North American Etiquette: How North American interact and why

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North American EtiquetteHow North American
interact and why

• Corina Mihaela Paraschiv,
• Marketing Communications Director
• for Rotaract in USA, Canada and Carrabeans
• mcorina_at_gmail.com

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Understanding North Americans
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How We Relate to Each Other

• Less concerned with self-categorizing
• Less influenced by group membership
• Greater skills in entering and leaving new groups
• Engage in more open and precise communication
• Willingness to respond to ambiguous messages

Easier to trust others in computer-mediated
communications
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How We Communicate

• Democracy heritage
• Expressing your opinion is a form of
  participation
• Needs must be expressed clearly
• Discussion style
• May come across as rude
• May come across as uninterested
• May not notice subtle hints

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How We Make Decisions

• Participative Team-Oriented
• Involve everyone in decision-making
• Leaders are facilitators and coordinators
• Democracy Tradition
• It is ok to constructively criticize a superiors
  idea
• Seeking answers from peers is valid

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How We Assign Tasks

• Task-Based
• What/Why vs Who
• Take deadlines schedules seriously
• No face-saving
• Guarantee for leader
• Assignment through potential vs ancienty
• Initiative is valued

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How We Relate To Time

• Monochronic Time Orientation
• Do things sequentially
• Relationships are subordinate to present schedule
• Short-Term Orientation
• Emphasis on results
• Status is not an issue in relationships
• Universalism

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What You Bring

• North Americans are low on institutionized
  collectivity family collectivity
• Community building occurs more difficultly
• North Americans underestimate the importance of
  feelings
• Difficulty to communicate with tact in difficult
  situations
• North Americans have a short-term orientation
• They are better at bargains than negotiations

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Were Different Now What?
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Where Does RYE Stand?
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Long-Term Collaboration

• Past future history fosters trust
• Belonging to Rotary build common ground

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Diverse Culture

• Shared Situation Awareness
• Knowing whats going on so you know what to do

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Electronic Communication

• Less non-verbal cues
• Favors direct communication style
• Overall conflit in distributed groups is lower
  than in colladed groups
• Distributed groups are unaware of differences

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Some Final Thoughts

• RYE works with a diverse, virtual team
• What a Challenge!
• Whats the first step towards success?

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Some Final Thoughts

• Research shows that
• Managerial Skills only ranked 4
• The 1 Skill Empathy
• Cultural Awareness Understanding
• Respecting Others Values
• Treating People as Individuals
• Using a Different Cultural Perspective

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First Step to Success

• Cultural Understanding, which is what the RYE
  program is all about!