Cross Cultural

Dealing with hierarchies

Top managements’ role in the UK is to recognize business opportunities and convince others in the association to seek after them. Business visitors should anticipate finding female colleagues, clients and suppliers at senior levels in all segments of the economy. Whatever their role, the need for British leaders and managers to possess ‘soft’ skills is always emphasized. As somewhere else female employees dominate in sales and administrative posts however steps have been made in recent years to expand opportunities, with 31% of middle-management posts held by women.

Managing people

Meetings are often informal and consensus even if only passive is important if individuals are to buy into a decision. Building in opportunities for participation in the planning process is likely to result in less need to ‘sell’ management decisions once they have been taken. Personnel changes are rarely political and are usually about accommodating the available talent and creating opportunities for personal development. The British are natural team-workers who perform best in relatively unstructured, free-thinking environments where there are opportunities for creativity and challenge. Many British employees consider it is more important to know what has to be done than who has the power to do it, and the burden of coordinating functions often relies on individual managers rather than centralized, structured, or formalized decision making processes

Managing time, schedules, deadlines and bureaucracy

Punctuality is expected and appreciated although in London problems with traffic and the transport infrastructure create a certain amount of acceptance over minor lateness. It is easiest to arrange appointments mid-morning or mid-afternoon. Many people work much longer although the UK is not a long-hours culture to the same extent as the USA or Japan. Normal working hours are from around 9 to 5 Monday to Friday.