American Business Culture for obvious reasons is oriented for operation in multinational contexts.  It is equally true that individual companies, such as IBM, Microsoft or Coca-Cola, may have their own identifiable cultures, based very much on ABC, which leave their mark on their employees.  For many business people, therefore, local cultures will probably become less and less dominant as common international business behavior develops worldwide. So, while it may be useful to expect that a businessman from Japan will behave like other Japanese businessmen, he might very well have worked in an American company, or lived in the United States, and assumed some characteristics of business people from that country.  Traditionally communication is understood as the main tool of a western business culture for carrying out the following management activities:
- leadership in order to inspire and motivate colleagues and subordinates; · team building in order to harness the synergies of individuals brought together from different disciplines and with different specialisations
- delegation which aims to share responsibility, empower subordinates and free up superiors.

Cultural similarities and differences and their influence, what goes well in a class and what does not, are major factors to consider when dealing with learners.  The role of the trainer also has to be considered.

Cross-cultural awareness is a current focus in Business English, especially where it concerns understanding ABC.  From the trainer’s point of view, there are two reasons why the understanding of cross-cultural differences could be important.  The first is that,  inside the language classroom, differences in culture can affect relationships and interactions. A native-speaker trainer working abroad, or in his or her own country but reaching mixed nationalities groups, is going  to encounter different attitudes and behaviors and must develop some ideas about how to manage these differences sensibly.  The second reason is that the trainer may want to prepare the learners for communicating internationally, especially where the learners have not traveled much and have not been to the US, or have not met people from outside their own culture. In the second case, some trainers may feel tempted to try some of the case studies, role-plays, and simulations that have been developed specifically for cross-cultural awareness training. “Business Across Cultures — Effective Communication Strategies” by Laura Monahoan English and Sarah Lynn - Addison-Wesle Publishing House, N-Y, in the series of “Englsih for Business Success” is such a book. Though I would remain skeptical about the value of these activities in the language classroom unless the trainers have a lot of knowledge and experience in this field, the book points out that to be successful in the international business world, one needs to have the following skills and abilities:
- communication skills: skills in listening, speaking and writing to others in order to exchange information effectively;
- interpersonal skills: skills in dealing with people, cooperating with them, and being sensitive to people’s needs;
- cross-cultural skills: skills in relating to people of different nationalities and cultures, especially by understanding their beliefs and values.

What is helpful that the book considers the cross-cultural aspect of every side of business:
- Stereotypes Across Cultures
- Making Initial Contacts Across Cultures
- Hospitality Across Cultures
- Time Across Cultures
- Decision Makers Across Cultures
- Negotiations Across Cultures
- Contracts Across Cultures
- Marketing Across Cultures
- Management and Employee Relations Across Cultures · The International Business Person Across Cultures.

What is important and characteristic of American Business Culture is to send their people to work actively on cultural issues with USIS Libraries, Cultural Resource Centers and Business Resource Centers. A couple of words about each of these.

One can work through the network of United States Information Service (USIS). These are libraries located around the world that provide English language business magazines, books, and other resources.  One can easily check with a U.S. embassy or consulate inyour country for more information.

Consulates and Embassies
Consulates and embassies are able to provide you with basic information about their countries. They may also suggest other agencies and information sources.

Chamber of Commerce of the United States
The chamber provides a list of publications covering many countries.  In addition, it can connect you with American Chambers of Commerce overseas in many countries.
1615 H. St., N.W., Washington D.C. 20062. Tel. (202)  463-5427

Culturegrams
These are newsletters written for people traveling overseas.  Topics are general and include customs and courtesies, the people, lifestyles, and the nation.  These are culturegrams available for more than 100 areas of the world.  $1.00 for each culturegram.

To order a culturegram, you can call or write:
David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies Publication Services
280 Herald R. Clark Building, Provo, Utah 84602. Tel. 1-800-528-6279

Cross-cultural understanding is important. Regarding one of the most important things - eye contact - we can find out that in many Western societies, including the U.S. a person who does not maintain ‘good eye contact’ is regarded as being slightly suspicious, or a ‘shifty’ character. Americans unconsciously regard people who avoid eye contact as unfriendly, insecure, untrustworthy, inattentive and impersonal.  In the United States, it is considered to be rude to stare - regardless of who is looking at whom. In contrast, the polite English person is taught to pay close attention to a speaker, to listen carefully, and to blink their eyes to let the speaker know he or she has been understood as well as heard. Americans signal interest and comprehension by bobbing their heads or grunting.

A widening of the eyes can also be interpreted differently, depending on circumstances and culture.  Take, for instance, the case of an American and a Chinese discussing the terms of a proposed contact.  Regardless of the language in which the discussion of the proposed contract is carried out, the US negotiator may interpret a Chinese person’s widened eyes as an expression of astonishment instead of a danger signal (its true meaning) of politely expressed anger.

When telephoning one should remember too that different cultures have different ways of using language.  Some speak in a very literal way so that it is always quite clear what theymean. Others are more indirect, using hints, suggestions and understatement ( for example ‘not very good results’ = ‘absolutely disastrous’) to put over their message.  North America, Scandinavia, Germany and France are ‘explicit’ countries, while the British have a reputation for not making clear exactly what they mean. One reason for this seems to be that the British use language in a more abstract way than most Americans and continental Europeans.  Russians are often under the impression that Americans and the British use the English language in the same way.  If an Englishman says that an idea is ‘interesting’ you have to deduce from the way he says it whether he means it is a good idea or a bad idea.

Meanwhile, for similar reasons Japanese, Russians and Arabs - ‘subtle’ countries - sometimes seem vague and devious to the British.  If they say that an idea is interesting it may be out of politeness.
Plain speakers can seem rude and dominating to subtle speakers, as Americans can sound to the British - or the British to the Russians.  Americans are not as keen on small talk as the British! It is all part of the British style — questions about the weather, health,business in general and what one has been doing recently, laying a foundation for the true purpose of the call.  At the end of the call there may well be various pleasantries, Nice talking to you,  Say hello to the family (if you have met them) and Looking forward to seeing you again soon. A sharp brief style of talking on the phone may appear unfriendly to a British partner.

Whereas a well-known Business English textbook writer, Simon Sweeny, sees Business Communication as a modular course consisting of: cultural diversity and socializing, telephoning, presenting, meetings, negotiating; Lin Lougheed, an American, has a standpoint characteristic of American Business Culture and  Multinational corporations.

In his book “Business Communication - Ten Steps to Success” he considers the following steps :

Step 1. Be positive.  In this section he maintains that in understanding cultural differences the most important thing is to understand what is polite in this or that country.  Polite, positive people make a good impression.
Please check for yourself (yes/no) Polite in Russia and polite in the U.S.?
- Negative response
- A smile
- Eye contact
- Positive response
- No eye contact
- No smile
- Offering a hand
Step 2 Be thoughtful
Step 3 Be a Team Player
Step 4 Be Interested
Step 5 Be Organized
Step 6 Be Punctual
Step 7 Be prepared
Step 8 Be polite
Step 9 Be Patient
Step 10 Be Loyal

Through the study of those steps you will learn how :
- to organize your time
- read charts and graphs
- write effective letters
- use the telephone effectively · work as part of a team
- make a good impression
- be a good leader
- expand your vocabulary
- converse more easily

Through those steps his book helps the reader to be a successful business person.  And this is more than learning English words and grammar.  One needs to know how to use these words.  To be successful you need to know how successful people use these words.  Words express attitudes - attitudes to people, time, office responsibilities, and business relationships.  These attitudes differ from culture to culture and from country to country.

Your attitudes influence your actions.  By understanding your own attitudes toward business and business relationships, you can better appreciate the attitudes of others. This will help you work more effectively with colleagues from other cultures. Famous Brit Nick Brieger calls it the ‘Culture Onion’. Each outer layer of the ‘onion’ affects the inner layers, until we reach the individual, who is a product of cultural influences and personality attributes. Such a viewpoint can be called a typical Anglo-Saxon doctrine.  One should not forget that there are differences between British and American business cultures. The latter borrows from economics the idea that human beings, human relations, politeness... are ‘resources’ like physical  and monetary resources. In other words in American Business culture cross-cultural understanding along with ‘human resources’, ‘political correctness’, ‘common sense’ is a tool/vehicle to apply the most modern management philosophies and carry out business across cultures successfully. So that SBU, TQM will reign, with products delivered JIT, where CFTs distribute products while subject to MBO (SBU= strategic business unit, TQM= total quality management, JIT= just-in-time, CFT= customer first team, MBO= management by objectives.)

Alder, N.1986.  International dimensions of Organizational Behavior.  Boston: Kent.
Damen, L. 1987.  Culture Learning: The Fifth dimension in the language classroom. Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley.
Holland, D. and N. Quinn. 1987.  Cultural Models in Language and Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Harris, P.R. and R.T.Moran. 1987.  Managing Cultural Differences. Houston: Gulf Publishing.
Fons Trompenaars Understanding Cultural Diversity, London, 1993