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Riding the Waves of Culture: Understanding Cultural Diversity in Business
Riding the Waves of Culture: Understanding Cultural Diversity in Business

Paperback
Edition: 2nd Revised edition
Author: Fons Trompenaars, Charles Hampden Turner
Publisher: Nicholas Brealey Publishing Ltd
Release Date: September 1997
ISBN-10: 1857881761
ISBN-13: 9781857881769
List Price: £14.99
Average Customer Rating:
Score = 5.0 Score = 5.0 Score = 5.0 Score = 5.0 Score = 5.0
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Customer Reviews
Average Customer Rating: Score = 5.0 Score = 5.0 Score = 5.0 Score = 5.0 Score = 5.0

A pioneering work that can be improved
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I am a cross-cultural trainer and have over the last twenty years trained thousands of EU business people, who were preparing to do business in China, using the cultural model developed by "culture guru" Geert Hofstede in his bestseller Culture's Consequences in 1980. The model asserts, based on analysis of responses of Westerners and Asians to questions designed by the author, that Westerners and Asians (including the Chinese) are characterised by individualism and collectivism respectively.

This model was subsequently reinforced by Fons Trompenaars in his cultural "masterpiece" (according to Tom Peters, who triggered the growth of the management guru industry in the early 1980s) Riding the Waves of Culture in 1993, based on analyses of an even bigger database consisting of responses to questionnaire surveys.

Even in leading psychologist Richard Nisbett's latest book Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently ... and Why, Professor Nisbett concludes that "The ecology of China ... favoured agriculture. ... Agricultural peoples need to get along with one another ... The ecology of Greece, on the other hand ... favoured hunting, herding and fishing ... [which] require relatively little cooperation with others."

After visiting China a few times, I began to feel that the Chinese are not collectivists at all. The most obvious evidence is that even when there are only two people at the airport, they are unlikely to queue at a service point. It is even harder to secure people's cooperation when you want to get a bigger task done. I was puzzled by my first-hand feelings, which were clearly against the cultural model I have been relying on in my training job over the years.

Following a friend's recommendation, I bought The China Executive, which completely resolves my puzzle. Dr Wang has shown that the difference between Westerners and the Chinese does not lie in the difference between individualism and collectivism. Instead, their difference lies in the fact that Westerners rely on ideas, rules and ideologies to organise themselves whereas the Chinese rely on their human feelings to each other to organise themselves. We may say that one relies on something external whereas the other relies on something internal.

What a great discovery!

But the greatness of the book does not stop here. In my cross-cultural training, I tend to adopt an analytical mindset, which seeks to develop deeper and deeper understanding of the differences between cultures. I have always thought that this is what my trainees have wanted. After reading The China Executive, I have realised that my approach was not practical because, as Dr Wang says, "a lot of these cultural analyses tend to overload" those who come to my class. What is needed is a pool of methods that practising business people can choose depending on the nature of the difference. To master Dr Wang's ground-breaking idea of "harmonising cultural differences at three levels - ignoring and tolerating, communicating and balancing, and training and learning", buy the book immediately.

In fact, with The China Executive in your hands, you won't be puzzled wherever you go in the world because there are only two things on earth that relate human beings to each other: abstract ideas and human feelings. They are really the two sides of the same coin - one cannot exist without the other - if we look at them in an even bigger context, but the challenge for us human beings is to balance them appropriately, as Dr Wang advises those globally-minded business people!

Understanding and Managing Diversity
 Customer Rating:  Score = 4 Score = 4 Score = 4 Score = 4 Score = 4
I knew I'd like this book when I read the first paragraph - "It is our belief that you can never understand other cultures. Those who are married know that it is impossible ever completely to understand even people of your own culture". And that, pretty much, is the theme of the book. That said, the authors use seven dimensions of culture to help us understand how and why people might think in different ways. This I found enlightening and even entertaining, though spending nearly 150 pages examining these dimensions is perhaps overcooking it a little. The book certainly does give you a different perspective, a new way of thinking about diversity, but it doesn't provide any easy answers. There are no miracle formulae or quick fixes to managing diversity. The conclusion is more to be open, and stay in a positive frame of mind. Take time to consider different people's needs and priorities from different angles. Inspirational stuff, if a little stodgy in parts.

First rate, readable introduction to "why they do things"
 Customer Rating:  Score = 5 Score = 5 Score = 5 Score = 5 Score = 5
Peppering the book with anecdotes, Trompenaars and Hampden Turner take a logical, cogent and clear approach to how people are different when they conduct business.

This goes far beyond simple stereotypes of "Northern Europeans are colder than Southern Europeans" and attempts to explain why these differences come about. They then suggest alternate approaches to interactions between different cultures.

The book is general in approach and teaches skills that are relevant globally. This means that if you're after specifics of (say) how rural Korean cultures interact with the Japanese, you'll find the book a bit thin!

However: I wish I'd had this book when I started working in a European team.


Fantastic
 Customer Rating:  Score = 5 Score = 5 Score = 5 Score = 5 Score = 5
If you are doing a business course read this. I read it as part of my studies, then read it again for pleasure- you learn so much!

good range of coverage
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Was needing advice for a cross-cultural project between American and British teams. Good insights, though chose a more specific book, "Working with Americans" (Stewart-Allen, Denslow) which told me more about how Americans do business, and their orientation and values in a very accessible, friendly and humourous way... Trompenaars knows his stuff, but doesn't get the chance to focus on the US as much as I'd have liked.

























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