True or False?
When a person answers a question
by shaking their head back and forth,
they are saying “no”. This is false.
Although in the United States and
many other countries, shaking one’s
head means “no”, in Greece and Bulgaria, it means “yes”.
If a person is asked if they could
complete a work task and they answer “yes”, it means they will complete the task. This is false. In many
cultures, when one answers that they
“could complete a task” is a different question than if they “would”
complete a task. Cultural differences
could lead to disagreements when
the task is not completed by the person who answered they “could” do
it — not that they agreed that they
“would” do it. When a U.S. manager tells a subordinate that they “may
consider doing” something, they
may be expecting that the subordinate will do it rather than “considering doing it” and then decide to do
something else. It is important to be
specific.
tend to focus sequentially on one
agenda item at a time and to have a
shorter-term perspective than cultures from other parts of the world.
an must extend her hand first before the man shakes her hand. And,
in other cultures, touching (such as
shaking hands) among the opposite
sex is strictly forbidden. It is important to be aware of the team members’ practices to avoid offending in
ignorance.
Making eye contact with someone
who is speaking shows you are listening or interested. This is false. Although making eye contact is a cultural expectation for showing interest
in the U.S., in many As