Business Culture in the UK: Characteristics and Practices

This article explores the business culture in the UK, including its unique characteristics and practices. It covers topics such as strategy, meetings, negotiations, time perception, dress code, and dining. The article also discusses the importance of cultural differences in international business and the impact of organizational culture on corporate financial performance. References are provided for further reading.

Running head: HUMANITIES
humanities

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Business Culture
The word “Culture” is derived from a Latin Word “Cultus” which means civilization or
“Cultura” that means care. Culture can be defined as a complex system of behaviors that are
shared or practiced by a particular group of persons or society. This includes values, beliefs,
laws, knowledge, material objects and habits. Society and culture are knotted to each other in
such a way that cannot be separated. Society can be defined as groups of people staying in the
same religion and following the same laws executed by their regions and countries. Thus,
people of the same religion follows the same culture (Kwantes, Boglarsky and Kuo 2010).
Culture is a very important part of any type of business or industry as a business is based on
the beliefs, customs, and values of the society in which it is operating. Business Culture can
be defined as the personality of an organization or the way in which things are done,
commitment to the achievement of organizational goals or the involvement of employees
accordingly. The culture of an organization is the lifeblood of its business because it directs
and shapes the behaviors in the direction of the chosen destination.
Business Culture is a vast concept that includes the unique qualities of an organization. It
summarizes the core values and principles, rules of behavior and corporate ethics of a
company. Business culture can be implied in the clothes of the employees at the workplace,
interior décor of the office, the mission statement of the company, communication of
employees to each other and the tools used by management in measuring the performance of
employees (Adamczyk 2017).
Business Culture of UK
The term the UK is abbreviated as "United Kingdom" and is made up of four countries
Scotland, England, Northern Ireland and Wales. The UK is also a member of the European
Union. The UK is also termed as a multi-faith society because of the existence of different
cultures and religions. The main principles of business culture in the UK are politeness,
courtesy, punctuality and discipline. The business culture of UK is different form the other
countries because of its diversified population. The main elements of the business culture of
UK can be understood with the help of below mentioned discussion.
At the time of making the first contact, an eye contact and a handshake should be maintained
to greet the other person but it should not be prolonged. The Businesses and organizations of

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UK do not make any discrimination on the bases of the gender of the employees. Managers
and employees are very formal during their initial meetings with each other
The businesspersons and professionals of the United Kingdom in most of the important
situations need punctuality. They are very punctual regarding the timings of the official as
well as casual meetings. There is a trend of having some small amount of general talk before
starting the business talks.
The business culture of the UK can be described with the help of below-mentioned
characteristics:
Strategy
Logical reasoning is one of the most popular characteristics of the business life of the United
Kingdom. Bureaucratic hurdles and Red tape approaches are generally not liked and
pragmatic approach of formulating the business strategy is favored by most of the companies.
The heart of the overall strategic planning of the organization is the annual budget. The
companies usually develop their budgeting processes by making the estimations over four to
five years. Reaching to the expected targeted or budgeted figures in a particular industry or
market is generally rewarded with the bonus payments (Haffar and Perez 2015).
Meetings in the UK
The British companies and managers prefer to work with the companies or people they know
very well. With whom they can relate and identify the needs of the business without facing
any type of communication problems. The meetings of the United Kingdom are generally
very time consuming and yet, the time for the same are decided in advance to avoid any kind
of inconvenience to the involved parties. A small introduction is given at the time of starting
the meeting and proposed agenda is discussed in best possible way thereafter. The discussion
at the meeting can also be carried out in an informal way. However, as per the task-oriented
nature of British Business Culture each of the members who attends the meeting usually
leaves the table having a specific task to be performed
Negotiations in the Business of UK
The professionals of British are skillful and tough negotiators. During the time of
negotiations, the negotiator needs to remain polite and calm because the informal tone can
sometimes cover the real seriousness of the topic discussed.

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Most of the business people of British follows a pragmatic and rational approach while, on
some very important occasions, the agreements are formalized with the help of written
documents.
UK Business Decisions
A great degree of delicacy and formality helps in reducing direct criticism in the business life
of the United Kingdom. It means a decision is like a proposal, which works as an open
proposal for further discussions if the related members think so. The power of the sole
decision making of the managers is covered by the indirect and polite way of communication
towards the employees of the organization. However, this open communications does not
allow the employees to decline the decision made, but it allows the employees to give their
opinions about the framed decisions.
Time Perception in UK Business
The British managers are known for longer working hours in comparison to the British
employees. They often miss out their lunch and breakfast for the purpose of working and this
makes them late in the social sense.
Appointments
Because of the high frequency of important meetings, employees and professionals working
in an office are generally away from their desk. This makes the need for an appointment to be
arranged in advance to save the time of the concerned persons.
Meetings and Greetings of UK
The humor of the United Kingdom is an integral part of the indirect or informal
communication. Most of the foreign businesspersons have to face the problem with the
understatements and code words of the local people of UK. This often leads to the creating
misunderstandings between the business parties. These understatements are mostly used at
the time of preventing any type of embarrassment, to emphasize a point and to express
criticism.
UK Dress Code
The dress code system of the United Kingdom is strict in comparison to the other nations of
the world. A sense of fashion and professional wear is appreciated during the working hours
of the organization. Men are bound to wear suits along with a tie, colored or white striped

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shirt and black shoes. While women are bound to wear suits (with skirts or trousers) or
dresses along with high heels. In most of the organizations, employees are free to wear
casuals on Friday.
Dining and Winning
In most of the organizations, the professionals enjoy the dinner with their colleagues on a
Friday night. This system of dining together strictly bound the employees to maintain the
confidentiality of their work. If someone invites his/her colleagues to the private place for the
purpose of dinner or get together, it is considered as the gesture of sympathy or affection,
which is not common among most of the business partners.
Business Cards
The businesspersons mostly exchange their business cards at the time of the beginning of a
meeting. A business card contains the details about someone's job profile, name, contact
number and the name of the company. Generally, academic titles of the persons are not
considered as the same are not generally related to the work (Clegg, Kornberger and Rhodes
2007).
The businesses of United Kingdom are highly committed to fulfilling their corporate social
responsibility. For this purpose, every company is required to maintain a Human Resource
Department that can assist in the processes related to the CSR of business. The human
resource department is mainly responsible for taking care the human workforce of the
company. Along with this, the organizations involved in the process of mining and
manufacturing are highly committed not to harm the nature and environment because of the
functions and practices of the business.
There are some topics and considerations, which are avoided on the highest priority in the
culture of the United Kingdom. They are as follows:
Behaviors to avoid
 Meetings strangers with a kiss
 Gestures such as hugging and backslapping in during the very first meeting.
 Spitting in the public place
 Asking intimate or personal questions like the question about earnings, married life,
love affairs and many more.

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 Abuse to somebody in public or in private
 Threaten someone
Topics of Discussions to avoid:
 The conflict between Northern Ireland
 Caste or religion especially if a person is in Liverpool and Northern Ireland
 The royal family and monarchy
 Biased or one-sided politics
 The Brussels, European Union and the Euro
 Some personal topics like the background, religion, values, occupation.
 Immigration and race
 The Middle East
 Class system
 The physical appearance of someone
 Complaints about the political system or criticism
The people of the UK view themselves as well mannered, civilized and well-educated to face
the challenges and perform any kind of task. They tend to be very cool, understandable,
hardworking, difficult to read, detached and class-conscious people. These qualities influence
the business culture of the country and the leadership styles of the management up to a great
extent. The leaders of the UK do not take any kind of interest in the personal lives of their
employees. This makes them task-oriented. At the same time, it reduces the level of kindness,
as they are not habitual to provide any kind to leniency to their employees. It results in
increasing the level of dissatisfaction level of employees of the United Kingdom.
The business culture of the UK is continuously changing as per the needs and requirement of
the international business environment. In the UK, the foreign businesspersons are provided
many kinds of feasibilities during the initial days of the establishment of their business. The
country is continuously involved in the technological advancements, which are the main
reason for increasing the employment opportunities and attracting national and international
level employers up to a great extent. The business culture of the UK is favorable for most of
the businesses and this makes the British economy open for the other economies of the world.
(Ali, et al. 2017)

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The business culture of the United States is more adaptable in comparison to any other
economy of the world. The UK is a well-developed country, which shows that the business
culture of the UK is an objective driven culture.

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References
Adamczyk, Marzena. 2017. “The importance of cultural differences in international
business.” Central European Review of Economics and Management 1 (2): 151-170.
Ali, Hosni S. Hussein, Ridzwana Mohd Said, Amalina Abdullah, and Zaidi Mat Daud. 2017.
“THE IMPACT OF ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE ON CORPORATE
FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE: A REVIEW.” International Journal of Economics,
Commerce and Management 5 (8): 585-597.
Clegg, Stewart, Martin Kornberger, and Carl Rhodes. 2007. “Business Ethics as Practice.”
British Journal of Management 18: 107-122.
Haffar, Mohamed, and Loredana Perez . 2015. “The Influence of National Culture on
Business Negotiations: An Exploratory Study of Venezuelan and British Managers.”
International Journal of Industrial and Systems Engineering 9 (8): 2794-2802.
Kwantes, Catherine T., Cheryl A. Boglarsky, and Ben C. H. Kuo. 2010. “Adaptations of a
Global Organizational Culture in China, the UK and the US: Does Social Culture
Make Any Difference?” Asian Journal of Arts and Sciences 1 (1): 42-65.