Intercultural
Intercultural: Team work with a fusion spin
Guest writer Irina Budrina looks at how multi-cultural teams can apply fusion collaboration principles in order to get things done- and what obstacles they might find in the process. When a French company prepared to merge with a Romanian firm, American and Romanian engineers discussed the difficulties of working with each other. As the Americans [...]
Cultural differences in advertising: Romania and Brazil
Since effective communication depends largely on the understanding of different cultures in a world economy, the role of culture in advertising is undoubtedly essential. In this story we’re looking at the Romanian and Brazilian advertising markets. A Romanian agency brought some creative Brazilians to the Romanian market. This triggered some comparison between the Romanian and [...]
Modern Austrian business society and old traditions at play in Romania: the Viennese Ball
Austrians want to protect their national identity and remain in many ways a closed and introverted society. In Austria there is a historical respect for aristocrats, not unrelated to the nostalgia felt for the old empire. The Viennese Ball in Bucharest is one of the examples of a synthesis between modern Austrian business society and [...]
Marketing across cultures: why the ‘American ROM’ campaign for Romanian chocolate bar worked
Culturally-aware marketers can make the difference when it comes to failing or succeeding on a certain market. Products that are adapted to the traits of a culture are those that stand more changes of being picked up from the shelves. How should companies create their marketing strategies for Romania? Contribution by Irina Budrina McCann Erickson [...]
In food we trust; a story of Irish and Romanians working together
For a foreigner, opening a restaurant in Romania is a complex intercultural exercise. Dealing with local staff and local customers, while serving food from another culture – that’s something worth looking into. Contribution by Irina Budrina Food is only one aspect of cultural traditions, yet it is probably one of the most persistent. [...]
Ethnic entrepreneurship in Romania: Turkish business development
Romania, which displays an ethnic minority diversity, can offer a real and sustainable model of multicultural co-existence. Turkish entrepreneurs were part of an early wave of entrepreneurs in post-communist Romania, and may have played an important part in shaping business in the country. By Irina Budrina There is a long history of Romanian and Turkish [...]
Buying a business in Romania: cultural due diligence and hidden cultural rules
Cross-border mergers and acquisitions are common and often used to acquire more efficient access to resources and human capital, to expand markets and to create new ones. Due to promising predictions, as well as a considerable amount of time and money spent on legal and administrative issues, potential difficulties deriving from cross-cultural differences and hidden [...]
Intercultural communication: Business negotiation in Romania
Owing to the country’s history within the former Eastern Bloc until 1996, many businesspeople and officials in Romania may have only limited exposure to other cultures except for neighboring countries. Its culture is quite homogeneous. When negotiating business here, realize that people may expect things to be done ‘their way.’ However, some among younger generations [...]
Management culture in Romania: what does the boss say?
Romania, now a member of the EU, has for so many years been a society where management authority was highly concentrated in the hands of a few people who could wield their authority in quite an arbitrary way. The management style was often autocratic and the main expectation of the workforce was that of quiet [...]
Explicit, implicit communication and the Barbarian reflex. Where do Romanians fit?
Everything you do conveys a message, on different layers. These layers can be either the High Context- meaning that you communicate not only with words, but with voice, tone, body language and so on, or Low Context, which goes to say you expect explicit communications. Some cultures fall in the first categories, others, in the [...]
Motivation across cultures: what drives Romanians to work?
Motivating all level employees to use their brains and not their backs and strive on behalf of an organization is a difficult task, and when it comes to a diverse set of people from different cultures, it is even more difficult. What drives Romanians to work and what motivates employees with a different cultural background? [...]
Virtual multicultural teams: real communication in the virtual world
The following situation sounds common enough for Romania, a country which has been chosen by many companies as their outsource location. The cheaper and more skilled labor force, plus the expansion of online technologies make it easy for Romanians to tele work with colleagues in other countries. But how easy is it to communicate with [...]
From Russia with love. Russians (and Romanians) doing business
Culturally speaking, everything is in place for good business and commercial communication between Russia and Romania. But despite some high profile interests, Russia lies outside the top ten investors to Romania in the official national statistics. Russia has been close enough to Romania and has had an influence on Romania long enough to lend it [...]
Doing business a la Grec in Romania; an inter-cultural perspective
Greek investments have a long history in Romania, Greece being among the first countries to invest in Romania after the revolution in 1989. Romania has always been attractive to the Greeks since both countries share very strong historical, social and cultural ties and businessmen of Greek origin have been living and thriving in Romania for [...]
Cultures doing business together: Romanians & Icelanders’ communication pitfalls
A software company from Iceland offers a turn-key solution for gaming platforms and a large portfolio of games. It sold to a Romanian company a turn-key solution, a gaming platform as a base to be tailored to Romanians needs. Romanians believed it was the whole package including the turn-key solution, and this led to a [...]
Intercultural intelligence: How the insiders play the game in Romania
In business and outside, Romania is a society of insiders. The basis of organisational life is the personal network. Newcomers without introductions or other personal credentials may find it difficult to break in. Organisational structure in traditional companies is strictly systematic and has hierarchical lines. Private companies have developed more streamlined processes and are prepared [...]
Romania through common stereotypes: vampires, Roma people, communism. What else?
For many foreigners, Romania is the equivalent of a series of common misconceptions. Things that just pop into one’s mind when hearing about the country. This week, we’re looking at stereotypes and how they can affect communication. We’re looking forward to receiving your thoughts on this: what was the first thing that came to mind [...]
Humor in Romania: from survival method during communism to ice breaker in business
Romanians are by nature fun loving, warm, hospitable, playful, with an innate sense of humor, sometimes spiced with irony. Humor is a common part of the Romanian business culture. Let us know what was your experience in what concerns humor in Romania – feel free to comment after reading the article below. By Irina Budrina [...]
Collaborating and communicating across genders
By understanding cultural differences and similarities, one can develop ways to communicate and collaborate more effectively across genders. The cultures of men and women, like other cultures, are complex, given women and men’s great variety, diverse backgrounds, and personal histories. Take the following example involving a foreign manager and his female subordinate from Romania. By [...]
Cultural preconceptions: French and Romanians at the merger table
In a meeting of people of different nationalities, parties will notice the different practices first. But in a problematic meeting like the one in the following example, the different perceptions of self and pre-conceptions of others become important, and will lead the parties to interpret the same practice differently. Let us know what you think about the situation below, which involves French and Romanian professionals sitting together at the merger table.
The emergency tool kit: developing a set of skills for multiple cultural situations
“Think global while acting local” is hard to implement, which is why a high rate of failures in assignments abroad is a constant statistic. But what happens when the situation doesn’t allow a foreigner too much time to research and learn about the culture of the country’s he or she is headed to? By Irina [...]
Leadership style – how does culture influence leaders?
The leadership style is yet another area where cultural intelligence is required and where local cultures play an important role. The sort of leadership valued in the Netherlands is, for example, a weakness in Romania, where authoritative leadership is seen as a strength. On the same note, the qualities of a good leader in the US would not necessarily work in Central and Eastern Europe. We’d love to hear your stories and experiences when it comes to intercultural leadership in the CEE region.
Doing business in Romania: main cultural values
Romania has often been labeled as one of history’s greatest survivors. A past of invasions and occupations, Romania has recently undergone dynamic social and economic changes and joined the EU in 2007. While the country attempts to leave behind its communist past, present day attitudes and traditions still reflect this part of its turbulent history. Modest attitudes and behaviors coupled with Orthodox Christian beliefs reflect their simple-minded and down-to-earth mentality that has been shaped by years of hardship.
Romanian women leading a cross-cultural team: what are the challenges?
In the previous article we discussed the challenges that the leader of the team of engineers– a Colombian woman- had to go through. The mixture of cultures made this unique experience a bit spicy – five British and four Indian specialists were not mixing well, in fact the results of the projects showed that there was no team established at all. Now let’s see how would things look like if the leader of the team were a Romanian woman. Feel free to add you insights on the situation by e-mailing irina-budrina@hotmail.com.
Workplace hurdles: different cultures working together
Different nationalities working together, different cultures mixing in the working place could lead to a tough combination, especially for the leader of the team. We have received the following story from one of our readers. It involves British, Indian and Colombian colleagues. What do you think would have happened if any of these people in the story were replaced with Romanians?
Romania strikes gold, silver and bronze at European Gymnastics Championship, wins title after four years 
‘Magic mentalist’ wins ‘Romania’s got talent’ competition after flat-lining during live show 
Three trams collide, derail in Bucharest accident, at least 86 injured 
‘The Avengers’ epic movie almost covers production costs with first week-end box office revenues 
Athletic Bilbao files official complaint over Bucharest airport delays after Europa League final 
Wajiha Haris, Scheherazade Foundation president: “No” is never an option 
Romania’s Education Minister accused of having plagiarized three international research papers 
German STEAG buys wind farm from Romanian Monsson, plans EUR 200 mln investments 
Romanian actor Serban Ionescu left bed bound after catching Lyme’s disease from tick bite 
S Immo to put EUR 66 mln into The Mark – Bucharest office building with intelligent facade
