Cultural Differences In Business Life Understanding German And American Business Culture

Seminar paper from the year 2006 in the subject Business economics - Marketing, Corporate Communication, CRM, Market Research, Social Media, grade: 1,3, http: //www.uni-jena.de/ (Philosphische Fakultät - Lehrstuhl Interkulturelle Wirtschaftskommunikation), course: Interkulturseminar USA-Deutschland, 15 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: Globalization has led to remarkable changes in the way we conduct the world's business. International Mergers and acquisitions are en vogue today. The advantages quoted by managers include advantages of scale, increased shareholder value, access to new markets, lower overheads and so on. The number of international mergers and acquisitions between German and American companies increased a lot during the last years, as well. At the beginning there are high hopes and elation connected with the deal. But the long-term reality, however, is much the opposite. At least 50 percent of all international mergers and acquisition activity fails, no matter how the success is measured. There are also lots of companies who failed, who are therefore not able to benefit from some positive synergy effects like cost reductions. Why did that happen? A survey tried to analyze the reasons for this. The surprising result was that just 30% of the failures were attributed to the "hard factors" of business, like planning, finance or technology. For the rest, the reason lay in the so-called "soft factors", which contain cultural and organizational behaviour. Somewhat less acknowledged, although hardly disputed, is the positive and negative impact of cultural aspects on the success of M&A activity. The following work reveals the differences between American and German business culture and also analyzes its historical and social background. Thereby, the main goal is to disprove that American and German business styles are almost similar. Furthermore, at the end the reader should know more about the existing differences between t

Seminar paper from the year 2014 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: 1,3, Pforzheim University, language: English, abstract: This paper gives a brief overview about essential differences between the German and American business culture. Nowadays business is run globally and does not know any barriers. Trade and access to new markets are expanding, international mergers and acquisitions or joint ventures are increasing, business relations are getting strongly interconnected worldwide. Therefore, managers have to take into account national and international regulations. Employees of multinational companies work in various countries for a certain period, students go abroad as interns in order to gain work and intercultural experiences. Countries all over the world are involved in business issues, includ-ing the differences regarding cultures, societies, and the way of doing business, that creates not only opportunities but represents challenges as well. Through globalization business faces many workplace related cultural differences.

'Why they are complaining?' 'Why do they treat me this way?' 'Why are they offending my team?'Intercultural misunderstandings are a pain. Fact-oriented cultures and relationship-oriented cultures clash. They have different styles of communication, different views on the same things, and contrary core values. The Germans are fact-oriented. Their habits make doing business with them a challenge. This book educates managers and professionals on how best to work with Germans and helps them avoid intercultural misunderstandings. It reveals the three key characteristics for consideration to make business with Germans a success: directness — adherence — commitment.

Seminar paper from the year 2011 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, , language: English, abstract: This seminar paper deals with Sweden and Germany as negotiation partners from a German perspective. Although one would assume quite various similarities between these countries due to geographical proximity and same origin of language, they are indeed quite different – an issue also investigated by Eoro Vaara. The aim of this paper is to show that even slight or subtle differences in cultural patterns should be considered. Therefore only who can communicate without cultural misunderstandings can experience successful cross-cultural negotiations. Sweden has been chosen since there is a lot of research about cultural differences between American, Asian and Arab countries, but hardly any regarding inter-European. Another reason is also because of personal experiences in Sweden and with Swedish friends. It was challenging to investigate in a country, which does not seem to be culturally much apart from Germany. After a short introduction, the second chapter gives the reader a definition for culture and an overview of Hofstede’s model of dimensions. This chapter also presents the different kind of cultures from a German and Swedish perspective. Therefore the third chapter deals with negotiations between Germans and Swedes while doing business. This paper ends with the chapter “conclusion”.

Human resource management, at home and abroad, means assisting the corporation's most valuable asset-its people-to function effectively. Edward T. and Mildred Reed Hall contribute to this effort by explaining the cultural context in which corporations in Germany, France, and the United States operate and how this contributes to misunderstandings between business personnel from each country. Then they offer new insights and practical advice on how to manage day-to-day transactions in the international business arena. Understanding Cultural Differences echoes and elaborates on Edward T. Hall's classic studies in intercultural relations, The Silent Language and The Hidden Dimension. It is a valuable guide for business executives from the three countries and a model of cross-cultural analysis.

The world and trade worldwide face a progress in globalization which is, among other factors, caused by improvements in technology, the rising trend to multicultural departments and lower labor costs. In 2009, there were 82,000 transnational corporations worldwide, thus making the understanding of multiculturalism become more important than anything else. The goal of this paper is to give a short introduction to Trompenaars’ model of culture, explain the dimension “diffuse versus specific”, compare the German and American culture and to validate this model by these chosen aspects.