Analysis Of The Culture Map

The Culture Map: Overcoming Cultural Barriers Whether you are a student, a business man/woman, a buyer for a major company, or any person in general that interacts with cultures different than their own, you may find yourself in a situation where a cultural misunderstanding has occurred. These situations can cause embarrassment, trust issues, or even end a relationship. For these reasons, it is important to be prepared when interacting with someone from a different culture. Erin Meyer, the author of The Culture Map, and a professor at INSEAD, one of the leading international business schools, specializes in providing strategies for working with multicultural teams and overcoming misunderstandings (Meyer). In The Culture Map, Erin goes through

She explains how this method shows respect to other cultures. Erin recalls a time she was in New Delhi and asked the concierge of her hotel for a good place to eat. He gave her directions a number of times and after the third time of Erin not finding the restaurant, he decided to walk her there (30). Erin and the concierge had two different perceptions of giving and receiving directions. Erin believed that the concierge was not clear enough and the concierge wondered why Erin didn’t understand. Erin later approached the concierge and explained that she planned on visiting the Qutab Minar ancient ruins. After reading his worried expression, Erin then added, “Could you please map out for me step-by-step exactly what I need to do at every moment in order to find the ruins? As you have witnessed I’m not used to such a busy city” (59). Erin provides a great example of how to be humble about your culture in order to respect another while simultaneously not demeaning your

Erin’s many anecdotes help the reader get a clear understanding of the differences that she is talking about. Erin also uses a variety of cultural scales and maps that all correlate to position countries based on their stance on ways of conducting business. She provides a thorough list of sources that she used in each individual chapter. Her sources consist of scholarly articles and books that were published by prestigious companies like Anchor books, McGraw Hill, and Oval books. Erin’s enthusiasm for her book is expressed in the acknowledgments section. She describes the excitement that she felt when her first draft was finished and made sure to share her manuscript with a variety of global experts to make sure it was up to par. The enormous amount of gratitude that she uses three pages to express, shows the amount of support and dedication that she had throughout the whole process. Being a freshman majoring in International Studies and as someone who plans to work internationally, this book was an extraordinary tool that I will continue to reference throughout my college career. Erin’s capturing anecdotes and visual scales kept my attention throughout the whole reading