International business styles Key Vocabulary

Manager ― someone whose job is to manage all or part of a company or organization, or a particular activity.

Assistant manager ― someone who helps another manager, does their work when they are not there.

Subordinate ― someone who has a lower position and less authority than someone else in an organization.

To delegate authority / to empower ― to give part of your power or work to someone else, usually someone in a lower position than you to empower.

Empowerment / delegation ― when workers in a company are given more responsibility by allowing them to organize their own work, make decisions without asking their managers. It makes employees more involved and able to help clients more quickly.

Decentralised decision making ― less dependent on managers and complex formal management systems.

Participative management ― a style of management where employees take part in management decisions.

Management by consensus or consensual management ― where decisions are not imposed from above in a top-down approach, but arrived at by asking employees to contribute in a process of consultation.

Accessible, approachable managers ― managers who are usually easy to talk to.

Distant, remote managers ― employees usually feel quite distant from such managers and have a lot of deference for them: accepting decisions but not participating in them.

Authoritarian (manager) ― favouring complete obedience to authority.

Bureaucrat ― an official working in a government department, esp. one who obeys the rules very strictly.

Bureaucratic ― relating to bureaucrats.

Visionary (managers) ― having or showing the ability to think about or plan the future with great imagination or wisdom.

Charisma ― great charm or personal power that can attract, influence and inspire people.

Initiative ― the right to take decisions and act on their own without asking managers first.

Company or corporate culture / organizational culture ― the way a particular company works, and the things it believes are important.

Stereotypes ― fixed ideas that many people have of a particular type of person or thing, but which is often not true in reality.

Open-door policy ― where employees can come to see their managers and bosses about any complaint they might have.

Corporate hospitality ― is a big industry, with clients entertained, invited to big sports events, taken on trips, etc in order to get business.

Entertainment ― when a company or business person spends money on taking customers to restaurants, bars, theatres etc, as a way of making business deals easier to complete.

Presenteeism ― a (sort of) culture of being at work when you don’t need to be.

Long-hours culture ― where people are expected to work for a long time each day.

Macho culture ― ideas typically associated with men: physical strength, aggressiveness, etc.

Cross-cultural issues ― areas, where there are variations in behaviour across different cultures.

Warming Up

1. Do you agree that so many countries ― so many cultures, and so many ways of doing business? If yes, supply your own examples to illustrate the point. If no, explain and prove your point of view, please.

2. What are the main potential pitfalls for multinational companies trying to expand their operations worldwide? How to avoid or overcome them?

3. Do you think the culture of your country is similar enough to those of neighbouring countries to have the same management techniques?

4. Are there countries nearby where people have very different attitudes to work, hierarchy, organization, and so on?

5. Can you suggest some differences in management techniques or personnel policies between Japanese & Western companies?