View video – IESE Business School, University of Navarro: Yih-Teen Lee’s Challenges of Managing Cultural Differences [9:52 min.] Professor Lee discusses key cultural competences of conducting business across Western and East Asian cultures, particularly in relation to the role of Confucianism in business relationships. He notes most people usually focus on surface aspects of culture, such as social etiquette; however, effective international business communication requires a deeper level of cultural understanding, which requires cultural sensitivity training. Training should involve learning specific cultural knowledge to make sense of cultural events, values and context, why people behave the way they do, and what various events mean for the local cultural insiders. Lee gives illustrative examples of value differences in social hierarchy, roles and relationship building, and time expectations that are important for Western companies entering the Chinese market to understand in order to avoid misunderstanding, conflict and potential business costs.
