Since we're always asked about reading recommendations on all things cross cultural, we've decided to put together a list of our favorite books. Let us know if you have any others we should know about, and we'll be glad to add to the list below.
(NEW! - for your convenience, clicking on the book title link will take you directly to the Amazon.com page for purchasing that selection)
By Richard D. Lewis
By far our favorite, When Cultures Collide provides a truly global and practical guide to working and communicating across cultures, explaining how our own culture and language affect the ways in which we organize our world, think, feel and respond.
There are penetrating insights into how different business cultures accord status, structure their organizations and view the role of the leader, alongside invaluable advice on global negotiation, sales and marketing. The book ranges from differences in etiquette and body language to new thinking in the area of international management and team-building in Europe and the USA, as well as covering challenging new geographical ground in Russia, China and the Far East.
When Cultures Collide gives you a greater understanding of what makes other people tick and enables managers to ensure that their policies and activities exploit cultural synergies and make the right appeal to their chosen market.
By Richard D. Lewis
In The Cultural Imperative, Richard D. Lewis goes a step further than When Cultures Collide and examines the forces that keep us from taking off our “cultural spectacles” and explains how cultural traits are so deeply embedded as to resist the homogenization predicted by so many others, and culture’s effect on cognitive processes.
By N. Mark Lam and John L. Graham
China Now is filled with great info on China's people, culture, history and their influence on business. And unlike many other books on the market, China Now breaks down the country into key differences between various regional business styles. Included is an interesting section on laws and regulations on customs, foreign trade, and investment, and protecting intellectual property rights.
By Richard Nisbett
A fascinating read, this book is the compilation of research work by the author, a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, on the subject of cognitive psychology. Particularly, it focuses on two groups of people of vastly different cultural and linguistic background -- people in the East and in the West. It discusses how their distinct mental programs -- including thinking differently, acting differently, cooperating differently -- have resulted in multilevel of differences in aspects ranging from the philosophy of living to the religions and worldviews, between people in the East and the West.
Are there really such differences? If so, what are they and what are the causes? And, do they really matter anyway? Tons of questions that interest those who live in between two languages and cultures are addressed in the book.
By Kenji Hakuta and Ellen Bialystok
"In Other Words" provides a detailed overview of current research in primary and second language learning. Chapters focusing on the relevance of brain, mind, self, and culture in language learning and the implications of each. This is a smorgassbord of tasty ideas for anyone interested in linguistics, language, the way different cultures communicate, and the human mind.
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