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Bridging the Culture Gap: A Practical Guide to International Business Communication | 
 enlarge | Authors: Penny Carte, Chris Fox
Publisher: Kogan Page
Category: Book
List Price: $35.00
Buy New: $19.48
You Save: $15.52 (44%)
New (34) Used (8) from $19.48
Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 487230
Format: Illustrated
Media: Paperback
Edition: 2nd
Pages: 192
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.7
ISBN: 0749452749
Dewey Decimal Number: 395.52
EAN: 9780749452742
ASIN: 0749452749
Publication Date: August 28, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new item. Over 3.5 million customers served. Order now. Selling online since 1995. Order with confidence. Code: B20081121221340T
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Product Description
As globalization continues to gather momentum, the contact between business people from other countries is becoming more and more frequent. The more national boundaries a company crosses, the greater the scope for misunderstanding and conflict. To succeed internationally, it is essential to be able to break the barriers of culture, language and set patterns of thinking. The second edition of Bridging the Culture Gap is a distillation of many years' work and is based on the real-life business situations of the authors' international clients. Readers will learn how to interpret a company's "party line," communicate with style, get their message across, be sensitive to other cultures, and ultimately win the deal. This updated edition also includes a new chapter on making oneself understood in "offshore" English. Packed with cases, cultural awareness scales, communication tests and practical tips, this lively guide will help anyone of any nationality become a better communicator. Whether one's task is to give a presentation to a cross-cultural group or to negotiate with an overseas client, Bridging the Culture Gap will ensure that the reader has the cultural awareness to communicate the intended message.
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| Customer Reviews:
 The best book on culture I've read to date... December 11, 2007
Jennifer Carey (Beirut, Lebanon)
I found this book to be so useful that I passed it on to a business associate and am now replacing it with 2 copies - one for myself and one for use by my consulting team.
I am an american woman and have been working in Europe, the Middle East and Africa since 1999. I manage a team of consultants and nearly all of our clients are located abroad. In many of the places we work, there simply aren't books written about how to do business there. Even if there were, some have wildly different cultures from one region to the next (sudan is a great example, italy as well, though to a lesser degree) and many of our clients have a multicultural employee base themselves with their own gaps to bridge. To add to the complexity, my team is Lebanese and nearly all books written to 'explain' culture are speaking directly to westerners, in particular Americans. Nobody out there seems to be trying to explain the Egyptians to the Lebanese or the Sudanese to the South Africans.
As an american, the primary target of these books, I've read many over the years and have been pretty disappointed by most. Few seem to go beyond cultural ideosynchracies and etiquette to the values and beliefs that drive those behaviors. I find that after spending a short amount of time in a place I've already figured out most of what these books contain. From my experience, just learning the the 'rules' can sometimes do more harm than good unless you understand the underlying cultural values that are behind those 'rules'. Not until you understand the motivation behind them, will you be able to apply them appropriately. Unfortunately, few culture books get to that level of depth.
This is why I love this book. Bridging the Cultural Gap reviews in detail key areas where cultures tend to have differing interpretations about what is 'right' or 'appropriate' based on their underlying values and beliefs. The book also provides excellent anecdotal stories that help to cement the concepts.
I found that once I understood the cultural variations discussed in the book, I was able to apply those concepts to my immediate environment and fairly quickly gain insight into the different cultures I work with. If you are really interested in understanding other cultures or need to do any kind of real business in another country (beyond conferences and trainings) I recommend reading this book first as a foundation then supplementing it with any country specific books you might find. Your ability to apply the rules laid out in the latter will be much improved by your understanding of the former.
 Informative and interesting, but lacking as a reference August 27, 2005
Amanda E. Robinson (Montreal, Quebec)
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
I found this to be an enjoyable and informative read, but at the same time, I believe it is lacking a critical piece which renders it nearly useless as a reference.
Each chapter focuses on a particular cultural dimension -- for example, relative vs. absolute truth; attitude about time (monochronic vs. polychronic); and preference for written vs. spoken agreements. It's well-written, engaging, and the anecdotes really bring the concepts home.
However, I could see readers approaching this material from two directions: you either want to learn about cultural differences in a general sense, OR you need to quickly look up the interesting features of a particular region or culture. I consider the second to be the more important and probably most common real-world use, but unfortunately this book is not optimized for that at all.
Many cultures are not referenced consistently, are only mentioned in one or two chapters, and are otherwise overlooked. The index is no help either -- you've got to either take your own notes as you read, or go back through the whole book to find what you're looking for. The last chapter does provide a helpful summary of the dimensions covered in the book, but it does not address this problem.
I feel this oversight is important enough to dock 2 stars for an otherwise recommended book.
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