Archive for the ‘Leclerc, Denis’ Category

Many people use “international” and “global” as interchangeable terms, but Thunderbird Professor Denis Leclerc, Ph.D., makes an important distinction. “Most international organizations have a center of gravity at corporate headquarters,” says Leclerc, who teaches in the Executive Certificate in Global Negotiations program through Thunderbird Online. “They might sell products around the world, but they truly have a center of gravity.” Global organizations, which have multiplied in the past 10 to 15 years, embed themselves more deeply in the markets where they operate and share knowledge in multiple directions. “Rather than having one center of gravity, they have nodes of knowledge around the world,” Leclerc says. Leclerc says cross-cultural communication skills become increasingly important as companies make the transition from international to global. | Audio: International Versus Global (9:27)

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Anthropologists, economists and linguists all talk about culture. But settling on one clear definition is difficult. “One reason is because culture remains largely invisible, especially when looking inward,” says Thunderbird Professor Denis Leclerc, Ph.D., who teaches in the Executive Certificate in Global Negotiations program through Thunderbird Online. “It is hard to see one’s own culture.” Culture is often described as a set of shared and learned preferences that bind people together, but Leclerc says his students struggle when he asks them what it means to be from a specific country, organization or group. When pressed, many people mention the importance of family — without realizing that people from all cultures say the same thing. “I have not yet found anybody who says they don’t care about their family,” Leclerc says. Despite the ambiguities, Leclerc says global managers cannot afford to overlook culture because it shapes the way people do business. | Audio: Defining Culture (9:55)

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Western and Eastern European cultures share many things in common, but one distinction is the way people view their ability to change external conditions that affect their lives. “One of the key concepts in defining culture is how people perceive that they can affect their own environment,” says Thunderbird Professor Denis Leclerc, Ph.D. “Western Europeans have a belief that they can change their environment, while Eastern Europeans see more constraints.” Leclerc discusses European culture in this podcast from Thunderbird Online Executive Certificates. Thunderbird Online’s facilitated professional development programs are available to global business professionals around the world. These top-ranked programs are accessible, convenient and up-to-date with the most insightful global business content from the world’s No. 1-ranked school in international business. | Audio: Cross-cultural communications while traveling in Europe (10:01)

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Hierarchy matters in Asia, whether you are doing business in China, Japan or any other country in the region. “The hierarchy really shapes the way people interact with each other,” says Thunderbird Professor Denis Leclerc, Ph.D., who discusses Asian communication styles in this podcast from Thunderbird Online Executive Certificates. Thunderbird Online’s facilitated professional development programs are available to global business professionals around the world. These top-ranked programs are accessible, convenient and up-to-date with the most insightful global business content from the world’s No. 1-ranked school in international business. | Audio: Cross-cultural communications while traveling in Asia (9:40)

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Doing business in the Middle East starts with building relationships of trust through face-to-face interaction. “Nothing gets done in any of these countries if you have not spent the time to develop relationships,” says Thunderbird Professor Denis Leclerc, Ph.D., who discusses Middle East communication styles in this podcast from Thunderbird Online Executive Certificates. Thunderbird Online’s facilitated professional development programs are available to global business professionals around the world. These top-ranked programs are accessible, convenient and up-to-date with the most insightful global business content from the world’s No. 1-ranked school in international business. | Audio: Cross-cultural communications while traveling in the Middle East (8:22)

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Blending cultures from North and Latin America is a little like mixing oil and water. “There are components of each culture that are almost on opposite ends of the spectrum,” says Thunderbird Professor Denis Leclerc, Ph.D., who discusses Canadian, U.S. and Latin American communication styles in this podcast from Thunderbird Online Executive Certificates. Thunderbird Online’s facilitated professional development programs are available to global business professionals around the world. These top-ranked programs are accessible, convenient and up-to-date with the most insightful global business content from the world’s No. 1-ranked school in international business. | Audio: Cross-cultural communications while traveling in the Americas (9:20)

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Thunderbird professors Denis Leclerc, Ph.D., and Karen Walch, Ph.D., enjoy watching students in their cross-cultural communication classes learn to thrive in diverse work environments. “The students realize that sometimes the issues they have in teams are not due to personalities but actually due to cultural misunderstandings and miscommunication,” Leclerc says. In this podcast, recorded July 16, 2009, Leclerc and Walch talk about the Cultural Orientation Indicator (COI), a self-assessment tool Thunderbird uses to help its students and corporate clients understand their own cultural preferences and the preferences of others. The professors are joined by five Thunderbird students from Italy and India, who talk about their own adventures in cross-cultural communication. Audio: Seven views on cross-cultural communication and the COI (15:25)

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