International Business: The New Realities, 5th Edition

Deal Versus Relationship Orientation

Another important dimension of culture concerns the nature of business relationships. In deal-oriented cultures, managers focus on the task at hand and prefer getting down to business. At the extreme, such managers may even avoid small talk and other preliminaries. They prefer to seal agreements with a legalistic contract and take an impersonal approach to settling disputes. Leading examples of deal-oriented cultures include those of Australia, northern Europe, and North America.

In relationship-oriented cultures, managers put more value on relationships with people. To these managers, it is important to build trust and understanding and get to know the other party in business interactions.

For example, it ...