The Culture Map: Breaking Through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business

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Some suggest that low-context cultures are more likely to notice how objects differ, so they’re also more likely to believe that a ‘best choice’ exists. However, there are few systematic methods for analyzing and dealing with specific cultural differences.

To manage a globally and culturally diverse team, it is important to understand how cultures affect persuasion. On the other hand, communication with a low-context culture will require more specific, precise, and clear communication. These people share cultural understandings about etiquette, so the speaker doesn’t need to be explicit; the listener is responsible for decoding the underlying meaning. Again, we could think that leading style and decision-making are overlapped, but it is not the case in several cultures.In cultures where low-context communication styles are prevalent, people assume a low level of shared context — few shared reference points and comparatively little implicit knowledge linking speaker and listener.

Countries such as Japan and Korea are high-context cultures mainly due to the homogeneity in population. Cultures are discussed, with conclusions of direct or indirect feedback, hierarchical and egalitarian leadership, and high or low context communication. At the heart of Erin Meyer’s exceptional book, “The Culture Map,” is an “eight-scale model” which should help managers and leaders of culturally diverse teams improve their effectiveness by offering them a platform to analyze the positioning of one culture relative to another and, thus, correctly decode the meaning of some actions and gestures. As the following story illustrates: "I once asked a French client, who was complaining about an incompetent team leader, whether he had described the problem to his boss. However, you are better off avoiding confrontation altogether in East Asian countries, since it is harshly frowned upon.Though people from peach cultures look friendly, getting the trust and really getting to know someone from a peach culture requires effort. Shortform note: Meyer’s idea that meetings have three purposes has limited outside support and is based on her own unpublished survey data. Shortform note: Make this process more comfortable by building trust with your business partners and holding your meetings in places conducive to reaching a consensus. In addition, the possibility of using the proposed approach to provide information support for current state policy-making is assessed, and key results of the study are examined.