nach oben

Erschienen in:

2022 | OriginalPaper | Buchkapitel

International Business Etiquette For Legal (IBEL)

verfasst von : Tatiana Caldas-Löttiger

Erschienen in: Liquid Legal – Humanization and the Law

Verlag: Springer International Publishing

Einloggen

Aktivieren Sie unsere intelligente Suche, um passende Fachinhalte oder Patente zu finden.

search-config

KI-gestützte Suche

Aus

Abstract

In today’s corporate world, Diversity & Inclusion policies are at the top of the agenda in every organization—particularly, large corporations and multinationals are required to comply and people are expected to work harmoniously. However, cultural differences have been proven to be an underestimated factor in international business and often Legal departments are the ones to blame if a business deal fails. For example, when a lawyer (from Spain) could not agree on the terms of a contract because the other party (from Sweden) did not bring enough documentation to prove their argument, concluding that the uncertainty was too risky. Or, when a lawyer felt that the solution the other party was suggesting was unethical. How do we know who was right or wrong? Maybe both lawyers were right in their assumptions—and, the human factor was at fault.

The article analyses how empathy can be developed with cultural awareness and showcases the author’s personal journey into cultural awareness from living in countries with very different cultures (Colombia, Sweden, and United States). It also explains how these dilemmas have been the subject of research by the World Values Survey (WVS), the European Social Survey (ESS), and the Geert Hofstede Analysis. The article ends by explaining how Legal should implement a program that could facilitate working more efficiently with different cultures. This program has been titled by the author as International Business Etiquette for Legal (IBEL). According to the author IBEL could be used as a tool to improve human interactions, concluding that it could help minimize misunderstandings during negotiations, and help people to actually work harmoniously.

Sie haben noch keine Lizenz? Dann Informieren Sie sich jetzt über unsere Produkte:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 102.000 Bücher
über 537 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Automobil + Motoren
Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Elektrotechnik + Elektronik
Energie + Nachhaltigkeit
Finance + Banking
Management + Führung
Marketing + Vertrieb
Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe
Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

Jetzt informieren

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 67.000 Bücher
über 340 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Finance + Banking
Management + Führung
Marketing + Vertrieb
Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

Jetzt informieren

Vorheriges Kapitel Patagonia: Everything a Law Firm Is Not, But Could Be?

Nächstes Kapitel About Lawyers and Humans

Quote from credit expert Krum Berovski. IWIB Series on Payments. August 2020. According to Mr. Berovski, the pandemic made it clear that even though pacta sunt servanda is a fundamental principle of law that means agreements must be kept, and is the base of the main legal systems in the world. In some countries people who can, but don’t want to pay their obligations forces businesses to find creative ways to secure payments.

Culture: In simple terms, culture is the people’s ‘way of life’, meaning the way groups do things. Different groups of people may have different cultures. For the purpose of this article, we will focus on human and organizational culture. Human culture is learned at home, differs mainly in values, cannot be changed but can be self managed and belong to anthropology. Whereas organizational culture is learned when joining a company (Code of Conduct), can be changed or dealt with, belong to sociology. Corporate Culture is everyone’s responsability despite their own. See Company Culture Is Everyone’s Responsibility by Denise Lee John. Harvard Business Review, 2021. Available at: https://hbr.org/2021/02/company-culture-is-everyones-responsibility.

The type of lawyer that carries out legal work directly for their employer, as opposed to a law firm or private practice lawyers who work on behalf of multiple clients.

Geert Hofstede (1928–2020) was a Dutch Professor of Organizational Anthropology and International Management, and social psychologist who in 1971 he founded the Personnel Research Department at IBM Europe, which inspired many of todays training programs based on his book ‘Culture and Organizations’ on corporate international relations. See also Hofstede’s best seller book is ‘Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind’. Revised and expanded 3rd Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill USA, 2010. Available at: https://geerthofstede.com.

The word etiquette is originally a French word that was historically used to refer to the cards that were distributed to guests of Royal French palaces and extended to include courts, official ceremonies and banquets. The cards had instructions to comply with, when meeting the King and other key figures of the government such as presidents, diplomats and ministers.

See: Passport to Trade 2.0—a project funded with support from the European Commission to improve existing professional training materials in business culture and to incorporate materials from across the whole European Union. The project creates e-learning facilities, supporting and offering additional training materials for SMEs to improve the skills base required to trade across 25 EU countries. Available at: https://businessculture.org/business-culture/business-etiquette/.

See Cultural Issues in M&As. The Financier World Wide Magazine (December 2019) Available at: https://www.financierworldwide.com/cultural-issues-in-ma#.Yeq6JNlKhAY.

The Global Legal Skills Conference was founded by Professor Mark E. Wojcik of The John Marshall Law School as a resource for law professors, ESL professionals, and other who teach international legal skills to those who speak English as a second language. The GLS Conference Series also includes award presentations to recognize outstanding contributions to the field of international legal skills education, Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Legal_Skills_Conference.

Available at: Hofstede’s website. https://geerthofstede.com.

In an egalitarian society, all are considered equal, regardless of gender, race, religion, or age. There is not a class system like in Latin America but relatively equal access to income and wealth. Some societies are more egalitarian than others, and some areas of egalitarianism are part of economies, politics, and laws. There isn’t data for “the most egalitarian society” in the world, but in terms of economic and gender equality, Nordic countries like Sweden and Norway rank high for economic and gender equality. Available at: https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2020/the-nordic-exceptionalism-what-explains-why-the-nordic-countries-are-constantly-among-the-happiest-in-the-world/.

Study from GlobalSmart. Available at: https://www.globesmart.com/blog/cultural-etiquette-and-social-distancing-around-the-world/.

To see Hosftede-insights comparing tool results for Colombia, Spain and Sweden follow this link. Available at: https://www.hofstede-insights.com/country-comparison/colombia,spain,sweden/.

To learn more see the Sweden’s Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA) /Finansinspektionen (FI) motivation to sancion. It concluded that Swedbank demonstrated major deficiencies in its work to combat money laundering in its Baltic operations. The bank’s Swedish operations have not lived up to the requirements in the anti-money laundering regulations. Available at: https://www.fi.se/en/published/sanctions/financial-firms/2020/swedbank-receives-a-warning-and-an-administrative-fine-of-sek-four-billion/.

The World Values Survey (WVS) The project’s goal is to assess which impact values stability or change over time has on the social, political and economic development of countries and societies. The project grew out of the European Values Study and was started in 1981 by its Founder and first President (1981–2013) Professor Ronald Inglehart from the University of Michigan (USA) and his team, and since then has been operating in more than 120 world societies. Available at: https://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/WVSContents.jsp.

The ethnic diversity of Colombia is a blend between indigenous people, Spanish colonizers, and African slaves. Thus even though Colombia has around 85 different ethnic groups and people may identify with the various ethnicities on the basis of skin color, ancestry or social status. Available at: https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/ethnic-groups-of-colombia.html.

The Cali Cartel (Spanish: Cartel de Cali) was a drug cartel based in southern Colombia, around my hometown, the city of Cali. At the height of the Cali Cartel’s reign from 1993–1995, they were cited as having control over 90% of the world’s cocaine market and for being directly responsible for the growth of the cocaine market in Europe, By the mid-1990s, the trafficking empire of the Cali Cartel was a multibillion-dollar enterprise. In 2002, was estimated that it had $30 billion in profits. Source Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cali_Cartel.

My grandfather was a political advisor to Jorge Gaitan, a presidential candidate who was killed on April 1948, which unleashed a wave of urban violence in the wake of his assassination. A 3-day uprising, called El Bogotazo, left Bogotá in ruins, and forced my grandfather to leave the country as the death of Gaitán marked the beginning of an undeclared civil war with an estimated 43,557 deaths in that year. Available at: https://sites.tufts.edu/atrocityendings/2016/12/14/colombia-la-violencia-2/.

International Women In Business (IWIB) is the fastest growing business network, operating under the umbrella of The Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, growing from seven (7) members in 2018 to 370 by the end of 2021. Available at: www.iwib.online.

Debate clubs encourage students to become more informed about political and global affairs, or provide a venue for students to train for debate competitions at a national and international level. Like the Model United Nations (MUN) debate club, also adopted by Stockholm’s University (SMUN) in cooperation with the Department of Economic History and International Relations at Stockholm University, to help students acquire the skills and knowledge about global issues as well as practical experience that can help them in their future careers. Available at: https://www.sus.su.se/studentfreningar-p-su/stockholm-model-united-nations.

H&M’s Ethical AI Debate Club. Available at: H&M https://hmgroup.com/our-stories/responsible-ai-is-better-ai/.

See the role of HR. Available at: https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/why-are-human-resources-important?from=careeradvice-US.

See Art. 6 of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Consent Requirements. Available at: https://gdpr.eu/gdpr-consent-requirements/?cn-reloaded=1.

Strategic foresight is a discipline that enables us to understand how issues unfolding today could affect our organizations tomorrow. By researching existing trends, imagining future possibilities, and implementing strategies that account for these possibilities, organizations can ensure that they are equipped to perform and succeed in a wide variety of uncertain future scenarios. Available at: https://www.bridgeable.com/.

See: The Future of Work- How Corporations Can create human-centered transformations. Deloitte/2021. Available at: https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/blog/human-capital-blog/2021/the-future-of-work-how-corporations-can-create-human-centered-transformations.html.

In this book, Kyle et al., introduce an innovative process for creating breakthrough change, using tools such as science fiction, cartoons, rap music, and neuroprototypes to overcome people’s inability to imagine or react to what doesn’t yet exist, override stubborn habits and routines that prevent them from changing. The book show-cases how these tools have been used successfully by companies such as Walmart, Pepsi, IKEA, Google, Microsoft, and others, giving guidance on how to transcend the human barriers that block change in organizations. See page 168. Leading Transformation: How To Take Charge of Your Company’s Future. Nathan Furr, Kyle Nel, Thomas Zoega Ramsoy. Harvard Business Review Press. (2018).

Anthropologist Edward T. Hall developed the Cultural Iceberg Model in the 1970s as an analogy for the cultural codes that prevail in any society. Available at: https://harappa.education/harappa-diaries/iceberg-model-of-culture-and-behavior/.

Berovski, supra note 1.

See Forbes article ‘What is Digital Legal Talent?’ by Mark A. Cohen (Oct. 2021) Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/markcohen1/2021/10/19/what-is-digital-legal-talent/?sh=7873d11b3af8.

Titel: International Business Etiquette For Legal (IBEL)
verfasst von: Tatiana Caldas-Löttiger
Verlag: Springer International Publishing
Buch: Liquid Legal – Humanization and the Law
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-14239-0

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-031-14240-6

Copyright-Jahr: 2022
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-14240-6_18