新編大學(xué)英語(yǔ)第三冊(cè)u(píng)nit10 Text B: National Stereotypes and Business Be

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UNIT 10 AFTER-CLASS READING 1; New College English (II)

National Stereotypes and Business Behavior

1 We are repeatedly warned to beware of generalizations yet, paradoxically, it seems that the human mind cannot resist categorizing people and things. We love to "pigeonhole", to make order out of a universe that frequently seems to us confusing and even chaotic. Nowhere is this tendency more evident than in our willingness to generalize about nationalities. We create national stereotypes and cling tenaciously to our prejudices. To illustrate this point, we shall look at the findings of a survey carried out by the market research firm, Parkland Research Europe.

2 This organization carried out a detailed study of European attitudes by questioning 185 business executives, lawyers, engineers, teachers and other professional people from seven European countries. These were: Germany, France, Britain, Switzerland, Italy, the Netherlands, and Belgium. The resulting publication, Guide to National Practices in Western Europe, gave some idea of what Europeans think of each other. It revealed many widely-held stereotypes, but also came up with a few surprises. The following summary gives some of the data from this survey.

Parkland Findings

3 GERMANS Liked themselves best of all. Most Europeans agreed that the Germans had the highest proportion of good qualities. They considered themselves very tolerant, but nobody else did. They saw themselves as fashionable. Others found them "square"

4 FRENCH Not really admired by anyone except the Italians. Other Europeans found them conservative, withdrawn, brilliant, superficial. Also, not very friendly. The French agreed on the last point!

5 BRITISH Mixed reactions. Some found them calm, reserved, open-minded, trustworthy; others deemed them narrow-minded, insular and superior. Everyone was unanimous that the British had an excellent sense of humor. The British most admired the Dutch.

6 SWISS Showed considerable lucidity and powers of self- analysis. Saw themselves as serious, trustworthy, but too money-minded and suspicious. Most Europeans agreed. The Swiss liked the Germans best.

7 ITALIANS Generally considered by everyone to be lazy and untrustworthy. And the Italians agreed! Most also found them to be charming, hospitable and noisy. The Italians admired the French and the Dutch. Hardly anyone loved the Italians except the French.

8 DUTCH Most admired people in Europe except by their neighbors the Belgians. Everyone agreed that the Dutch are hard-working, thrifty, good-natured, tolerant and business-minded. The Netherlands, however, was not considered a good place to live in.

9 BELGIANS Least admired in this group. They see themselves as easy-going and diligent workers. Other Europeans consider them undisciplined and narrow-minded and terrible drivers!

10 As a follow-up to this study, businessmen were asked to imagine they were setting up a multinational company. They had to choose a national for the positions of president, managing director, chief cashier, public relations officer and skilled and unskilled labor.

11 The Germans came out of this exercise smelling of roses! They were the universal choice for the top jobs, and also first choice for skilled workers. The Italians were relegated to the unskilled jobs; the French received massive support for the light-weight public relations post. According to the economist in charge of Parkland Research, "No European picked an Italian as president or chief cashier. Moreover, no Italian or Frenchman picked one of his own nationals as chief cashier!"

12 What might have been the choices, one speculates, if all nationalities had been eligible for the above posts. Would the Japanese have swept the board? Surely not! Could a Japanese be chosen as chief cashier over a Swiss? And then, what about the Americans? They would surely force their way into the organization structure of this multinational company. And there again, there should be room for an industrious Chinese or a shrewd Russian...

13 From the theory, we turn to practice. We will conclude by giving some examples of how national characteristics can affect business behavior. We take as our source a study made recently by two British journalists of the problems encountered when Germans work in Britain and vice versa.

14 The German characteristics of industry and punctuality were illustrated by the example of a German executive who was appointed to the head of a specialist department of his company's branch in London. While he arrived at his office every morning at 9 a. m. on the dot, his senior employees rarely rolled up much before 10 a. m. For several weeks, harsh words were exchanged and tempers became more and more frayed. Finally, however, the German realized that his subordinates frequently worked on until eight or nine in the evening. They were doing certain work in the evening which he did early in the morning. Since most of the company s business was with the US, this kind of work schedule made sense. Eventually, the German changed his working hours much to his wife's displeasure!

15 A British executive working in Germany found that he had to modify his employment policies because of the German liking for system and formality. He told the investigating reporters, "A number of the German people we have employed have complained that we did not have a comprehensive enough policy manual." He met the problem by spelling out in company recruitment advertising that employees had to have an understanding and liking for the British way of life. During interviews, he warned prospective employees that they would have to work in a much less formal environment than they were used to. Their colleagues would call them by their first names and expect this practice to be reciprocated. They would work on their own initiative and junior employees especially would probably have more responsibility than their counterparts in German companies.

16 Finally, the executive stressed that employees would be expected to make decisions based on a "commonsense" interpretation of the company's policy guidelines rather than operate on the principle that "if it's not in the book, it can't be done."

17 The policy of this executive had certainly paid off since, with this approach to recruitment, staff turnover had been reduced significantly.