Trust Across National Cultures

At the beginning of this chapter, we examined a failure of trust between a German company and an American one, but primarily focused on organizational barriers to trust rather than on cultural differences. Here we deal with the ways in which national culture can be a boundary that affects trust across groups.

Imagine that a team of American executives go to Tokyo to sell their firm's product to a large Japanese company. They meet with a group from the Japanese company, exchange business cards, and engage in conversation to get to know one another. The Japanese delegation asks many questions concerning the American company; the Americans answer but then turn the conversation back to talking about how superior their new product is in comparison to what is on the market now. The Americans then move into a sales pitch of sorts, being careful to focus on the product's features and benefits. At the end of the meeting, the Americans ask the Japanese clients if they would like to place an order. The Japanese clients look at one another and change the s....