How Far Should a Person Bend to Accommodate the Culture of Another?

How far should a person bend to accommodate the culture of another? When is compromise appropriate? What happens when it becomes very costly to accommodate the culture of another? Who has the final decision when there is an impasse? Who should accommodate more, the "host" or the "guest"?

As the regional Human Resource Manager employed by Ace consulting, it is our responsibility to educate the global sales force on the etiquette of other cultures. Our current global regions US, Europe, Asia and Latin America will need to be divided up further by country and regions based on culture needs of the area. As guests in other countries I feel it is important that we be accommodating as possible. It is also the responsibility of the Human Resource Managers to put together culture training classes to ensure something as simple as not dressing properly doesn't cause Ace Consulting to loose business. For example; "In Chinese business culture, conservative suits and ties in subdued colors are the norm. Bright colors of any kind are considered inappropriate." (Chen, Peter, 2003) Compromise is always appropriate when we are a guest in another country. Remember we are there to impress our clients and to get their business. By taking just a few minutes to learn their culture, it can make a difference between closing and not closing a deal.

What happens when it becomes costly to accommodate the culture of another? Educating our sales force can be considered to be costly. However, if we plan on consulting on a global level, regular training classes for existing and new sales staff should be part of our new hire program.

When hiring new sales staff it should be made clear that we are global company and part of their job will be to work and deal with many different cultures from around the world. If there is ever an impasse it should be the decision of the regional V.P. of sales to have final decision. I feel this would be most appropriate since an impasse with another culture could cost them a sale and lower their sales volume.

As guests in other countries, it should always be the guest to accommodate more. It would be the same if you were to visit a relative. You will also note that as you visit other parts of United States that the cultures may very from state to state or north to south.

Our first task as Human Resource Managers will be to put together culture training guides for the sales staff. After researching this topic on the internet I found that there was many different guides we could refer to and this would be a good starting point.

Resources:

Chen, Peter P.W., May 25, 2003 Executive Planet, "China Business Etiquette" [Electronic Version] retrieved on February 13, 2006 from http://www.executiveplanet.com/business-etiquette/China.html