Appendix
Appendix A
English Communication Customs/Greetings
Various communication customs and greetings must be followed when conducting business in
England. First, it is important to hand out business cards because it is seen as extremely
professional. Although they may put the card away without looking at it, do not get offended
because they will look at it later after the initial meeting.
Business handshakes are usually firm, and handshakes are offered before and after meetings.
Another important note is to not call business partners by their first name until you have been
invited to do so. According to Kwintessential, if you are with fellow business partners from the
United States, it is important to introduce them based on their position. So if someone who
works under you needs to be introduced, make sure they are introduced to a person of higher
status. This rule also goes along with age. If someone is younger, introduce them to an older
business partner.
Along with greetings, there are also a few customs to oral and written communication in
England. After a business meeting, Kwintessential found that sending a letter summarizing what
the main decision from the meeting was is important. It makes our British counterparts ensure
that we are all on the same page and that you took into consideration their concerns and
comments. In the Global Business Etiquette: A Guide to International Communication and
Customs book, when sending out this letter, be sure to use their title name and surname but
“do not use a period after: Mr., Mrs., Ms, or Dr” (Chaney & Martin, 32).
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Appendix: B
Figure 1:
(An example of a typical Chinese seating chart for dinner meetings.)
Figure 2:
Additional Tips for Gifts
Appreciated Gifts


Fruit baskets
Cigarettes
Presents to avoid



Knives or other sharp
objects
Cut flowers
Green hats
(Tips for gift giving in China)
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Appendix C
Current Chinese Religious Practices
Religion can often be the most instrumental part of a person’s life. Knowing a business
partner’s religious affiliation can be very important in business negotiations so we do not
offend, or insult, our counterpart. During our interview with Difei Shen, a native of China, I
brought up the topic of religion and how it might affect business negotiations. From her
experiences, and the area in which she grew up, she explained that a lot of people were either
atheists or did not have any religious beliefs at all. Also, she made a point to say that a lot of it
has to do with the area of China you are working in. Some areas might be more religious than
others. She went on to say that the religious practices should not interfere with business.
Global Business Etiquette: A Guide to International Communications and Customs states that
most people in China practice a combination of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism (Chaney
& Martin, 103). It is also noted that the Chinese government encourages atheism while public
worship is discouraged. Some Chinese take part in something called “ancestor worship”; where
they worship their deceased ancestors by giving offerings. The responsibility of this is bestowed
upon the eldest son. Having a male heir is important because without one, the parents and
ancestors will not be receiving the offerings necessary to survive in the afterlife. Because of this
it may be beneficial to stay away from the subject of religion when talking about family if it
comes up.
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Appendix D
Chinese Social Interactions
Outside of business, the Chinese like to interact with people they do business with to further
build a relationship and to see if they are people they would like to do business with. An
important term to become familiar with is “quanxi”. Quanxi is a relationship that is built up over
time through social interactions and favors (Shen). Without quanxi, it is nearly impossible to
conduct business with a company. The Chinese will always judge us, so it is important to be
aware of what we are doing and how we are acting so the relationship we are trying to build is
not jeopardized.
One social activity we should be prepared to partake in is karaoke. Karaoke is an activity that is
very popular in China. We will have to be prepared to sing, because if we do not, the Chinese
may become offended and your relationship with them could become weaker. Karaoke is a
time to build our relationship with our counterparts so we can show we are sincere and serious
about doing business.
Another activity that can go along with karaoke is drinking. It is very insulting if you do not drink
with your foreign counterparts. When drinking with the Chinese, it is important to “keep up”,
but we need to be careful not to drink too much. The Chinese will still be judging us and this
allows them to see how we really act around each other. In some areas of China it is OK to be
drunk, and sometimes preferred. The Chinese view this as a time to see what your true feelings
are. We will want to do a little research of the area in which we will be conducting business to
see if it is OK to get drunk before making any assumptions (Shen).
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Appendix E
German Business Negotiations
When we think of what most American managers want out of their business, we think of a
positive net income. On the other hand, Germans are not only concerned about a positive net
income but also product quality and customer satisfaction. Germans know that a quality
product is just as important as a positive net income. Because Germans are product oriented,
they are also production oriented. Unlike Americans, high-level German managers understand
how their production lines work and know what is going on in their factories (Executive Planet).
Keeping this in mind, if we have an idea that will help the Germans produce better products,
they will definitely be interested.
A few helpful hints should be kept in mind when trying to negotiate with a group of German
businessmen.
Germans do not care if they have a personal relationship with the people that they work with;
they only care about your abilities and what you have to offer their company (Kwintessential).
Earlier in the report it was mentioned that Germans do not like to combine business with fun;
one suggestion is to minimize the small talk and to not joke around before the meeting
(Frazee). Germans like to work with numbers and lots of data. It is a good idea to mention how
many years your company has been in business and how many people work for your company.
When giving a presentation, include plenty of sources so they know you put a lot of effort into
your research (Frazee). Also, they like to see tables and charts in reports and presentations
(eDiplomat). When handing out reports to the Germans, make sure it is printed in both
German and English (Kwintessential). As discussed earlier Germans are very product oriented,
therefore, they like to hear the words “quality, responsiveness, dedication, and follow up”
(Executive Planet). By using these four words, we will catch their attention and make them
believe we truly have a good product. If the Germans are taking a long time to come to a
decision on the product, do not be alarmed. They usually take their time when making a
decision so they have time to analyze the idea. Gifts are usually not given before a negotiation;
instead, once we have reached a positive agreement it is appropriate to give a gift. According
to the website eDiplomat, acceptable gifts would include something small and low-priced like
books or music. If we want to give something with our company logo on it, that is acceptable as
well.
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Annotated Bibliography
England
Martin, Jeanette S., and Lillian H. Chaney. Global Business Etiquette: A Guide to International
Communication and Customs. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2006.
In this book, the authors gave a lot of good information on England’s business culture.
The book was extremely helpful because it compared England to other countries that
way you could really get a feel of how different the cultures are. The majority of the
information for my culture report came from this book because it covered all of the
topics that I wanted to research. The information was not too vague and it went into a
lot of good detail on British business etiquette.
Communicaid. Culture and Communication Skills Consistency: British Social and Business
Culture. 2007. 11 July 2011.
<http://www.communicaid.com/cross-cultural-training/culture-for-business-andmanagement/doing-business-in/British-business-and-social-culture.php>.
I found this website, Communicaid, extremely helpful when looking for research. The
information seemed credible because it matched up with information from various sites
that I researched. I found the site easy to access and read which made finding the
information I needed fairly simple. It broke down all of the information by headings
which I liked because I did not have to spend hours reading everything. I was able to
scroll down the page to find the headings that were relevant to what I needed which
made the website very useful.
Executive Travel. Business Etiquette in Britain. 2008. 8 July 2011.
<http://www.executivetravelmagazine.com/articles/business-etiquette-in-britain>.
Executive Travel was one of my favorite websites to pull information from. I liked the
setup of the website and it was easy to find the information that I needed. I liked how
this site went into some of the history of the country instead of just diving right into the
main business information. I found that through this I was able to understand England
better than just reading a few short paragraphs on what their business culture is like.
Kwintessential. (Year N/A). Language, Culture, Customs, Etiquette. Retrieved from
http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/resources/global-etiquette/UK.html
The Kwintessential website was similar to that of the Executive Travel website. It gave a
lot of good information on England’s business culture and covered all of the topics that I
wanted to cover in my culture report. The website gave a lot of statistics and fun facts
about England that helped me understand the country more. By reading this extra
information that they added, I was able to truly understand how their culture differs
from the United States and the reasoning behind this.
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China
Dunkle, Andrew. “An Introduction to Social Customs in China.” Go Overseas! (29 Nov 2010). 7
July 2011. <http://www.gooverseas.com/go-abroad-blog/introduction-social-customs-inchina/3609>.
When researching for information on Chinese culture and customs, I came across this blog
created by a student studying Chinese and Art History at the University of Colorado. He
has travelled to China and lived in Taiwan, so he has firsthand knowledge about the
country and culture. He provided some information regarding general etiquette and
dining etiquette that I found useful for this report.
Li, Jeni. Passport China: Your Pocket Guide to Chinese Business, Customs and Etiquette. Novato,
CA: World Trade Press, 2001.
I was able to locate this book using the Iowa State University e-library. Since the item was
located in the e-library, I was able to navigate throughout the document using an index
that, when clicking on a section, took me to that specific location in the book. This made
my research fast and easy. The book provided a lot of the same information that I had
already found in other sources. I did, however, use it two separate times for specific
information that was not provided in my other sources.
“Living in China”. Middle Kingdom Life. 7 July 2011.
<http://middlekingdomlife.com/guide/social-etiquette-customs-china.htm>.
Middle Kingdom Life is an excellent website that provides a lot of information about living
in China. The web site boasts being an award-winning educational website and trusted
resource for foreign teachers and expatriates since 2007. It provides insightful material
on a plethora of topics related to Chinese etiquette. Specifically, I found the information
on business cards and gift giving especially useful in preparing this document.
Martin, Jeanette S., and Lillian H. Chaney. Global Business Etiquette: A Guide to International
Communication and Customs. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2006.
This book was very resourceful in researching information for this report. It provided
information on a number of topics pertaining to etiquette in other countries. At the end of
each chapter, a section was compiled to list out country-specific information pertaining to
what was covered in the chapter. This was an easy way to compare and contrast the
information between countries.
Ostrowski, Pierre, and Gwen Penner. It’s All Chinese to Me. North Clarendon, VT: Tuttle
Publishing, 2009.
I thought this would be a good, up to date resource, to use since it was published in 2009.
This book provided very good information relating to an overview of the Chinese culture
and proper etiquette to follow when visiting the country. This allows the reader to get a
good feel for the Chinese culture and what goes on in the country. The book was broken
17
down into different sections, which made it easier for me to find the information I wanted
that pertained to the contents of this report.
Shen, Difei. Interview by Tyler Anderson. 6 July 2011.
Difei is someone I got in contact with through my dad. She works in the Global Agricultural
Programs Department at Iowa State University and her title is Program Coordinator II. She
grew up in the city of Hangzhou, China and got her Master’s degree while in China. She
moved to the United States in 2002 and got her Ph D. in Agricultural Education.
Interviewing Difei provided incredible insight about information pertaining to China and
the topics that are covered in this report.
Zinzius, Birgit. Doing Business in the New China. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2004.
This book, like the others I have cited, provided an in depth view into the culture,
etiquette, and customs of China. I found this resource exceptionally useful because
images were provided to illustrate specific points that were being discussed. For example,
I have included an image from this source to help illustrate the seating arrangement at a
Chinese dinner table. The work was published in 2004, so it is fairly up to date on current
practices.
Germany
Martin, Jeanette S., and Lillian H. Chaney. Global Business Etiquette: A Guide to International
Communication and Customs. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2006.
This book was very helpful because it contained all the topics that my paper was
suppose to cover. The book listed the information in bullets which made it easier to
read and didn’t overwhelm me with huge paragraphs of information.
Frazee, Valerie. “Establishing Relations in Germany” Supplement Global Workforce. Vol. 76. Apr
1997. 11 July 2011.
I found this article while browsing through the ISU Library website. This article was
helpful because it gave a scenario of a real incident where an American businessman
seriously insulted his German business partner because he was unaware of his culture.
“Germany: Appointment Alert!” Executive Planet. 2007. 7 July 2011.
<http://www.executiveplanet.com/index.php?title=Germany:_Appointment_Alert%2 .>
At first when I found this website I was unsure if it was credible because it was from
Wikipedia. As I began to scan the information, I was finding that it was sounding pretty
similar to what I had read on other websites, so I decided it was safe to pull information
from it.
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“Germany: Culture of German Management - Part 1.” Executive Planet. 2007. 7 July 2011.
<http://www.executiveplanet.com/index.php?title=Germany:_Culture_of_German_Ma
nagement_-_Part_1.>.
This website is another one that is from Wikipedia, but the information contained in it
was consistent to other information I found on other websites. I liked how this article
compared and contrasted the way that the United States and Germany ran their
businesses. It really gave me a feel of how the two are the same and different.
“Germany.” eDiplomat. 2011. 11 July 2011.
<http://www.ediplomat.com/np/cultural_etiquette/ce_de.htm.>.
This was one of the easiest websites for me to navigate through. As you can tell this is
where I got the majority of my information from for my report. I believe it is a credible
source because it is the leading global portal for diplomats. It originated because a
group of diplomats thought the internet was a popular place where people could
research diplomacy.
“Germany – Language, Culture, Customs, and Business Etiquette.” Kwintessential. 11 July 2011.
<http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/resources/global-etiquette/germany-countryprofile.html>.
This was another website that I enjoyed to use. It was so easy to find the information
that I wanted because of how the authors chunked the information under major
headings. I also like that it contained extra information so I could learn more about
Germany other than just the business aspects.
Graff, Joachim and Gretchen Schaupp. “More than Manners.” Business Dinners. 2010. 11 July
2011.
< http://www.german-business-etiquette.com/10-business-dinners.html>.
This source I only used briefly in my report. I thought it was credible source because it
was a popular book that is being sold on Amazon.com. I liked how it contained
additional topics that I hadn’t found on other websites like women at the dinner table,
and alcoholic beverages.
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