I wanted to write a brief article about Geert Hofstede. This professor has dedicated its studies to defining cultural dimension and evaluating them in a business environment. It is obvious there are cultural differences between an American and a Saudi Arabian partner. For example, in our French culture, when we shake hands with someone, that means we have agreed on something, and shows the end of a negociation process. However, in Saudi Arabia, people shake hand to start the negociation. While our European/American cultures would push us to negociate a contract by dividing it in different pieces (price, logistics, and amount for example), Chinese people would consider a bid as a whole, and won't understand you will try to negociate a small part of it.
Hofstede has thus compiled information to sum cultural differences into 5 dimensions : Power distance, individualism, masculanity, uncertainty avoidance and long term orientation.
It is important to have a knowledge about those dimensions because it can change the way you would negociate with someone depending on its background. Thus, I think you should visit http://www.geert-hofstede.com.
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