Social Norms and Customs

Background information: Pretend you are a successful US Business that has agreed to expand internationally. Select a country where the primary language is not English. You will expand into this country, but need to advise your colleagues on the social norms and customs of this country before moving. “U.S. businesses are expanding into foreign markets with manufacturing plants, sales offices, and branches abroad.

Many Americans, however, have little knowledge of or experience with people from other cultures.

To prepare for participation in the global marketplace, you are to collect information for a report focused on an Asian, Latin American, European, or African country where English is not regularly spoken.” With this background information, start researching your country’s social norms and values. Keep the focus about culture and PEOPLE. You’ll ignore economic/geography/history information. Remember this isn’t a business plan – so don’t report about a product.

Refer to Chapter 3 Dimensions of Culture and refer to Figure 13.6 Intercultural Interview Topics and Questions for research ideas. (Dimensions of Culture link: https://imgur.com/a/sKk5fCS, Figure 13.6 link:

Assignment: Locate a scholar article from recent business periodicals (preferably within the last year). If you can’t locate a recent article, you may use a source from the Business Communications Library guide. However, you may not use a blog, wiki, or travel website. Your source should be credible. Summarize the article in one to two double spaced typewritten pages.

The summary should be in your own words and contain the main ideas from the article as well as a critique statement – or your opinion of the article  i.e., interesting, boring, agreement, disagreement, etc. Properly cite the article in MLA or APA format and use in-text citations.