Mind Your Manners

Product Description

This fully expanded and updated edition now reflects the additional 12 countries likely to be admitted to the European Union--from Turkey to Estonia--previewing what then will become the largest Trading Bloc in the world.
Product Details

* Amazon Sales Rank: #297685 in Books
* Published on: 2003-04-25
* Original language: English
* Number of items: 1
* Binding: Paperback
* 286 pages

Editorial Reviews

Review
"A very clever management book." -- John Cleese

"A wonderfully entertaining view of others as well as ourselves...invaluable." -- Business Week

"One of the best business books of the year!" -- Financial Times

"We need to increase our understanding of each other's cultures--fast. So buy this book and keep it in your briefcase." -- Gay Haskins, Director General, European Forum for Management Development

From the Publisher
Praised by Business Week as "one of the best business books of the year" and named a Financial Times Business Book of the Year as well, Mind Your Manners has become a 50,000-copy best-selling classic for managers who must succeed working across cultures in Europe. This fully expanded and updated edition now reflects the additional 12 countries likely to be admitted to the European Union—from Turkey to Estonia— previewing what then will become the largest Trading Bloc in the world. With business practice profiles of all 30 countries of Europe, Mind Your Manners examines the fundamental differences between organizational cultures and through interviews with working managers offers an insider’s view of the behaviors, values, and beliefs that affect working relationships between peers, bosses, direct reports, and business colleagues.

From the Inside Flap
Praised by Business Week as "invaluable political and psychological profiles of each nationality...a wonderfully entertaining view of others as well as ourselves" and named a Financial Times Business Book of the Year, Mind Your Manners has become a 50,000-copy bestseller and the standard guide to European business cultures for over a decade.

Now in a fully expanded and updated Third edition, this practical guide contains a further fifteen country chapters to include all the additional countries - from the Baltics to the Balkans - applying for membership to the European Union, the world's biggest global market. This major new edition comprehensively covers no less than thirty-three different business cultures from Russia to America, Norway to Switzerland, Finland to Turkey.

Much more than a simple catalogue of countries, Mind Your Manners explores Europe's extraordinary political, economic and social changes and the effect these have on the way we work together. New chapters on diversity and change identify the key elements that shape the business environment of the continent. Body language and negotiation are among the key topics that have been added to the chapters on cultural awareness with their practical models and toolkits such as The Mole Map.

Understanding the nature of cultural diversity is one thing is one thing. Managing it day-to-day is another. Based on interviews, surveys and workshops with over a thousand managers of fifty nationalities who were willing to share their experiences of working with cultural diversity, this practical guide is for all those of any nationality intending to do successful business in the world's biggest global market.
Customer Reviews

Full of stereotypes1
I bought this book hoping to gain insight into the minds and customs of my foreign business associates. I was sadly disappointed. As a European who has lived in Italy my entire life, I can say with 100% certainty that all of the information and advice in this book draws on age old stereotypes. For example, the lazy Southern Europeans, the cold Scandinavians, the pub hopping British and the industrial Germans.

This book will not help anyone improve relations with Europeans. It will only enforce false stereotypes and foster misunderstandings of other cultures.

Fantastic insight into European cultures...5
John Mole isn't one of those authors who pretend to have lived what he writes about. He truly has the insight and has understood the way each culture works in Europe. If you have a hard time understanding why an Italian will act the way he does in business, or wondering why being late 5 minutes at what you thought wasn't such an important meeting was so shocking to a German, this is the book to read. Even though Mole goes into depth about the reasons behind the way the different cultures think, the details aren't gruesome and keeps the reader entertained. It seriously made me understand in some cases why my fellow international colleagues react the way they do. And I've corrected my manners to flow on a more 'neutral' basis to accomodate them in business as well....and it works!

Brilliant review of cultural management5
A 1993 London FINANCIAL TIMES "Book of the Year", this book continues to be useful. John Mole's management seminars are familiar to us and his book sparks with his seminar wit. It is hard to fault his insightful analysis of cultural behaviour. As well, it is a valuable analysis of how to do business outside of one's culture. One need only to look at Mole's analysis of Germany and Russia to know that this fellow is on the ball, accurate and wonderfully precise with his words. I fully endorse this as a best buy book.