BB0027 – Cross Cultural Aspects

Feb drive 2011

Bachelor of Business Administration-BBA Semester 6

BB0027 – Cross Cultural Aspects

Marks 60

Q. 1 Discuss the determinants of culture.

Ans : Culture :

Culture can be a set of key values, assumptions, understandings and norms that is shared by members of an organization. Organization values are fundamental beliefs that an organization considers to be important, that are relatively stable over time, and they have an impact on employees behaviors and attitudes. Organization Norms are shared standards that define what behaviors are acceptable and desirable with in organization

Determinants of culture :

1. Characteristics of Members :

Personal characteristics of the members of an organization also affect the climate prevailing in the organization. For example an organization with well educated, ambitious and younger employees is likely to have a different OC than an organization with less educated, and less upwardly mobile, older employees. The former might inculcate an environment of competitiveness, calculated risk-taking, frankness of opinions, etc.

2. Organizational Size :

In a small sized organization it is much easier to foster a climate for creativity and innovation or to establish a participative king of management with greater stress on horizontal distribution of responsibilities. On the other hand, in a large organization it is easier to have a more authoritative kind of management with stress on vertical distribution of responsibilities. This in turn leads to distinct environments as has been explained with the help of the concept of System 4 organization.

We have now studies seven basic determinants of OC. The lost is not exhaustive but these are the basic internal factors determining the internal environment of an organization.

3. Organizational Policies :

Specific organizational policies can influence a specific dimension of OC to quite an extent. For example, if the company policy states that layoffs will be used only as a last resort to cope with business downturn, then it would, in general, foster an internal environment that is supportive and humanistic. Similarly if you are working in a company where it is agreed that the first beneficiaries of increased profit, then the OC will be characterized by High Reward Orientation and probably by High Progressiveness and Development.

4. Managerial Values :

The values held by executives have a strong influence on OC because values lead to actions and shape decisions. Values add to perceptions of the organization as impersonal, paternalistic, formal, informal, hostile or friendly. You will learn more about managerial values under the topic: Managerial Ethos

5. Organization Structure :

The design or structure of an organization affects the perception of its internal environment. For example, a bureaucratic structure has an OC much different from a System 4 organization. What is a System 4 organization? According to Rensis Likert, all organizations can be classified into four major groups, depending upon the way basic organizational processes are conducted.

Q.2 Explain the structure, advantages and disadvantages of a geographical departmentalization.

Ans : Geographic departmentalization Structure :

Departmentalization is an aspect of organizational design that includes the subdivision of a business into units based on their function or other criteria. Most companies, including restaurants, are likely to use two or more types of departmentalization simultaneously. Some of the standard methods of departmentalization include grouping jobs by functional activities, product types, customer groups, geography or location, processes, and chain of command

Geographical departmentalization is the grouping of jobs, business  according to geographic location, such as state, region, country or continent. Grouping activities on the basis of territory. If an organization's customers are geographically dispersed, it can group jobs based on geography. For example, the organization structure of Coca-Cola has reflected the company’s operation in two broad geographic areas – the North American sector and the international sector, which includes the Pacific Rim, the European Community, Northeast Europe, Africa and Latin America groups.

Advantages and Disadvantages of geographical Departmentalization :

Advantages of geographical departmentalization :

Departmentalization is the dividing of organizational functions (design, marketing, etc.) into separate units. The traditional way to departmentalize organizations is by function. Functional structure is the grouping of workers into departments based on similar skills, expertise, or resource use. A company might have, for example, a production department, a transportation department, and a finance department. Departmentalization by function enables employees to specialize and work together efficiently. It may also save costs. Other advantages include the following:

• Employees can develop skills in depth and can progress within a department as they master those skills.
• The company can achieve economies of scale in that it can centralize all the resources it needs and locate various experts in that area.
• There’s good coordination within the function, and top management can easily direct and control various departments’ activities.

Disadvantages of geographical departmentalization:

• There may be a lack of communication among the different departments. For example, production may be so isolated from marketing that the people making the product do not get the proper feedback from customers.
• Individual employees may begin to identify with their department and its goals rather than with the goals of the organization as a whole. For example, the purchasing department may find a good value somewhere and buy a huge volume of goods that have to be stored at a high cost to the firm. Such a deal may make the purchasing department look good, but it hurts the overall profitability of the firm.
• The company’s response to external changes may be slow.
• People may not be trained to take different managerial responsibilities; rather, they tend to become narrow specialists.
• People in the same department tend to think alike (engage in groupthink) and may need input from outside the department to become more creative.

Q. 3 What is the importance of different group membership?

Ans :  Supervisors form workplace groups as part of departments, such as human resources or marketing, and to complete projects needing the work of more than one employee. Work teams become cohesive as the team members learn about each others' personalities and strengths and weaknesses. Managers and team leaders may take steps to improve group productivity. Productivity measurements for groups include team-building activities and morale boosters.

 Advantages of various group membership :

1. Over time, members of cohesive groups develop shared values and team loyalty. The familiarity of team members creates smoother, more-effective communication. When working toward a common goal, individual team members bring varied skills and points of view to the project. Group members can fill in for each others' lack of knowledge or shortage of skill.

2. Productivity comes from increases in employee production, measured as units per hour. Productivity may also lead to elevated levels of innovation. Efficiency in technology, labor and management lead to higher productivity rates. Group productivity methods deal with labor efficiency and motivating employees to work harder. Managers may attempt to influence the group by creating high-productivity group norms. Group productivity and cohesiveness may be gained by the team sharing success and status.

3. Cultural differences within small groups affect group processes and outcomes. For example, not all cultures share the same way of reasoning, rules governing conversation, parameters for effective leadership styles, emphasis on conformity, or concern for social relationships among group members. These differences influence group characteristics such as cohesiveness, decision quality, and group member satisfaction.

4. Working in a group allows members to share responsibilities, rather than the brunt of the work falling in the hands of one person. Instead, group members can delegate tasks to individuals who possess the knowledge, skills and abilities necessary to accomplish the task successfully.

5. Group work helps spark creativity in the minds of the group members giving them a wider range of ideas as they work to come up with solutions for organizational problems. Individuals may go into a group with ideas, but with the help of the group, their ideas get expanded upon and turned into creative, attainable, strategic or timely solutions.

6. Group work gives members an opportunity to explore diverse opinions, which can provide different points of view, as they work to solve problems. One group member may consider an option or have a stance that other members of the group have not considered. With diverse experiences and knowledge, group work ensures that problems are not solved using one person's input.

Q. 4 Discuss the communication Barriers in detail.

Ans : Various barriers are:-

1. Physical barriers are easy to spot – doors that are closed, walls that are erected, and distance between people all work against the goal of effective communication. While most agree that people need their own personal areas in the workplace, setting up an office to remove physical barriers is the first step towards opening communication. Many professionals who work in industries that thrive on collaborative communication, such as architecture, purposefully design their workspaces around an “open office” plan.

2. Perceptual barriers, in contrast, are internal. If you go into a situation thinking that the person you are talking to isn’t going to understand or be interested in what you have to say, you may end up subconsciously sabotaging your effort to make your point. You will employ language that is sarcastic, dismissive, or even obtuse, thereby alienating your conversational partner. Think of movie scenarios in which someone yells clipped phrases at a person they believe is deaf.

3. Emotional barriers can be tough to overcome, but are important to put aside to engage in conversations. We are often taught to fear the words coming out of our own mouths, as in the phrase “anything you say can and will be used against you.” Overcoming this fear is difficult, but necessary. The trick is to have full confidence in what you are saying and your qualifications in saying it. People often pick up on insecurity. By believing in yourself and what you have to say, you will be able to communicate clearly without becoming overly involved in your emotions.

4. Cultural barriers are a result of living in an ever shrinking world. Different cultures, whether they be a societal culture of a race or simply the work culture of a company, can hinder developed communication if two different cultures clash. In these cases, it is important to find a common ground to work from. In work situations, identifying a problem and coming up with a highly efficient way to solve it can quickly topple any cultural or institutional barriers. Quite simply, people like results.

5. Language barriers seem pretty self-inherent, but there are often hidden language barriers that we aren’t always aware of. If you work in an industry that is heavy in jargon or technical language, care should be taken to avoid these words when speaking with someone from outside the industry. Without being patronizing, imagine explaining a situation in your industry to a child. How would you convey these concepts without relying on jargon? A clear, direct narrative is preferable to an incomprehensible slew of specialty terms.

6. Gender barriers have become less of an issue in recent years, but there is still the possibility for a man to misconstrue the words of a woman, or vice versa. Men and women tend to form their thoughts differently, and this must be taken into account when communicating. This difference has to do with how the brain of each sex is formed during gestation.

Q. 5 Write a note on family culture.

Ans : Family Culture:-

Family culture, is defined as aggregate of attitudes, ideas and ideals, and environment, which a person inherits from his/her parents and ancestors.

The study of Family tradition and personality has attracted attention of social scientists. Ernest W. Burgess, Professor of Sociology, University of Chicago, has defined the term in these words:

“Whatever its biological inheritance from its parents and other ancestors, the child receives also from them a heritage of attitudes, sentiments, and ideals which may be termed the family tradition, or the family culture”.

Sometimes, family traditions are associated with practices and beliefs which are handed over from one generation to the next generation, and during this process of transmission such family traditions also acquire an aura of spirituality. Transmission of any set of such family traditions, acquiring spiritual significance, is largely an intuitive phenomenon, and the flow of family traditions continue without any intention, and the same continue to move on from one generation to the next generation. Family traditions for most of the families remain largely confined within the family members, but some times, non-family members may also get associated with particular family's family traditions.

Functioning of family Culture :

“In addition to regulations that are common to a whole society, there existing customs and modes of thinking with each particular family that equally impose — and even more forcibly — their form on the opinions and feelings of their members... Similarly, in the most traditional societies of today, each family has its proper mentality, its memories which it alone commemorates, and its secrets that are revealed only to its members. But these memories, as in the religious traditions of the family of antiquity, consist not only of a series of individual images of the past. They are at the same time models, examples, and elements of teaching. They express the general attitude of the group; they not only reproduce its history but also define its nature and its qualities and weaknesses”

Antiquity of family culture :

Family traditions have their roots in distant past, to pre-historic times, when the concept and system of family as a unit of society was crystallized. In all ages and in all civilizations, since the ancient time to the present day, families have taken pride in their traditions. Before nuclear family systems became the order of the day, there used to be joint family system, consisting of all the family members of two or even three generations, living together.

Then, as also now, several families like to identify a particular person as the keeper of the family traditions and assign a particular name to the keeper. Thus, a particular family, residing in the modern United Kingdom may assign a catchy name like “Keeper of the Flame” to the identified family member, entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring observance of that particular family’s family traditions.

Q. 6 Elaborate the stages of internalization.

Ans : Most companies pass through different stages of internationalization. There are, of course, many companies which have international business since their very beginning, including 100 percent export oriented companies. Even in the case of many of the hundred per cent export oriented companies, the development of their international business would pass through different stages of evolution.

The important stages in the evolutionary process are the following:-

1.Domestic company:

Most international companies have their origin as domestic companies. The orientation of a domestic company essentially is ethnocentric. A purely domestic company “operates domestically because it never considers the alternative of going international. The growing stage-one company, when it reaches growth limits in its primary market, diversifies into new markets, products technologies instead of focusing on penetrating international markets.” However, if factors like domestic market constraints, foreign market prospects, increasing competition etc. make the company reorient its strategies to tap foreign market potential, it would be moving to the next stage in the evolution.

A domestic company may extend its products to foreign markets by exporting, licensing and franchising. The company, however, is primarily domestic and the orientation essentially is ethnocentric. In many instances, at the beginning exporting is indirect. The Company may develop a more serious attitude towards foreign business and move to the next stage of development, i.e., international company.

2.International company:

International company is normally the second stage in the development of a company towards the transitional corporation. The orientation of the company is basically ethnocentric and the marketing strategy is extension, i.e., the marketing mix developed for the home market is extended into the foreign markets. International companies normally rely on the international business.

3.Multinational company:

When the orientation shifts from ethnocentric to polycentric, the international company becomes multinational. In other words, when a company decides to respond to market differences, it evolves into a stage three multinational that pursues a multi-domestic strategy. The focus of the stage three company is multinational that pursues a multinational or, in strategic terms, multi-domestic. The marketing strategy of the multidimensional company is adaptation. In multinational companies each foreign subsidiary is managed as if it were an independent city state. The subsidiaries are part of an area structure in which each country is part of a regional organization that reports to world headquarters.

The global company will have either a global marketing strategy or a global sourcing strategy but not both. It will either focus on global markets and source from the home or a single country to supply these markets, or it will focus on the domestic market and source from the world to supply its domestic channel. However, according to the interpretation of some others all strategies – product development, production marketing etc- will be global in respect of the global corporation.

The transitional corporation is much more than a company with sales, investments, and operations in many countries.

Q.7 What are the characteristics of culture?

Ans : Scholars have never been able to agree on a simple definition of culture. The task of understanding culture is complicated by a over abundance of definitions. Anthropologists and sociologists define culture as “ways of living” built-up by a group of human beings which are transmitted from one generation to another. A culture acts out its ways of living in the context of social institutions, including family, educational, religious, governmental and business institutions. Ralph Linton (1945:2) provides a Timeless definition of culture as the configuration of learned behaviour and results of behaviour whose component elements are shared and transmitted by the members of a particular society. Or perhaps more appropriately ; “the way we do things around here”. So defined China has a culture – a commonality of beliefs, experiences, values and expectations – that sets it apart from Egypt, India, Poland or Mexico. In an international business, culture refers to acquired knowledge that people use to interpret, experience and generate social behaviour. This knowledge forms values, creates attitudes, and influences behaviour.

Culture can  be defined as “a continuously changing totality of learned values and shared meanings, rituals, norms and traditions among the members of an organisation or society.” By values we mean abstract ideas about what a group believes to be good, right, and desirable. Put differently, values are shared assumption about how things ought to be. Values form the bedrock of a culture. They provide the context within which a society’s norms are established and justified. They may include a society’s attitude toward such concepts as individual freedom, democracy, truth, justice, honesty, loyalty, social obligation, collective responsibility, the role of women, love, sex, marriage and so on.

Characteristics of Culture

Although there are many definitions of culture, the experts seem to agree on a number of characteristics of culture :

(1) Culture is learnt :

Culture is not inherited. It is learnt through experience. People over time transmit the culture of their group from generation to generation.

(2) Culture is shared :

The tenets of the culture are accepted by most members of the group. Culture is not specific to single individuals, but is shared by people who are members of particular groups, organisations and societies.

(3) Culture is trans generational :

Culture is passed on, in a cumulative process from one generation to the next. It is always passed on from one generation to another.

(4) Culture is inter-related :

One part of the culture is deeply connected with another part, such as religion with marriage or business with social status.

(5) Culture is symoblic :

It depends on individuals human capacity to symbolize or to use one thing to represent another.

(6) Culture is patterned :

Culture possess structure and is integrated. Change in one aspect of culture causes changes in another.

(7) Culture is adoptive :

Culture depends on the human capacity to adopt to change.

(8) Culture is descriptive :

Culture defines the boundaries of different groups.

Q. 8 Write a note on Universalism.

                                                      

Ans : Universalism refers to religious, theological, and philosophical concepts with universal application or applicability. Universalism is a term used to identify particular doctrines considering all people in their formation.

In a broad sense, universalism claims that religion is a universal human quality. This can be contrasted with non-universalist religions. Religion in this context is defined as a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, especially when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs.

The religious concern for mankind as a whole as contrasted with the concern for those belonging to one's own faith. Jewish perspectives since biblical time have expressed both these tendencies, often with ambiguities and tensions. The very opening of the Bible is written from a universalist perspective, concerned with the origin of mankind and with God's concern for humanity. The corollary of its fundamental proclamation of the unity and fatherhood of God is the brotherhood of man.

A strong element of Particularism entered with the Covenant with Abraham. However, while as the result of the covenant Abraham and his descendants become the people of God, the universalistic element is not forgotten when God explains, "Through you and your descendants will be blessed the families of the earth"

In Christianity, universal reconciliation is the doctrine that all sinful and alienated human souls—because of divine love and mercy—will ultimately be reconciled to God. Unitarian Universalism believes that religion is a universal human quality, emphasizing the universal principles of most religions and accepting other religions in an inclusive manner, believing in a universal reconciliation between humanity and the divine. Universalism has had a strong influence on modern Hinduism, in turn influencing western modern spirituality.

A community that calls itself universalist may emphasize the universal principles of most religions and accept other religions in an inclusive manner, believing in a universal reconciliation between humanity and the divine. For example, some forms of Abrahamic religions happened to claim the universal value of their doctrine and moral principles, and feel inclusive. A belief in one common truth is also another important tenet. The living truth is seen as more far-reaching than national, cultural, or religious boundaries.

Universalism is not only a set of values, but a worldview to which any can subscribe if they observe and believe in the universality of the human experience — and that of all sentient life — and work to uphold the principles, ethics, and actions that safeguard these fundamental things.

Indeed many Universalists may be attracted to the logic of universally applicable principles, rather than any belief or dogma. Human unity, solidarity, and the perceived need for a sustainable and socially conscious global order are among the tendencies of non-religious Universalist thought.

Q. 9 Explain the structure, advantages and disadvantages of a product organization.

Ans : The grouping of the production and sales efforts of a business according to a particular line of goods or services. A business might prefer to use a form of product organization when its product lines are quite different and require specialized expertise in making and distributing them.

Structure :

It consist of following factors :

1. Clear Ownership.  So much depends on empowered yet accountable product teams.  So to me the top priority always is to make sure you carve out something significant that a product team can truly own and feel empowered to make the changes necessary. 

2. Alignment with User/Customer.   Please note that I’m not referring here to internal customers or stakeholders; that’s below under alignment with business units.  I’m referring here to alignment with the actual customers and users of the site or service. 

3. Alignment with Development Team.   Product managers and designers generally work with developers every day to get their product ideas built, and when the product organization is not aligned with the technology organization, the result is almost never pretty. 

4. Alignment with Architecture.   Related to the alignment with the development team but actually much harder is the alignment with the software architecture.  Basically, every architecture is designed around some set of objectives and the result is that some things are much easier to do than others. 

Strategic Advantages of product organization:-

• Provides a strategically relevant way to organize the business-unit portfolio of a broadly diversified company
• Facilitates the coordination of related activities with a SBU, thus helping to capture the benefits of strategic fits in the SBU
• Promotes more cohesiveness among the new initiatives of separate but related  businesses
• Allows strategic planning to be done at the most relevant level within the total enterprise
• Makes the task of strategic review by top executives  more objective and more effective
• Helps allocate corporate resources to areas with greatest growth opportunities

Strategic Disadvantages of  product organization:-

• It is easy for the definition and grouping of businesses into SBUs to be so arbitrary that the SBU serves no other purpose than administrative convenience. If the criteria for defining SBUs are rationalizations and have little to do with the nitty-gritty of strategy coordination, then the groupings lose real strategic significance
• The SBUs can still be myopic in charting their future direction
• Adds another layer to top management
• The roles and authority of the CEO, the group vice president, and the business-unit manager have to be carefully worked out or the group vice president gets trapped in the middle with ill-defined authority
• Unless the SBU head is strong willed, very little strategy coordination is likely to occur across business units in the SBU
• Performance recognition gets blurred, credit for successful business units tends to go to  corporate CEO, then to business unit head, last to group vice president

Q.10.Discuss the causes of cultural differences and change.

Ans : Causes of cultural differences:

Most people grow up in a certain restricted environment (their natural environment, their family, town, country, etc.). The fact that a person reacts to their specific natural environment means they create specific daily habits, stereotypes, methods of satisfying their requirements, etc. Some people get up at five in the morning and go and water the rice crop, while others rise at nine and travel by tram to work. A person thus adapts to the environment, nature and society around them. In time, each society creates other methods for passing their cultural inheritance on to their children (or new members, e.g. foreigners), tried and tested methods of conduct in the environment and society in question. We call such processes a family upbringing, school training, socialisation, acculturation and globalisation. The family passes on to the child the basic emotional and knowledge potential, school offers them models of behaviour and the requisite knowledge and skills to live in society. Upbringing and other processes lead to the socialisation of the individual, while acculturation enables them to accept and understand the customs and norms of the society in question. Globalisation can also be understood in this light; it operates on the individual in such a way that they are able to live within their global environment.

When a person grows up in the environment of a single culture (learns to live in the local natural conditions, are brought up by their family and go to the local school, have experience with the local society, culture) they undergo a very intensive process of personality development. However, what they learn under specific conditions does not have to work under the conditions of another culture. This is why very often a person who has decided to travel to another country becomes a “small child” again in that country, who can’t speak the language (has not learned it and will never speak it as their native tongue), who hasn’t learned how to behave (is used to other norms of polite conduct which can differ in various cultures), and who lacks the requisite skills and knowledge (is used to catching fish, but has to travel to work by tram in the foreign country), etc.

Perception of cultural differences: We can perceive certain manifestations of cultural differences immediately (traditional costumes, special jewellery), while some we only perceive when a person starts speaking a different language, or when we hear their opinions and values, customs, etc. We should more frequently realise that people of various cultures do not have to have different folk costumes and a language, but rather an entire legal system, educational system, life values, experience, etc.

We can usually only understand cultural differences when we suddenly find ourselves in the environment of another culture.

Q.11 Write a note on external and internal communication.

Ans : Internal communication :-

Internal communication is a subset of effective business communication, which is built around this simple foundation: communication is a dialogue, not a monologue. In fact, communication is a dual listening process. So Internal Communication, in a business context, is the dialogic process between employees and employer, and employees and employees. So many times that latter process is forgotten by strategists and PR professionals – it should always be remembered that communication between employees is very often far more powerful than any communication from employer to employee.

Whereas the ‘top-down’, employer-driven communication is great for setting a communication agenda or discussion point, it is the peer-to-peer employee communications that determine the tone of the response back to the employer. So, to sum up, ‘Internal Communication’ is the conversations that businesses have with their staff and those staff have with each other.

1. Unless management comprehends and fully supports the premise that organizations must have high degrees of communications (like people needing lots of water), the organization will remain stilted. Too often, management learns the need for communication by having to respond to the lack of it.

2. Effective internal communications start with effective skills in communications, including basic skills in listening, speaking, questioning and sharing feedback. These can developed with some concerted review and practice. Perhaps the most important outcome from these skills is conveying that you value hearing from others and their hearing from you.

3. Sound meeting management skills go a long way toward ensuring effective communications, too.

4. A key ingredient to developing effective communications in any organization is each person taking responsibility to assert when they don't understand a communication or to suggest when and how someone could communicate more effectively.

Internal Communication helps as: 

Communication between employees or departments across all levels or divisions of an organization. Internal communication is a form of corporate communication and can be formal or informal, upward, downward, or horizontal. It can take various forms such as team briefing, interviewing, employee or works councils, meetings, memos, an intranet, newsletters, the grapevine, and reports.

External communication:-

The communication between the organisation and the outsiders is called external communication. External communication is needed for smooth conduct and the progress of the business. This form of communication takes place through personal visits, telephones and postal services. The external communication includes acknowledgement, enquires, tenders, meetings, conferences and notices.

The exchange of information and messages between an organization and other organizations, groups, or individuals outside its formal structure. The goals of external communication are to facilitate cooperation with groups such as suppliers, investors, and shareholders, and to present a favorable image of an organization and its products or services to potential and actual customers and to society at large. A variety of channels may be used for external communication, including face-to-face meetings, print or broadcast media, and electronic communication technologies such as the Internet.

Q. 12 Discuss the guidelines for doing business in Arab Countries.

Ans : Explanation of Doing Business in Arab Countries:-

A potential for business is the first research in the business deal. It is great to see that the world is now more accessible and people are more open to ideas. It is time to cross geographical borders and mitigate in order to survive and sustain all types of competitions. The world is getting smaller owing to connectivity and time zones are never a problem now as technology is clearly proving to be a positive trait in all business deals.

1. Each Arab country has its own way of dressing traits and rules to follow. The values of Islam are revered all over the Arabian countries. The dress code for women also changes and the styles in abayah and veil are also specific. Be it Egypt, Morocco or Jordan, the various ways of life seem interesting for a businessmen. The keyword is adaptation to the rules of business conduct. Arab people are good listeners but it is not fine to keep talking about your product. They do not like bragging and excessive talking about business.

2. Most Arabs also prefer to have an informal seating arrangement and hence it would be nice if you dress appropriately. You must never emulate their dress code or turban as they will not like it at all. It is fine for you to wear a business suit but you must make it sure that you are comfortable as during a meal you might need to sit on the floor along with everyone else. Arabs believe in hospitality a lot and hence you will find the best spreads in meat and other types of delicacies. You have to remember that any mention of pork or alcohol must be avoided. Arabs also do not prefer nicotine or chewing gum and its best to avoid it front of them and also care to be taken not to talk about the same.

3. The other big thing that you will notice is that religion plays a much more important role in business than it does in other countries. Some of this is obvious like when the entire country shuts down several times a day for prayer. Other aspects are not so obvious, like the schemes that banks have to use to get around the prohibitions on lending money. It is important to keep in mind that not everybody in the Arab world is a Muslim. There are also differences between the various Muslim sects so you have to be careful to not lump everybody together.

4. In the western world and also in non Arab countries, business deals are about direct talks about business. Only when the deal is clinched do they partake in an informal meet or mix business with pleasure. But in the Arabian nations, the talks do not directly materialize. It might take a lot of time for you to impress them and a still further time to clinch the deal lawfully.