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Apr 22

Celebrating Easter across Cultures

Cross Cultural Training, Cultural training for Relocation, Culture No Comments »

Millions of people are going to celebrate Easter this weekend, an important holiday in the Christian faith that is celebrated around the world. Easter originally stems from pagan traditions which celebrated the goddess Eostre and spring. Many of these traditions then merged with the Christian celebration of Jesus’ death and resurrection around the same time, creating the holiday which we now celebrate today.

Celebrations of Easter can vary dramatically across cultures. For some, Easter still has a very deep religious meaning and will be celebrated traditionally with periods of fasting, prayer and feasts. Others will celebrate with a simple meal together with family, a service at Church or games with children.

No matter where in the world you are doing business, it’s important to recognise the importance of this holiday and how it is celebrated when working across cultures. Here are a few ideas of the festivities and traditions you may come across when doing business in the US, France, the Czech Republic and Spain.

Easter Eggs gilaxia i Celebrating Easter across Cultures

© istockphoto.com/ Gilaxia

Easter in the US

Easter is celebrated to varying degrees in the US. Some people will go to church for every symbolic event during the Easter period while others may only celebrate with a traditional meal on Easter Sunday. Good Friday is a public holiday in the US, but Easter Monday may only be given as a holiday by some businesses so when doing business in the US always ask when your counterparts will be working during this time.

Easter tends to be a very popular holiday with children in the US and often involves events or food around the theme of bunnies and eggs. Easter egg hunts are one of the most common American Easter traditions. Another popular Easter tradition in the US for children and adults alike is egg rolling. The most famous egg rolling race in the US takes place on the lawn of the White House and involves children and parents pushing eggs through the grass with wooden spoons. Children also traditionally wake up to a basket of chocolates, jelly beans and other treats or small gifts on Easter Sunday.

Easter in France

In France, flying bells replace the symbol of the bunny. Children believe that the flying bells hide chocolate eggs in the garden while they are sleeping. This tradition comes from a Christian belief that church bells flew to the Vatican in Rome to see the Pope and returned on Easter Sunday bringing chocolate and eggs. This belief is one reason why church bells do not ring from Good Friday to Easter Monday in France.

To celebrate Easter many families in France will share a meal together and give chocolate flying bells, eggs and bunnies to children and boxes of chocolates to family, friends and colleagues. Easter Monday is a bank holiday so bear this in mind when doing business in France.

Easter in the Czech Republic

The most popular Easter game in the Czech Republic is egg tapping. In this game players must tap each other’s hard boiled and decorated eggs with their own in an attempt to break them without damaging their egg. In some areas of the Czech Republic, men will gently hit women with handmade whips decorated with ribbons on Easter Monday. This tradition can be linked to a legend of the Middle Ages which suggested that women should be spanked to stay healthy and beautiful for the coming year. In Prague, music festivals and Easter markets animate the city.

Many of these traditions are also celebrated in other countries in Central and Eastern Europe such as Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. Home to many Orthodox beliefs, many Eastern European countries celebrate Easter more religiously with periods of prayer and feasts with family. Easter is the period where thousands of Orthodox pilgrims converge on Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The Orthodox Church celebrates Easter according to the Julian calendar, so the date may vary from the Christian calendar. Bear this in mind when doing business in Central and Eastern Europe as working hours may be disrupted in a different way.

Easter in Spain

In Spain the week leading up to Easter called Semana Santa is celebrated with great effort. On Palm Sunday people traditionally attend morning mass and then watch a procession organised by local churches to celebrate the arrival of Jesus in Jerusalem. During the procession children and adults will often carry palm leaves for the priest to bless. On Ash Wednesday worshippers may fast and also place ashes on their foreheads as a sign of remorse. This tradition can be seen by many practising Christians around the world.

On Easter Sunday some cities like Almaden de la Plata and Castilblanco de los Arroyos have Easter parades that end with the burning of giant puppets representing famous people. The city of Verges hosts a traditional midnight death dance parade where people wear costumes. At the end of the procession people dressed as skeletons carrying boxes of ashes perform a ghoulish dance. In Sevilla, people will wear penitential robes with pointy hats and walk through the streets following heavy wooden floats carried by men. The streets on the route of the Semana Santa procession are covered with fresh rosemary and people will watch from their balconies waving palms as the procession passes. During the Easter Sunday feast, godfathers will often give their godchildren a traditional cake called ‘La Mona’.

Easter traditions around the world can have a huge impact on anyone doing business internationally. Showing an awareness of the religious and cultural traditions that form part of Easter will help you to not only make a positive impression when working across cultures but it will help you to more effectively manage a period when many people take time off.

Failing to understanding an Easter tradition or not respecting a cultural custom can cause frustration and potential misunderstanding with your international counterparts. A simple greeting, chocolate or card on this holiday could make a huge difference to your cross-cultural relationship, just check what is appropriate in advance.

© Communicaid Group Ltd. 2011

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Mar 17

God is Brazilian! The International Rush for Brazilian Oil

Cross Cultural Training, Cultural training for Relocation, Culture, Culture training for Business & Management, Culture training for Human Resources No Comments »
Brazil 2 bkindler i1 God is Brazilian! The International Rush for Brazilian Oil

© istockphoto.com/bkindler

 

‘God is Brazilian!’ – Those were the patriotic words of Brazil’s president Lula da Silva, upon hearing of the recent discovery of new oil fields off the coast of Brazil which – if current estimates prove to be correct – could place Brazilian oil reserves level with those of Russia and Saudi Arabia.

The blocks are 170 miles off the coast, under both deep water and thick layers of salt, so drilling them promises to be technically very challenging. Yet the potential profit is so great that Brazil has become the focus of all major international oil companies searching for new reserves, including British-based BP.

While it has a strong presence in the Gulf of Mexico, BP was one of the few international companies with no assets in Brazil, at least until this week when it announced the beginning of a joint venture with US based Devon Energy. As part of the joint venture agreement BP has bought the American firm’s precious oil fields off the Brazilian coast, and has secured the future development of its oil sands in Canada.

The challenges posed by an international business venture of the size and importance BP is embarking on are many. Establishing new operations in foreign countries, or taking over the management of pre-existing ones require both technical know-how and a sound awareness of the cultural differences in business practices new and existing employees are likely to encounter.  Communicaid has worked alongside a number of international oil and gas companies providing tailored cross cultural training programmes to ensure employees have the right level of cultural knowledge and skills required to be successful when doing business in other cultures.

Cross cultural training programmes have included pre-assignment training for existing staff and their families prior to relocation. Programmes like Living and Working in Saudi Arabia provide employees and their families with the necessary input to live and work successfully in the target destination.

Communicaid has also delivered a number of tailored cross cultural training programmes for business and management to a number of large oil companies.  These programmes are designed ad-hoc with each organisation’s specific needs in mind and therefore vary in both nature and content.

One of the most common requirements international oil companies have identified is the need to train key decision makers to successfully Manage International Teams. The nature of the energy industry means that teams will most likely be composed of highly qualified and experienced individuals from a variety of cultural backgrounds. Creating a successful team spirit and working environment, bridging any possible cultural difference, therefore becomes key for the team’s success, and ultimately for that of the whole organisation.

Communicaid’s cross cultural training programmes are delivered by trainers with vast experience of the country of destination so they bring first hand experience and understanding of the potential problems that can occur both in the workplace and in ever-day situations in another culture. Training is highly interactive, allowing delegates to develop a concrete awareness of the cultural differences they will encounter and personalised ways of dealing with them.

While the race for Brazil’s black gold is most definitely on, unlike most races the first one to get there is not necessarily the winner. Many international joint ventures are known to have failed with the passing of time, often due to a lack of cross cultural awareness by all parties involved.

Communicaid has long recognised the risks to global organisations of ignoring cross cultural differences in international operations and has developed a vast network of trainers and a rich database of materials to provide international companies the training they need to avoid lost money and time and give them the competitive edge.

© Communicaid Group Ltd. 2010

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Jan 05

Hidden Barriers to Conducting Effective Cross-Cultural Job Interviews

Cross Cultural Training, Culture, Culture training for Business & Management, Culture training for Human Resources, Culture training for the Public sector No Comments »

Effectively interviewing and recruiting candidates with optimal talent is essential to any organisation’s global capability, strategic planning and direct and indirect costs. As employment continues to rise and the number of job applicants multiplies at an enhanced rate, organisations hiring new employees are faced with an increasingly large pool of cross-cultural candidates from around the world.

Conducting effective interviews of candidates from your own country is not always as simple as it may seem. Interviewing candidates from another culture is even more challenging as the number of things that need to be considered and correctly evaluated increases significantly.

When interviewing someone from another culture it is important to remember that your own cultural values and expectations can have a huge influence on how you interpret that person’s skills and experience. There are many stories of cross-cultural interviews where the opportunity to hire an excellent candidate was missed due to misinterpretation or misunderstanding of cultural differences.

To avoid missing a great candidate, you must be aware of how both verbal and non-verbal communication can vary dramatically from one culture to another. Cross-cultural training can increase your understanding and awareness of the following cultural variables that affect cross-cultural job interviews:

• Eye contact
• Tone of voice
• Facial expressions
• Gestures
• Greetings
• Pauses and silence
• Context
• Hierarchy

Examples of failing to correctly interpret cross-cultural values and behaviours can be both simple and complex. For example, many candidates from countries where respect for hierarchy is high such as China or Vietnam will avoid making direct eye contact with the interviewer. In a country like the UK or US, eye contact is really important and serves to not only build trust but create confidence in the candidate’s abilities and skills. Candidates from China and Vietnam are therefore often considered shy and lacking self-assurance.

A more complex example revolves around how candidates deal with context. A candidate from a low context culture such as Germany or the US will provide a lot more detail when asked a question than someone from a high context culture who might give a much shorter and indirect answer. This can often be interpreted as either talking too much or not having enough experience when it’s really more of a question of communication style preference.

Understanding these and other cross-cultural variables and the impact they have on your evaluation of a candidate’s skills, experience and personality is fundamental to successful recruitment. Cross-cultural training programmes for Human Resources such as Conducting Cross-Cultural Interviews can help ensure you avoid making judgements based on cultural stereotypes or erroneous interpretations.

Understanding these differences through cross-cultural training will enable you to overcome the obstacles cultural differences create and help you select the best person for the job.

pixel Hidden Barriers to Conducting Effective Cross Cultural Job Interviews
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