Reference no: EM13813315

Analyze the Etiquette of a Business Culture

1. Business Dressing Code

Canada's formal business dressing depends on the season of the year. In summer and spring, Canadians dress in light business suits. They dress in dark suits during winter. Although Canadians admit that business dressing is becoming casual worldwide, they do expect formal business suits in all business and professional meetings.

2. First Name or Title

In a professional context, Canadians use Mr. for men or Ms for women followed by a person's surname when addressing an individual. A first name can also be used instead of surname. This country does not lay emphasis on prominent titles such as Doctor and the rest in their business culture because they think they are pretentious titles.

3. Public Behavior

Traffic and walking on public places is an important aspect of International culture. For example, when driving, Canadians use right and pass left. This does only end in the road but extend to using escalators and walking on streets. Canadians have business sexual harassment policies. For example, men should not whistle or wink at women in public or in formal setting because this is a sexual harassment case. It is important to remember to maintain a personal space of an arm's length when speaking to a Canadian. Other generally accepted public formal behaviors include, waiting to be sited, being introduced by a third party, and little eye contact with people when speaking to each other and using "How are you" or "Hey" as greetings that do not require response.

4. Appointment Alert

In Canada, conflict is a dirty word. When referring to time, conflict is not expected. In business or in professional setting punctuality is the pillar of that particular task. If a person is late or did not observe time, nobody would raise it because it will create conflict. However, your bad reputation holds.

5. Conversation

Canadians are polite but this does not mean they are friendly. They do not just want to enter into arguments. They tolerate the situation they are in hence prefer not to express their opinions because they fear the consequence of creating a heated debate. During conversations, Canadians try to avoid debate.

5. Main aspects of etiquette to observe when interacting with a Canadian

1. Being aware of cultural differences between my country and Canadians and trying to fit in their business culture.

2. Observing Canadian business and public behavior when meeting clients, when working and when in a professional task.

3. Observant about time and appointments. Punctuality is inevitable in Canada because Canadians do not expect conflict arising from time.

4. Remembering the business dressing code for different seasons of the year.

5. Controlling temper and try to understand the other party wherever there is a disagreement instead of critiquing. Being polite and avoiding raising debate or arguments with Canadians.

Three cultural dimensions and their Impact on business etiquette in Canada

Equality and Inequality dimension

Canadians lay emphasis in equality. This can be equality between genders or equality in the general society. Canadians adopt egalitarian hierarchical representation where everybody in an organization is equal. In business, this dimension's implication is that, business seem to find win-win compromise when negotiating other than one sided gain, with no or minimum competitiveness.

Time dimension

The time dimension characteristic for Canadians is present and future oriented. Canadians lay emphasis on the importance of time. They are precise and punctual about time. Private and public sectors have different working hours. You will not expect meeting a person during working hours in any sector even if it is lunch or break time.

Tough-Tender society dimension

This dimension is also known as the value dimension. Canadians lay emphasis on quality of tasks other than amount of tasks. Additionally, Canadians have soft gender rules and gender is always a sensitive issue in business. For business implication quality of work done is valuable as compared to accumulation of work done.

5 questions about etiquette to ask a person from Canada

1. Can you tell me how you dress for business in Canada?

2. How do you decline a business social event invitation in Canada?

3. How do you greet strangers on people of first a quittance in a business meeting?

4. What are the signals for ending a business meeting in Canada?

5. Can you tell me about hour or hours of breaking during a working day in a private sector Company in Canada?