Teaching Culture in Business Studies

Abstract

Nowadays, an intercultural component needs to be integrated in the development of any business course and research in the field of Intercultural Studies outlines issues directly relevant to the Business world. Research findings have underlined the complexity of concepts such as Culture and Stereotypes. In the light of these findings, future business courses incorporating an intercultural dimension should be developed. I Introduction Is globalisation reducing distances between societies? Are we becoming more identical? Although people complain about the similarities of shopping centres across Europe, this uniformity only happens at a superficial level. At a deeper level, studies show that differences between cultures are difficult to erase or overlook. Far from making every one fit in the same template, globalisation encourages differences, as Hampden-Turner and Trompenaars explain: “(…) cultural characteristics appear to persist long-term, even when managers cooperate cross-culturally. In longitudinal studies, British and French management students, educated together at INSEAD in Fontainbleu (sic), near Paris, became more distinctly British and French culturally as the course progressed. Eurocrats in Brussels, after 18 years of collaborative, international work, become more distinctively national in their views.” (1994: p. 375). The same is true in multinational corporations where “cross-cultural interaction reminds members of various notions of the differences between one set of cultural views and another, and this seems to lead to a slight intensification of cultural traits, perhaps to protect and confirm these and so maintain identity” (ibid.). In a market place such as Ireland where survival depends on the ability to export, it is highly important to define a strategy which will help companies to develop a cultural competence. At the time when products need to become global, companies must understand the complexity of the market they wish to trade with and the complexity of its customers. Courses in Business must reflect this situation and equip the workforce with a sufficient level of intercultural competence. In Intercultural Studies, Culture and Stereotypes are two basic concepts which need to be considered. This paper will present a quick overview of landmark researches in the field, with a particular attention on stereotypes. It will finally sketch the type of course needed to be