Video Reflection: Cultural Misunderstandings

Introduction

In the videos 'Cultural Misunderstandings Part 1 and 2', a global mindset entails the awareness of the different aspects of international cultures and markets. Companies with a global mindset approach cultural diversity as opportunities for exploitation and they adopt the desirable practices when operating or dealing with people from different geographical locations (Rabstein Part 1). Changes in technology require organizations to have global operations and successful companies need leaders with a global mindset.

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The key characteristics of multinational corporations include worldwide operations, the production of high-quality products that are competitive at home and in foreign countries and the maintenance of a good global network. The key strategies used by multinational companies like the ones in the video include establishing partnerships with foreign companies (Rabstein Part 1). Multinational corporations also make maximum use of advanced technology like the German company would communicate with their partners in India and Turkey through the phone. Also, multinational corporations utilize cultural diversity as opportunities like the Turkey and India representatives were seen to expect their business partners to have a commitment to cultural diversity.

Cultural intelligence is the ability to relate with people from different cultures and still reap maximum benefits from the interactions by communicating and working effectively with them. The Germans in the video showed significant aspects of lack of cultural intelligence. They were ignorant about the Indian culture such that they ended up providing the Indian representative with food containing beef yet cows are considered Holy animals by followers of Hinduism religion, the prominent religion in India (Rabstein Part 2). Similarly, they were too concerned about the inability of their visitors from India and Turkey to keep time.

Conclusion

High context cultures are those that show high dependence on nonverbal cues and implicit communication. In high context cultures relationships and trust builds slowly. By contrast, low context cultures depend solely on communication and relations tend to begin quickly and they are also ended easily. The Germans seem to have a low context culture while the Turkey representative has a high context culture. For instance, during the initial meeting, the German did not value the importance of personal information given by the representative from Turkey and they hoped that negotiations would start right away (Rabstein Part 1). However, the Turkey representative felt that it was vital for the creation of trust and giving personal information and a long handshake was a way of initiating trust.

Works Cited

Rabstein.Cultural Misunderstandings (Part 1). 2012, You Tube, 00:00-11:26.

Rabstein. Cultural Misunderstandings (Part 2). 2012, You Tube, 00:00-1135.