Effect of Culture on British Business

This report analyzes the cultural aspects of England and their impact on international business. It discusses cross-cultural theories, value systems, negotiation processes, and emerging issues. Comparison with Australian business culture is also made.

Running head: EFFECT OF CULTURE ON BRITISH BUSINESS
EFFECT OF CULTURE ON BRITISH BUSINESS
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1EFFECT OF CULTURE ON BRITISH BUSINESS
Executive summary
This report has discussed the different traits of the cultural aspect prevailed among the people
of England. It aims to compare and contrast with the other cultures of the country and
analyses the British cultural aspects accepted by the international organizations. This report
has analyzed the cross cultural theories and discussed the ideological and religious concepts
that have shaped the culture of England, their value systems and the challenges that the
international firms face in doing business with the British people. The report concludes with
the cultural comparison of the Australian and the English.

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Table of Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................3
Cultural theories and practices:..................................................................................................3
Value systems:...........................................................................................................................5
Cross cultural negotiation and dimension:.................................................................................9
Emerging issues:........................................................................................................................9
Comparison with Australian business culture:.........................................................................10
Conclusion:..............................................................................................................................10
References:...............................................................................................................................12

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Introduction:
This report aims to discuss the differences of the management style in various
countries in the world. As an effect of globalization the organizations of one particular
country have gained the scope to operate in the market of other countries by manufacturing in
one place and exporting them in another. Due to globalization, the cross-cultural management
theories have emerged and helped these corporations in a great deal. With the guidance of
these theories, the management of one region can understand the value system, various
dimension of culture that greatly shape the business culture of that country. This cultures are
however, designed with the religious belief, style of business communication and business
etiquette, the cost of living in the country, balance between work and life and finally social
media guide. This report has discussed the cultural dimension and behavioral theories,
analyzed the value systems that guide the thoughts and actions of the business authorities of
England, their style of cross-cultural negotiation processes and the emerging issues to naming
the workforce. This report will compare the difference of business culture prevailed in the
countries like England and Australia.
Cultural theories and practices:
Hofstede’s cultural dimension is one of the mot valuable analysis of the intercultural
communications and business attitudes. This culture dimension theory by Hofstede,
distinguishes one culture from another on the basis of six dimensions namely, power
distance, individualism, indulgence, uncertainty avoidance, and long term orientation. In the
index of power distance, UK scores low. This exemplifies that the society does not support
the inequality of power in the organizations. Very surprisingly, among the working class
people, this index is high who believe in the well-established and historic British class
system. In the individualism index, the country scores high which means the people are

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interested in the personal success. The people of England are private people and aim to care
themselves more than the community and society (Businessculture.org 2018). In the
masculinity index, the county scores 66 which makes in more masculine. The people of this
country tend to value competing, achievements and success avoiding caring for others. In
uncertainty avoidance the society scores low which means the people of the country are
comfortable with uncertainty, they can tolerate the limitation of information about their future
approaches. The people of England are highly intolerant of the unorthodoxies in the ideas and
behavior. In the long term orientation, the society of England scores neutrally which
describes how this society reconciles with the present challenges whilst still retaining links to
the past. In indulgence variable, the society of England sores 69. It indicates that this culture
allows to realize the impulses of the people and follow their desires with regards to enjoy
their lives as well as have fun. The people of England possess optimistic attitude and have
tendency towards optimism which has made the functioning easy for cross-cultural
organizations.
According to the theory of proxemics promoted by Edward Hall, it has been identified
that there are four factors that determine the business culture of the society (Brewster et al.
2016). These are context, time, space and information. Hall has identified two levels of
context cultures. In the high context culture the organizational messages are implicit but bears
metaphors but in low context culture, the messages are simple and clear to understand. The
society of England has high context communication where the employees of the organization
are habituated with less verbally explicit communication as well as limited written or formal
information (Kuratko 2016). They have more internalized understandings of the
communication issues. The business organizations of England have multiple ties with the
other cultures which they have been enjoying from the time in memorial. Knowledge here is
situational yet rational. The activities as well as decisions focus around the personal

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interactions with the central person with authority. In the factor of time, it can be said that the
British people are very punctual and prefer to do one thing at a time (Morgan 2014). They
think about the time of completing a task so that they do not lose reputation before their
partners. The census of 2011 discloses that the majority of people follow the Christianity
hence show high preference of morality and ethics (Mackenzie, Golembiewski and Rahim
2018).
Value systems:
The combination of the indigenous culture as well as many other currency
immigration influences, the county of England has been a vital player in the state of
international business. England possess all the attributes of one of the strong modern nation.
It has a rich history, a thriving economy and a multicultural and vibrant population. The
people of England demonstrate different cultural values. They are open as well as friendly.
They can accept changes very easily and not afraid of making mistake (Coviello 2015). They
are always prepared with the fact that if something does not work, then it can move on. The
people of the country however value their privacy highly. They appear open in public but
permeate an implicit message of not interfering in other’s business. Although the country is
multi-cultural and multi-ethnic, the privacy requirements force people away to make new
friends.
Communication:
The high value put on the personal space can also be visible in the daily life when
they apologies for touching unintentionally or avoid sitting beside someone unknown. For the
foreign businessmen the culture of England can be too polite because the people of this
country do not prefer to criticize or company openly in public (Knight et al. 2015). They even
do not provide negative feedbacks also. The communication therefore has a lot of things

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hidden in it which needs to be understood while dealing with the British people. The
foreigners often misunderstand the meaning of any remark while asking for hones opinion.
However, the business partners need to ensure that they are sending an implicit message
therefore there is no scope for assumptions as well as hidden meanings in the business
process (Stahl et al. 2017). The people value politeness as well as courtesy as a matter of
course, express significand amounts of respect while interacting in the business situation.
They do this either out of sincerity or simply as these are part of their cultural norms.
Language:
The chief language is English which is spoken by 98% of population of the country.
With numerous dialects (Moore 2015). Despite this fact, the dialects and accepts can vary
from place to place leaving confused the English themselves. As the immigrants from India
and Pakistan are in high proportion, Punjabi, Hindi and Bengali are spoken widely.
Religion:
The official state religion is Catholic Christianity guided by the Church of England.
Since the middle of last century the popularity of protestant faith has a huge decline with less
than half of the population attends the services by Church and believe in God. As the data has
revealed that one third of the whole population has no connection with religion. Only 30% or
the total population affiliates to the official church of England and only 10% is identified
with Roman Catholic religion (Mackenzie, Golembiewski and Rahim 2018). Despite the fact
that Christianity is the dominating religion, the minority religion includes Sikhism,
Islam, Hinduism, Judaism as well as Buddhism. This is the reason why the English people
celebrate different kinds of celebrations starting from New year’s day, Christmas day, the
Queen’s birthday, Easter Sunday and other celebrations of the minorities.
Family structure:

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Till the middle of the 20th century, the family structure of the English used to revolve
round the institution of marriage. However, with the change of time, there has been a surge in
the single parent families as well as couples living together without living. Divorce at one
point of time was regarded as unthinkable and people used to be offended while discussing
about it. Now, this matter has become more acceptable in the culture. The youngers take
responsibilities of the elderly family members (Morgan 2014). Mobility in workforce has also
changed in the previous decade and many younger people have started to live in a distance
from the closer family but affinity continue to increase with the regular communication as
well as family reunions.
Social satisfaction:
Traditionally there were three different class in the society which were preferred as
well as conserved by the people of England. The royalty and aristocrat were in the top
followed by the middle class and finally the working class (Jiang, Gollan and Brooks 2015).
The working class had no access in the social facilities as well as education and only
depended on their physical works. However, this situation has changed a lot. As the
Hofstede’s PDI conforms that the preference for hierarchy is eminent in the society, the
equality in getting opportunities by all the classes have greatly increased.
Gender roles:
Towards the middle of the 20th century the society of England was basically male
dominating. All the menial tasks as well as financial jobs were handled by men. Despite the
fact that towards the end of the century women were accepted as efficient in working
efficiently but were seen to a counterpart of their male colleagues only. In 1970s the debate
for equal right began which secured the position of the women in the business organizations.

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Despite these changes made, there is inequality in workplace discrimination and payment
(Savage et al. 2014).
Arts and popular culture:
Art and literature always had a special role in the psychology of the English. England
is the seat of world’s greatest writers and powers starting from William Shakespeare to Jane
Austen. English are the lover of art and they always respect merits and talents. The country
has number of museums which bear their love for art and heritage (Gelfand et al. 2017).
Music is another aspect which the English are very proud of. It is the origin of the musical
bands like Beatles which has represented their culture to the world stage. Traditionally music
and social gatherings have always been the cement in the communities over the centuries
with music and dance.
Cultural taboos:
Although the culture of England is generally open in characteristic, there are some
attitudes as well as topics one need to avoid while dealing with an English. The people of
England do not like greeting the strangers with hugging or kissing, spitting in public. They
avoid asking about earning of a person or any kind of personal questions (Bird and
Mendenhall 2016). The people of England avoid discussing topics associated with the
conflicts in Ireland, Middle East, the royal family and monarchy, religion, class system, race,
immigration, age, appearance, crime and partisan politics. Discussion of such topics can
affect the business environment greatly as various employment as well as equality was have
been designed for preventing discrimination in the workplace.
Business culture and practices:
During business there are some accepted etiquette regarding the formal dresses as
well as communication style. In the business meetings, the English always have a clear and

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definite purpose that many include in agenda (Dalkir 2013). There needs to be brief amount
of exchange of words before getting down to the core business. The English people do not
like exaggerated presentation rather value to the point claims. The business meetings are
dominated by professionalism backed up by facts as well as figures. British Punctuality is a
phrase which has to be followed while cross cultural dealings take place. There need to be a
prior knowledge about the meetings. It is important to show respect and deference to all the
partners irrespective of race and culture.
Cross cultural negotiation and dimension:
In England, even the smallest of the firms have a strong hierarchical culture. There is
always a sense that most people in the company have an important role to play and are valued
for their input. Therefore, the mangers do not prefer to consult the background of their
employees. More often the employees in a company expect to be consulted the decision
making processes that affect them and incur greater good for the organization (Bird and
Mendenhall 2016.). The most productive and innovative mangers of England recognize as
well as value specialized knowledge of the employees at every level. The cross cultural
communication is values to be most effective in successful functioning of the organizations.
As mentioned before the people of England do not feel problematic when the changes come.
The intercultural adaptability as well as readiness for any kind of transformation are
developing constantly.
Emerging issues:
Firstly, the culture of the country allows people to remain quite reserved initially. The
English people take much time to mingle with other cultures.
Secondly, the communication of the British is somewhat challenging to be understood
as the people from other country need to read between the lines in many cases.

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Thirdly, time is a prime factor in the country and missing deadline can give an
impression and failure or incapability to manage business.
Fourthly, the regulations of the country are quite orthodox and rigid which mandate
people to observe as well as respect them. The issue of inequality and discrimination have to
be managed accordingly.
Finally, British people tend to judge one matter from different perspectives hence take
time to make any decision. Sometimes it becomes a laborious process involving many layers
of people and bureaucracy (Christopher 2015).
Comparison with Australian business culture:
Most of the cultural essences are common in Australia and England such as the
Indulgence, Long term orientation and Power distance but from the business point of view
there are some implicit characteristics in both these cultures which need to be judged while
dealing with each other.
Firstly, the Australian business culture is known to be more laid back than in England.
However, this does not mean that the people involving in a new business with other country’s
representative find them relaxed (Holmes 2018). Unlike English, the Australians also keep
their business meetings, short as well as to the point. Both of the business culture tend to
indulge in a small talk before starting the core factors otherwise it seems to be rude or
aggressive.
Secondly, in the Australian business culture, profanity is a norm and natural part of
vocabulary. They prefer a loud humor. On the contrary, the British maintain complete
seriousness in communication. They are proud of their dry wit and intellectual humor.

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Finally, bother the business culture of England and Australia tend to prefer
conservative and classic clothes in their business meetings as well as work places (Melling
and Booth 2017). The dress code must show affluence and status.
Conclusion:
Therefore, it can be concluded that there are various cultural norms prevail in the
country of England. Some of them are very specific and some are general. Like all other
countries of the world, there is a rich cultural and religious aspect which distinguish the
culture of England from all other prominent cultures of the world. Due to this, the cultural
dimension theory and other cross cultural theories can be helpful for proper understanding of
British culture. These are cultural and behavioral values which are to be followed by the
cross-cultural mangers while doing business in England.

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Evolution and adaptation. Journal of World Business, 51(1), pp.115-126.
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http://businessculture.org/northern-europe/uk-business-culture/ [Accessed 8 Apr. 2018].
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Coviello, N., 2015. Re-thinking research on born globals. Journal of International Business
Studies, 46(1), pp.17-26.
Dalkir, K., 2013. Knowledge management in theory and practice. Routledge.
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organizational psychology and organizational behavior: A hundred-year journey. Journal of
Applied Psychology, 102(3), p.514.
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Cultural Management, 22(1), pp.42-67.

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