FORGING BONDS IN A GLOBAL WORKFORCE

Molinsky and Hahn help international managers navigate unfamiliar languages, awkward conversations, embarrassing gaffes, and other obstacles in this savvy business guide.

The authors (Molinsky is a management professor at Brandeis, Hahn an intercultural communications expert) note that, with most big companies having sales, partners, and employees in foreign countries, a nuanced understanding of other cultures is a must for harmonious working relationships. They explore common errors of cross-cultural expectations and the “6 P’s” of relationship building, which include gauging Power imbalances (no American-style schmoozing with the boss in hierarchical Japan) and identifying Places where relationships grow (skipping tea with officemates will mark you as a standoffish jerk in Belfast). Molinsky and Hahn spotlight many stories of cultural misunderstandings culled from interviews. These include the American who thought his Japanese boss’s effusive praise of his idea was sincere when it was actually just the polite Japanese way of saying it was awful, and the plain-spoken Polish IT team that didn’t register their Indian colleagues’ indirect hints that they couldn’t meet a deadline. The authors approach workplace social psychology in a largely anecdotal way, but they also provide systematic, practical tips on the fundamental relational art of conversation, from initiating small talk (comment on the food if nothing else comes to mind) to gracefully exiting a dull chat (“I have to go in a few minutes, but before I go, I’d love to hear. . .”). They convey all this in prose that’s vivid and punchy, as in one vignette of a thunderous civilizational clash between a nonplussed French executive and the Yankee HR manager who made employees toss a ball of yarn around in a teambuilding exercise (“‘How could you demean and humiliate me and everyone in there?’ Philippe screamed. ‘You made us look like children…Your idea was ludicrous—and so typically American’”). Readers will find this a useful primer on dealing with people abroad and at home.

An entertaining and insightful guide for strangers doing business in strange lands.