Business Culture and Norms - the UK and Korea - Case Study Example

Business Culture and Norms: The Case of UK and Korea Table of contents Table of Contents Introduction 3 International Business Culture 3 Effect of Culture on Business Activities 4 Cross cultural or intercultural communication 4 Intercultural relationships between the U.K and Korean people 5 Conclusion 8 References 9 Brief the UK Company on Business and National Cultural Norms in the Host Country Introduction Culture has a remarkable influence on the quality of work life and performance of individual. It is defined as the set of knowledge, morals, beliefs, custom, art, law, habits and any other capabilities that are acquired by individual as a member of society. Culture is a tradition or custom of attitudes and beliefs within an organization that directs the behavior of its employees (Harrison & Carroll, 2006). It can also be described as a system of common morals and principles that interact with a company’s individuals, control systems and organization arrangements to produce behavioral norms. International Business Culture Within an organization, the way how members interconnect, plan and make choices is largely influenced by beliefs, rules of conduct, attitudes, values and norms. Every organization has its own norms, customs, values, expectations and cultures that effect the interaction or behavior of the employees towards administration, associates, colleagues and collaboration between one another to achieve organizational goals. Norms are guidelines set by organizations to workers to be recognized and help them to accomplish its objectives. Members of the organization are directed to learn and follow various proceedings that occur at work and answer to them that expose businesses guiding norms and values (Gannon and Pillai, 2010) Effect of Culture on Business Activities There are number of aspects that effect business success and offer its more development and growth. Business activity is directly affected by the values people follow and culture is demonstrated as the edge where certain set of values work. Values, beliefs and attitudes that are occasionally donated to as “Culture”, has an unchallengeable role in human actions and growth. It appears that in order to contribute in nation’s economic wealth and happiness, there must be a certain set of moral codes and values that assist in doing business (Chang, 2006). Certainly, values play the chief role in decision-building, as they direct attitude to one condition or another. Business success can be influenced by the values of individuals, their attitudes and principles as these features direct their action and behavior. Cultural elements have an important influence on the growth of business. Each society has its own elements of culture (Czinkota and Ronkainen, 2007). These factors of culture are demonstrated through: verbal, Nonverbal, religion, Language, manners, actions, education, aesthetics, social society and material elements. Adjustment of these essentials for an international company governs on its degree in the market contribution. For example, licensing against direct venture and the good or service advertised (Czinkota and Ronkainen, 2007). Cross cultural or intercultural communication In each country, Culture is deliberated through three factors: cultural messages, cultural powers, and customer assessment process. Cultural forces are demonstrated by education, national identity and family. Cultural messages are largely depends on roles, behaviors, beliefs and standards. Universal desires and essentials or needs in the society and consumer trends also affect culture. Every business desires to raise its revenue through the international market and expects for the higher profits from the market. Once the company has been discovered that the company can be grown bigger and the international spreading out will be fruitful, it enters in the global market but disremembers about the intercultural communication that is necessary for the development and formation of the company. Intercultural is a vita element that mostly determines the consumer behavior and eventually disturbs the company’s development and steadiness in the cross cultural environment or in global market. This is not a matter only for the organizations that are incoming in the international market or those who do not have the international know-how but it occurs to the fully developed bigger organizations that already extended its business to global market (Beamer and Varner, 2005). For international market, it is necessary to discover the things worldwide by the marketing manager in terms of cross cultural environment and intercultural communication because it plays a energetic part in the upgrading and formation of the organization in the global market as described by author (Gudykunst, 2003). Intercultural relationships between the U.K and Korean people Intercultural relationships between the U.K and Korean people are known for a long time. They are working together to increase the political, social and economic perspectives of both countries. The U.K community has been recognized to be greatly multicultural fascinating people that welcome all lifestyles to come and carry on the business and non-business affairs. To increase the intercultural communication and cross cultural environment, The British government supports British cultural occasions and rejoices British arts in Korea. They raise the awareness in a number of sectors of Britain’s modern strength with the support of Great Britain public diplomacy promotion. They are ameliorating bigger educational substitute between the UK and Korea and the establishment of alumni relationships in country. In terms of religion, the U.K community provides liberty to people’s way of worship; there are no limitations as to how individuals are projected to pay their loyalty to their form of deity. (Gov.uk, 2013) In terms of increasing business, both countries working closely to improve business relations and leading towards change to an stable , open, and justifiable low-carbon economy through work with each other and with other countries. (Gov.uk, 2013) Korea is becoming a progressively powerful international participant as an important developing power that shares the UK’s approach on many matters. They support better inter-UK relations which will help in security improvement and greater wealth, not only to the region but also to the global community. (Gov.uk, 2013) According to the Korean Cultural Center UK (KCCUK) - sponsored by the South Korean Ministry of Culture to increase cultural and educational links between both countries - many young Britons who encounter Korean culture via social media concede themselves hooked. (Thomas, 2012) Apart from cultural similarities between UKs and Koreans, there are also cultural differences among both of them. Among Koreans, to be touched by somebody who is not a family member or relative or close friend is considered as a personal violation. For this situation, one has to keep out of way all faces of patting, back slapping or touching a Korean. Crossing legs or stretching them straight in front of people during discussions or meetings is considered as a wrong manner. Instead he should keep his feet on the floor. It is completely different in the UK culture. Hand shaking is greatly encouraged by people as a form of respect and honor with no restriction on patting or touching during meetings. Exchanging of gifts is a common custom in Korean culture in business or non-business meetings. In business meetings, gifts are given to protect favors and establish relationships. The giver and receiver exchange gifts with both hands. On the other side, exchanging of gifts is also common in UK culture where people give gifts on graduation parties, birthdays and other social events. Time punctuality considered to be a money in UK culture and it is highly observed by people in social occasions and business meetings. Punctuality is also observed in the Korean people but business men are infrequently late due to busy and hectic schedule. In Korean culture, if one wants to start business, he must bring a plentiful supply of business cards as they exchange frequently. People use both hands when giving and getting cards. It will be regarded as disrespectful if, one shoved the card into the pocket without reading and commenting on it. In UK, people are always eager on detail and admire other people’s new innovative ideas; they will always give plentiful time to individual to describe his ideas. While addressing Korean people, call them by their family name or title name. When the relationship has been recognized, first name can be used. It is necessary not to use terms like guy or fellow when talking to a fellow Korean because these words are taken as demeaning. This is in contrast to the U.K culture where people use such terms prominently in casual discussion. (Kwintessential.co.uk, 2014). Conclusion It is important to know that culture is a vital tool that can support business growth and success worldwide. If there will be no knowledge of the cultural norms and values in both countries, it will result in communal and financial clashes between individuals with business and non-business concerns in each country. New innovations in IT and business substructure open up new prospects in the world. Culture can affect the business in number of ways including product design and development, modes of communication and the organizational standards. In global marketing, it is necessary to interconnect with the different features of information in different countries and culture. Now a days, intercultural communication in global market seems to be significant to generate and development of the business. Moreover, exploration about culture is the best approach to increase proficiency in another people’s culture. One of the leading features of research is Language. Different areas and culture have different languages and their communication ways are also created on the existing language. When an organization start its business to other country where speaking language is different than it create problem in interaction with the local community. Therefore, language should be a foremost priority in understanding the culture of those individuals. This is for the reason that language describes ways of communication as well as other customs of formal and informal relations. References 1. Beamer, L. and Varner, I. (2005). Intercultural communication in the global workplace. 1st ed. Boston, Mass.: McGraw-Hill. 2. Chang, S. (2006). When East and West meet: An essay on the importance of cultural understanding in global business practice and education. Journal of International Business and Cultural Studies, 2, pp.1--13. 3. Czinkota, M. and Ronkainen, I. (2007). International marketing. 1st ed. Fort Worth: Dryden Press. 4. Gannon, M. and Pillai, R. (2010). Understanding global cultures. 1st ed. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: SAGE. 5. Gudykunst, W. (2003). Cross-cultural and intercultural communication. 1st ed. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications. 6. Gov.uk, (2013). Increasing cultural links with Korea - Worldwide Priorities - GOV.UK. [online] Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/priority/increasing-cultural-links-with-korea [Accessed 3 Jul. 2014]. 7. Gov.uk, (2013). Increasing cultural links with Korea - Worldwide Priorities - GOV.UK. [online] Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/priority/increasing-cultural-links-with-korea [Accessed 3 Jul. 2014]. 8. Gov.uk, (2013). Strengthening the UKs relationship with Korea to support UK prosperity and security - Worldwide Priorities - GOV.UK. [online] Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/priority/strengthening-the-uks-relationship-with-korea-to-support-uk-prosperity-and-security [Accessed 3 Jul. 2014]. 9. Harrison, J. and Carroll, G. (2006). Culture and demography in organizations. 1st ed. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. 10. Kwintessential.co.uk, (2014). Doing Business in South Korea | etiquette. [online] Available at: http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/etiquette/doing-business-southkorea.html [Accessed 3 Jul. 2014]. 11. Thomas, R. (2012). Korean culture blitzes London. Asia times. Read More