Preface

The aim of this book is simple, although I would have preferred it to be something more than simple.

Perhaps it may sound pompous to say that I aim to contribute to the understanding of people and to make people happier in the workplace. But it is true. This is what I would like this book to accomplish.

My generation has not been educated to be international, to think interculturally, to be citizens of the world. At most, some of us have been brought up to be binational if circumstances compelled us. But in general we learned at school our national anthem and the glories of our ancestors much earlier than we were invited to discover with curiosity the mysteries of alternative ways of thinking, perceiving, and feeling… at home and abroad.

Geert Hofstede, the greatest author in terms of cultural anthropology (in my humble view) has written on his weblog, “Culture is more often a source of conflict than of synergy. Cultural differences are a nuisance at best and often a disaster” (http://www.geert-hofstede.com/). I must admit that I felt very sad when I read this statement, because unfortunately I feel this is true. I would not like cultures to be a nuisance or a disaster, but rather a source of creativity and continuous challenge to the boundaries of our thought. I would love cultures to be the source of inspiration and understanding.

Honestly, I am not sure this book will help me change the world overnight. But at least I hope it will give the readers a few hints on how to work better with others and use diversity as an asset, not as a barrier to overcome.

The book’s structure is very simple. First, I will present a model that will help us understand why we think differently, why we assume differently, and why we act differently in different cultures. Then I will review the most commonly discussed frameworks for cultural analysis to see how these differences operate in our ways of thinking and feeling. And finally I will explore applications of these differences in business situations.

This book has “exercises” at the end of each chapter. I am using quotations marks for the word “exercises” because I am not sure this is what they are. Very honestly, I would prefer to call them “invitations to have readers think on specific points elaborated in this chapter,” because I am not sure whether there are right or wrong answers to them. And to be honest… who am I to think there are any right or wrong answers in anything relating to cross-cultural management? Even more than in theoretical physics, in cross-cultural management, “Everything is relative,

Dr. Einstein.” What is really important is to have people challenge themselves and assume there might be alternative ways of perceiving reality. If my questions succeed in doing that, then it will be wonderful.

Nevertheless, let me suggest an approach you may find useful to tackle these “invitations to think.” Ideally, the most important thing would be to face the activity suggestions with an open mind and try to solve the puzzles relating them to situations you have faced in the past and think what you could have done better. Try to focus on the things that went wrong and find the origin of these misunderstandings, misapprehensions, misconceptions, miscommunications, and so forth. But do not feel regret, just think how you could do better next time.

If you have never been in such a situation in the past, try asking for help from someone who has, or could have been in a similar situation; get into chat rooms dealing with the topics in hand, find people from the cultures in question, and discuss points of views with them.

But if you have any questions or would like to discuss any particular topic further, I am at your disposal. My email is [email protected].

I will not promise to answer all and each of the questions appearing in the book individually for every single reader who writes to me, but I am open to listening to your suggestions or questions and getting back to you on them. My consultancy group also prepares seminars in cross-cultural management for people willing to take matters further.

I am not sure readers of this book will feel as strongly as I do the need to investigate with passion the unknown in others or the deep curiosity to explore the reasons for their behavior and attitudes. But I would have done a good job if some of you readers think “Oh, that is why!” or “Oh, that is what happened really!” when going through these pages.

In any case, I hope this book will be useful and that a few years from now, when upcoming generations will have realized that living and working with others is much more fun when we understand them than when we judge them, they will find my writings still useful and relevant.

In the meantime, enjoy your reading…