Cultural Diversity in Business: A Comparison between Germany and Slovenia

Seminar paper from the year 2004 in the subject Tourism - Miscellaneous, grade: 1, University of Brighton, language: English, abstract: In times of globalisation the aspects of cultural diversity and cross cultural communication become more and more important. People have the possibility to travel across continents, meetings are organised all around the world. Therefore the knowledge of at least one foreign language is definitely an essential skill one should have. But nevertheless just translating a word or a sentence from one language into another does not guarantee a successful course of negotiation. According to Mattock (2003) the actual talk is just the tip of the iceberg. Instead the major and thus bottom layer is culture. (Mattock, 2003) Therefore international managers should be aware that transcultural competence can only be achieved by 'being aware of cultural differences, respecting them and ultimately reconciling them' (Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner, 1997). The first part of this essay will present general information about Slovenia and Germany. It will then highlight the major characteristics and differences between the business cultures of the two countries concentrating on the dimensions introduced by Trompenaars and Hofstede. (For definitions of culture and the dimensions see Appendix) The conclusion will highlight the major differences between the two business cultures and offer recommendations for German and Slovenian managers doing business with each other.