dictionary, culture is defined as " the totality of socially transmitted behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thoughts.”(1), at the same time, as " intellectual and artistic activity, and the works produced by it.”(1) Similarly, in Dictionary of English Language and Culture (Longman, 1992), culture is describe as' the customs, beliefs, art, music and all the other products of human thought made by a particular group of people at a particular time."

On the one hand, if culture is understood via anthropologists and sociologists, its definition

is not also much different from the above For anthropologists, the term ‘culture’ used to refer to theuniversal human capacity to classify, codify and communicate their experiences symbolically Theymainly base on symbols to analyze and search for culture Meanwhile, sociologists define culture as

" the total, generally organized way of life, including values, norms, institutions, and artifacts that is passed on from generation to generation by learning alone."(Quoted in Dictionary of Modern

Sociology) (6)

In general, culture is an effective means to express and expose the characteristics of a nation

as well as its smaller communities As a result, what help learn best about a certain community is tounderstand its cultures

1.2 Key components of culture

As being referred to in the definition, culture consists of four elements that are " passed on from generation to generation by learning alone" These four elements are:

 Values

Several salient cultural values manifested in American business practices

 Institutions

 Artifacts

Firstly, values include ideas about what in life have significant meanings Values areconsidered as a foundation to make up the rest of the culture Meanwhile, norms compriseexpectations of how the behaviors of people will be in various situations And consequently, toenforce these norms, each culture has its methods, called " sanctions" How strict the sanctions aredepends on the importance of the norms, and when norms are formally enforced, they have thestatus of law Values and norms are transmitted within the structures of a society that are calledinstitutions Finally, artifacts are " things or aspects of material culture - derive from a culture'svalues and norms"

There is also another division that divides culture into interrelated "mentifacts", "sociofacts"and " artifacts" They belong, respectively, to ideological, sociological and technologicalsubsystems In particular, socialization depends on the beliefs subsystem; otherwise, interactionbetween people is governed by this sociological subsystem Moreover, material objects and theiruse make up the technological subsystem

In addition, as we know, archaeologists pay more attentions to material culture, whereascultural anthropologists study more deeply symbolic culture However, both groups are highlyinterested in the relationships between two dimensions Additionally, anthropologists refer to bothconsumption goods and the general process, which produce such goods, at the same time; theymention the social relationships and practices in which such objects and processes become limited

1.3 Ways of perceiving culture

There are a wide range of ways to look at or evaluate culture, however, due to the limitedspace of the thesis, only some typical ones of them will be analyzed in this part

Generally, culture is often differently perceived For example, culture is viewed in relationwith civilization, worldview, symbols, regions or religions This variety is because culture itselfincludes a lot of meaning levels and expressions

1.3.1 Culture as civilization

There had been many contradictory opinions on culture At first, culture is identified with'civilization' and contrasted with 'nature' According to this way of thinking, some countries or somepeoples can be classified more civilized than others Thus, popular and mass culture had beeneliminated from the definition of culture The theorist Mathew Arnold contrasted mass culture with

Several salient cultural values manifested in American business practices

social chaos or anarchy and linked culture closely with social cultivation or " the progress refinement of human behavior" Culture can be learned that culture is divided into 'high culture' and

'low culture’, which, in turn, refer to elite activities (museum-caliber art, classical music, etc.) andmass or popular activities (folk music, etc.) About these two divisions, there had been a variety ofoppositions and criticisms Nevertheless, so far, most social scientists reject the opposition ofculture to nature They evaluate equally for 'high culture ' and 'low culture', in other words, theyrecognize non-elites as just structured as elites, but in different ways

1.3.2 Culture as worldview

The notion of culture as 'worldview' is more intensive than earlier views The notion wasdeveloped mainly by scholars in Germany, especially those concerned with nationalist movementssuch as the struggle to create a ' Germany' out of diverse principalities, during the Roman era Inthis mode of thought, each ethnic group is characterized by a distinct and incommensurableworldview However, the distinctions between 'civilized' and ' primitive' or 'tribal' cultures are stillshowed in this approach to culture

As for anthropologists, by the late 19th century, they had broadened more the definition ofculture that can be applied to a wider variety of societies Noticeably, culture was clinked to thetheory of evolution that all human beings were assumed to evolve equally and the fact that allhuman beings had cultures must, to some extent, originate in human evolution As a result, theyoften find out processes of domination and resistance

In the 1950s, sociologists began to study subcultures, and by the 20th century, the idea ofcorporate culture, which is distinct and adaptable within the context of an employing or aworkplace, began to be popularized

1.3.3 Culture as symbols

In the symbolic view of culture, the legacy of Clifford Geertz (1975) and Victor Turner

(1967), symbols have role to be " both the practices of social actors and the context that gives such practices meaning "(6) 'Symbol gloss' written by Anthony P Cohen (1985) becomes a tool to

communicate and understand of the social actors These symbols limit the thoughts and expressions

in intelligible terms to the members of a culture In brief, " symbols make culture possible, reproducible and readable”(6) Meanwhile, according to Pierre Bourdieu (1977) symbols " give regularity, unity and systematicity to the practices of a group"(6) For instance:

Several salient cultural values manifested in American business practices

 Law and order - stock phrase in the United States

 Peace and order - stock phrase in the Philippines

1.3.4 Cultures by regions

Each region possesses its own cultural characteristics But, as a matter of fact, manyregional cultures have changed considerably because of the contacts with others such ascolonization, trade, migration, mass media or religion Here, some influences of religions on culturewilll be mentioned

In Africa, in spite of many varied origins, African culture is shaped by Europeancolonialism, especially in North Africa, Arab and Islamic culture

In Americas, peoples that inhabited the continents before the arrival of Europeans, peoplefrom Africa, and the European immigrants (typically Spanish, English, French, Portuguese, Italianand Dutch) have had strong influence on the American culture

In Asia, several transnational cultural influences still exist, although Asian nations are ofcultural diversity It is Chinese writing and religion (Buddhism and Taoism) has a remarkableimpact on the writing and cultural traditions of Korea, Japan, Vietnam and some other East Asiannations Besides, South Asian peoples have been much affected by Hinduism and Islam forhundreds of years

In Pacific, the indigenous cultures take priority over others despite the impact of the contactwith Western culture However, some countries such as Australia and New Zealand have beenpredominated by the culture of white settlers and their descendants because of their dominationbefore

In Europe, due to the legacy of colonialism, the continent carries the characteristics of theWestern culture The spread of the English language and a few other European languages haveproven for the influence of European culture Dominant influences include ancient Greece, ancientRome and Christianity

Finally, in Middle East and North Africa, the defining characteristic is Islam that is derivedfrom Persian (Iranian) culture and variations of the Arabic language Besides, this region is alsohome to Israel and Judaism, and Christian minorities

1.3.5 Cultures by religion

Several salient cultural values manifested in American business practices

Religion is an integral feature of cultures throughout human history The term 'religion' is

defined in the Dictionary of Philosophy and Religion as follows: " an institution with a recognized body of communication who gather together regularly for worship, and accept a set of doctrines offering some means of relating the individual to what is taken to be the ultimate nature of reality"(6)

Religion is often regarded as a codification of behavior that can be shown by the ' tencommandments of Christianity ' or the ' five precepts of Buddhism ‘

Religions, typically, are Abraham, Eastern and folk To start with, Abraham religions

consist of Judaism that is "one of the first recorded monotheistic faiths and one of the oldest religious traditions still practiced today “(6), Islam, the Baha'i Faith and Christianity that were " the dominant features in shaping European and the New World cultures for at least the last 500 to

1700 years"(6) Next to this, Eastern religion is mostly influenced by and originated in India and

China Thanks to cultural diffusion and the migration of peoples, Indian and Chinese religions,including Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism and Taoism, have been spreaded and becomepervasive across Asia Finally, folk religions practiced by tribal groups are common in Asia, Africaand the Americas Similarly, folk religion tends to meet human needs for reassurance in times oftrouble, healing, averting misfortune and providing rituals that address the major passages andtransitions in human life Folk religions can have considerable influence; even become the statereligion, as with Shintoism (Japan)

1.3.6 Cultural studies

By the late 20th century, cultural studies really developed when Marxist thought wasreintroduced into sociology, at the same time, sociology and other academic disciplines such asliterary criticism were combined The analysis of subcultures in capitalist societies became a focus

of the movement Because of the inappropriateness of the 18th and 19th distinction between ' high'and ' low' culture for the mass-produced and mass-marketed consumption goods, cultural studiesgenerally focus on the study of ' popular culture ' with consumption goods (such as fashion, art, andliterature)

So far, when some anthropologists have also joined the project of cultural studies, theyalmost do not accept to identify culture with consumption goods In addition, many of them reject

the limit of the notion of culture; as a result, they deny the notion of subculture " Instead, they see culture as a complex web of shifting patterns that link people in different locales and that link social formations of different sales "(6) Thus, any group can make up its own cultural identity

Several salient cultural values manifested in American business practices

1.3.7 Cultural change

Cultures both recognize and resist change, depending on cultural traits It can be said that, in

each culture, there exists " dynamic influences that encourage acceptance of new things and conservative forces that resist change" (6)

Both change and resistance to it result from three kinds of influence:

1) Forces at work within a society

2) Contact between societies

3) Changes in the natural environment

Thus, the environment, inventions and contacts with other cultures are main elements thatcause cultural change For example, agriculture was invented by the end of the last ice age, andafterwards, many other cultural innovations were brought about

There are some ways to result in cultural change, i.e diffusion (the form of something moves from one culture to another), acculturation (the replacement of the traits of one culture with those

of another), cultural invention (any innovation that is new and found to be useful to a group of people and expressed in their behavior but which does not exist as a physical object) (6)

1.3.8 Cultures within a society

Large societies often have subcultures The distinctions among subcultures may be resultedfrom the age of its member, or by their race, ethnicity, class or gender Furthermore, a subculture isdetermined as distinct by the qualities that may be aesthetic, religious, occupational, political, andsexual or a combination of these factors The definition and ways to evaluate subculture would bemore deeply mentioned in the following part

1.3.8.1 What is subculture?

As being defined in the American Heritage Dictionary, subculture is " a cultural subgroup differentiated by status Ethnic background, residence, religion, or other factors that functionally unify the group and act collectively on each other"(1) Thus, to determine if the any subgroups

within a cultural group, firstly, we must identify what that cultural group is

Similarly, the definition loaded from the free dictionary of an American website is that " a subculture is a set of people with distinct behaviors and beliefs that differentiate them from a larger culture of which they are a part "(6).

Several salient cultural values manifested in American business practices

There is also another definition for the term 'subculture' in the Dictionary of English

Language and Culture (Longman, 1992) that is " the behavior, beliefs, and customs of a particular group of people within a society, often a group whose behavior is disapproved of by almost people".

1.3.8.2 Ways to identify a cultural group

To identify a cultural group, some motions need dealing with:

The definitions of value are very various According to Robin William, value is regarded as

“criteria for selection in action”(3), meanwhile, Ralph Henry Gabriel defined value as ‘an ideal, a paradigm setting forth a desired and esteemed possible social reality.”(3) Similarly, but more

cautiously, Ethel Albert described value chiefly through ‘ verbal behavior’ without being mistakenfor ‘ the actualities of conduct’ In general, value might be known as a principle, standard or quality

considered worthwhile or desirable Also, values allow us to “evaluate people and items for usefulness, goodness, pleasure, ability.”(1).

Within the analysis of culture, there is a tendency to maintain two contradictory orders of

value which are ‘‘high-level ideals [that] are not intended for universal, literal realization” and

“the practical guides to behavior” (3) Thereby, the characteristic tensions of a society can be

defined by the contrasts between ‘its ideal and realistic values’ and between ‘its standard andachievements’

1.4.1.2 Cultural value

In almost group, society, or culture, its members largely share values, “even if each member’s personal values do not entirely conform to normative values sanctioned in the

Several salient cultural values manifested in American business practices

culture”(6) In other words, there are still certain values covering a culture, regardless of the unique

set of values of each individual

If we trace this way to investigating cultural values, we have to ensure that we are talkingabout what actually exists, not what we want to exist For example, it is said that Americans alwaysvalue human life above all else, however, the fact that they do not really do that (1)

1.4.1.3 Categories of values

In spite of some debate, values can be grouped into the following categories:

- Healthy values and habits- Sensual and operational values

- Moral values and norms- Social and religious/traditional values

- Ethical values and behavior- Economic and political values

- Historical values and conduct- Aesthetic and theoretical values

(6)

1.4.2 American cultural values

United State consists of 50 states with 300 million people of mixed races and heritage, inwhich each state possesses individual institutions, education, and certain cultural values.Furthermore, through the years, America has experienced waves of immigration from every part ofthe world, namely, Asians, Africans, East Europeans, North European, etc Therefore, Americanculture becomes extremely various in regional and ethnic identities As its result, United States hasever been likening to a 'melting pot' society But in the ' Time Magazine’, it has been claimed that

America is too complicated and diffuse to be described as a melting pot, otherwise, "America today

is really a collection of interwinning subcultures"(1) Meanwhile, Ben J Wattenberg, a

contemporary author, argues that America is not a nation of subcultures, but a multicultural society.Nevertheless, at present, the image of 'a multicultural society' is considered more appropriate forUnited States

The culture of the United States has been most influenced by British culture, then by othernorthern European ones such as Germany, Ireland Thus, the American culture may be regarded asWestern culture The diversity in America results in a lot of difficulties in analyzing andsynthesizing its cultural values The origins of American cultural values may be analyzed according

to many different bases They can be ‘Covenantal Freedom’, ‘Religious Commitment’, ‘America’sIdentity’, ‘American Prosperity’, or ‘The Natural Rights of Man’ (15) Besides, to analyzeAmerican values, the scholars also tend to divide into two camps: those who emphasize consensus

Several salient cultural values manifested in American business practices

and the ‘core’ “or ‘focal’ values by which the value system …is ordered and unified,” and those who focus on the “ diversity, pluralism, and tensions within American national values.”(3) One of

many scholars who orient to America’s traditional core values, in the early 1960s, Albert andWilliams placed great emphasis on the following salient values:

- An activist approach to life, based on mastery rather than passive acceptance of events Emphasis on achievement and success, understood largely as material prosperity

- A moral character, oriented to such Puritan virtues as duty, industry and sobriety

- Equality, with a horizontal or egalitarian rather than hierarchical view of social relations

- High evaluation of individual personality, rather than collective identity or responsibility

- Nationalism and patriotism

- Idealism and perfectionism

- Mobility and change

Several salient cultural values manifested in American business practices

1.4.2.1 Individualism

As being described in Britannica Concise Encyclopedia, individualism consists of “ a valuesystem, a theory of human nature, and a belief in certain political, economic, and social andreligious arrangement! (16) According to the individualists, all value are centered on humanbeings, i.e the individual has superior importance and all individuals are normally equal.Individualism value highly self-reliance, privacy and mutual respect

Also, in his great classical study; Alexis de Tocqueville gave out two contradictory edges ofAmerican Individualism was a self-evident consequence of democracy and equality He gave itspositive edge in contrast to selfishness as follows:

“ Individualism is a mature and calm feeling which disposes each member of the community to server himself from the mass of his fellows and to draw a part with his family and his friends so that after he has thus formed a little circle of his own, he leaves society at large to itself”

(3)

On the other hand, individualism itself also bring negative image as “ a presumptious confidence in their own strength” or unhesitating to “show that they care for nobody but themselves”.

American individualism may be seen in the restriction of government’s intervention, thepattern of agriculture settlement, the checkerboard patterns in the cities or in the patterns of highereducation or the pattern of American religion Nathan Glazer ((3); p228) has given a positive

picture of American Individualism Those are “ its opportunity for the individual, its grant of freedom, and its encouragement of diversity” However, he has suggested its negative side as “ the indifference to the preservation of landscape or urban form and the indifference to those who fell behind in the race”.

Generally, individualism is often the first value seen when people talk about Americancultural values

Several salient cultural values manifested in American business practices

In American culture, the theory of egalitarianism has developed during the past two hundredyears Firstly, it is showed in The United States Declaration of Independence that emphasizes: “ allmen are created equal…”

According to Tocqueville ((3); 26), equality was “ the fundamental fact from which all others seem to be derived” Therefore, egalitarianism fostered individualism and materialism in American society Meanwhile Seymour Lipset has regarded “ equality as itself one side of pair of central values that have determined American behavior and institutions”(3) He has also stated that

equality partly established a dynamic interaction that has continued to shape the nationalexperience

Possibly, there are still some controversies about the influence of egalitarianism withinAmerican society, it is certain that this cultural value is closely attached to its development

1.4.2.3 Pragmatism.

According to Britannica Concise Encyclopedia, Pragmatism used to emphasize on the

practical function of knowledge “ as an instrument for adapting to reality and controlling it”(14) Pragmatists stress empiricism with the priority of experience They interpret “ ideas as images of reality”

In the United State, the pragmatism began to exist in the late nineteenth century We can seethe American pragmatism in its architecture Most typically, it is the Brooklyn Bridge that was built

in response to the need for mobility, and “ it brought to perfection a tensile form of construction”(14) The development of the commercial high-rise in the 1880s and 1890s clearly

proved the pragmatism of Americans

1.4.2.4 Optimism.

“ Optimism is an outlook on life such that one maintains a view or the world as a positive place”(6) It is generally believed that all of people and events are explicitly good, and finally most

situations take place and end for the best The concept of optimism is often connected with the

philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, “who held that we live in the best of all possible worlds; or that God created a physical universe that applies the law of physics”(6) The optimism is also seen

in “ American Dream” that all Americans believe in a bright future, a proper life, through hardwork, courage and determination

1.4.2.5 Mobility and change

Several salient cultural values manifested in American business practices

Mobility means different things to different people For example, some people are quitehappy to go around town, while others views the world in term of time distance- four hours fromChicago to San Francisco by airlines On the other hand, another factor in mobility is ease of access.What may be considered mobile in one context is quite immobile in another

3 BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

3.1 What is communication?

Communication is "the exchange of thoughts, massages, or information, as by speech, signals, writing or behavior" or " any act by which one person gives to or receives from another person information about that person's needs, desires, perceptions, knowledge, or affective state" (1)

Communication, frequently, passes through the process with at least four elements: the

source, the receiver, the message and the channel It can be briefly understood that the source is " the person or persons attempting to communicate”(1), the message is an utterance or a written

information which the speaker or writer want to convey to the person receiving it, called ' receiver,and finally the massage is conveyed by the channels such as letter, voice, gesture, or silence

Besides, there are four basic communication principles:

 Communication takes place in a variety of setting and different mediums

 Communication involves content and relationship

 Communication is a whole process

 Communication is inevitable and reversible

(13)

Several salient cultural values manifested in American business practices

Communication would be effectively taken place when the communicators know how to connectsuitably their words with gestures and actions, or in other words, how to use efficiently both non-verbal and verbal cues

3.1.1 The basic forms of communication

3.1.1.1 Non-verbal communication

Nonverbal is the most basic form of communication According to the theory ofanthropologists, long before our ancestors knew to use their bodies to communicate And so far,non-verbal language is still used as an effective way to express superiority, respects, love, dislike,and other feelings Non-verbal communication contains all ways of communicating that are bodylanguage, touching, artifacts, colors or certain gestures However, these types of no-verbalcommunication vary from culture to culture

It can be here mentioned sis specific function of non-verbal communication:

 To provide information, either consciously or unconsciously

 To regulate the flow of conversation

 To express emotion

 To qualify, complement, contradict, or expand verbal messages

 To control or influence others

 To facilitate specific tasks

(16)

In business, non-verbal communication is also of great significance It helps establish credibilityand leadership potential as well as prove competence, trustworthiness or activeness.Simultaneously, when learning how to receive exactly other people 's non-verbal messages, wecould reveal their attitudes and feelings more accurately

3.1.1.2 Verbal communication

Verbal communication involves spoken, written or signaled language In spite of the variousexpressions of the non-verbal, verbal communication makes contributions to building the properinteraction of human beings The harmonious combination of both elements helps people conveytheir meanings more fully and more explicitly

Normally, we use speaking and writing to send massages while using listening and reading

to receive them On the other hand, between speaking and writing, speaking is more common than

Several salient cultural values manifested in American business practices

writing People speak to give instructions, to conduct interviews, to attend meetings or to makespeeches However, writing is aimed to send a complex massage of lasting significance On theother hand, good listening and reading skills decide the efficiency of communication To obtain andremember information well depend on how we approach the task and our own special effort Bothskills require a similar approach that is to register the information, interpret and evaluate theinformation, respond, and finally file away the data for future reference In which, interpretation andevaluation are the most important parts of this process

There are some fundamental differences between non-verbal and verbal communication.Firstly, It is more difficult to study non-verbal cues because the non-verbal is less structured.Secondly, non-verbal communication also differs from the verbal in terms of intent and spontaneity

As usual, non-verbal communication takes place unconsciously and naturally without being asorderly planned or arranged as in the verbal one

3.2 Business communications

Business communications involve:

1) Email massages which are useful for routine communication between coworkers as well as forday-to-day exchanges with people outside the company

2) Memos that are suitable for notes sent to the people with higher authority in the companyespecially in conservative companies or for lengthy and formal communications to coworkers 3) Letters that are used for formal correspondence with clients, customers, and others outside thecompany

4) Reports which are the complex document of more than ten pages used for such outsidecontacts as potential clients, stockholders, and so on

5) Phone calls, conversations, and meetings In which, phone calls allow both parties to respond

to each other immediately, meetings are useful for a quick group decisions needed on a particularproblem or issues

Several salient cultural values manifested in American business practices

CHAPTER II: SEVERAL SALIENT CULTURAL VALUES MANIFESTED IN AMERICAN BUSINESS PRACTICES

To conduct business activities successfully need to ensure a lot of requirements such asbusiness language, behaviors, practices or etiquette More specially, in cross-cultural encounters,these requirements should be more strictly met to avoid regrettable misunderstandings

For American business environment, one of the biggest economic powers, there are severalimportant elements in communication which interlocutors or negotiators should learn about clearlyand carefully with the aims to obtain the best results Here, based on some outstanding culturalfeatures, the business practices of Americans will be detailedly analyzed so that the culturaldifferences, to some extent, might be released

1 SEVERAL SALIENT CULTURAL VALUES MANIFESTED IN AMERICAN BUSINESS PRACTICES

- I would like to begin by

- I would like to make a few remarks concerning

- I would like to mention briefly that

- There are three points I'd like to make

2) Introducing a new point

- I would now like to turn briefly to the problem of

- The next issue I would like to reiterate that

3) Concluding

- I'd like to conclude by stating that

- In conclusion, I would like to reiterate that

Several salient cultural values manifested in American business practices

Ex2 Giving opinions

1) Strong opinions

- I firmly believe that

- I' m certain / sure that

Similarly, in structure and hierarchy in American companies, individualist idea also a lotaffects on It can be seen that, in United States, the organization and structure of companies varyconsiderably, based on industry, region or company history Moreover, for the reason that

Several salient cultural values manifested in American business practices

who has chief authority frequently makes negotiations and final decisions (8) Meanwhile, a morecollective culture places more emphasis on group priority

In addition, the avoidance of any other forms of physical contact, except for a hand shake,such as hugging or even so close interactive distance also help prove the respect of Americans totheir privacy and personal space It is more appropriate and customary to American counterparts ifyou begin and end business meetings with a brief but firm handshake and direct eye contact Thesepractices demonstrate your interest, sincerity and confidence in front of American colleagues

In short, American business culture is typically individualist and the Americanbusinesspersons, generally, are more independent and assertive

1.2 Egalitarianism

The concept of equality is the second important element that is often referred to as thecultural feature in American business communication Some business practices would be mentionedhere as the typical examples

Possibly, the fact that American businessmen would not hesitate to call each other by thefirst name, even when meeting for the first time, often makes a shock to their counterparts.Normally, in almost all other cultures, the titles (Mr., Mrs., Ms) and the last name (or theprofessional status) should be used at first as a way to express respects to the addressee Forinstance, one the president of the board named Jean Leroy, if in the cultures such as Japanese,Thais, Vietnamese and some others, he would be called ' Mr Leroy' or ' President Leroy’.Meanwhile, if in United States, he could be immediately addressed 'Jean' by his Americancounterparts This form of address originates in the emphasis of Americans on equality that " all arecreated equal”, that everybody has equal rights, equal social obligations as well as equalopportunities As a consequence, there is a general lack of deference in the United States to people

of greater wealth, age, higher social status or authority For this reason, the exchange of businesscard is only done either during introductions or when leaving Americans only regard business cards

as a resource for future information However, bearing in mind that although American businesscolleagues call you by the first name without being hesitant, you should address with them by a titleand their last name in the first meeting

From The Economist, a situation has been taken to find out the cultural differences betweenJapanese and American managers as follows:

A seminar for Japanese executives working in America was attended by 25 men, nearly all of them

in identical dark suits Despite the room's stifling heating system, they resolutely refused to remove