Attitudes toward time and presentation styles can have a powerful effect on cross-cultural communication. These attitudes vary greatly around the world. An international manager must face many issues related to communicating in another country: What should they be aware of in terms of communication style? How do they decipher nonverbal behaviors or figure out the work style of their foreign counterparts? An American expatriate, John Olsen, new to Italy, was determined not to fall into the polychronic attitude, but instead, as he reports below, he soon realized he was missing the point about what was really being conveyed to him. John sent the following email to his DSI International mentor in the United States, Nancy Adler.

John Olsens email to Nancy Adler

Although I failed to grasp its full implications at the time, my initial hint came on my first day in Italy. I had an appointment to meet my new manager or department head, Dr. Alberto Pastore. I arrived at his office on time. Neither he nor his administrative assistant was there. In fact, I had to turn on the lights myself to read the magazines in the waiting room. After half an hour, the administrative assistant arrived, said Buongiorno, and asked me if I wanted a macchiato, which I abruptly declined.

As she sat down at her desk. I greeted her by saying, Hi Ludovica! How are you doing? Did you enjoy your weekend with family and friends? She seemed uncomfortable about me asking these questionsWhat happened?

Fifteen minutes later my new manager arrived, said Buongiorno, to which I replied, Hello Alberto! Did you enjoy your weekend with family and friends? He offered me a macchiato, which I again declined, and then he left for a moment. Upon his return, he sat down at his desk and asked me if I would join him for lunch later that day. He casually apologized for keeping me waiting, chatted for a few minutes, and then allowed one of his managers to abruptly enter our meeting to discuss a problem with one of their manufacturing plants. The problem did not seem like an emergency situation. My manager, Alberto, then excused himself to attend another meeting. I learned later that he was not lying. It was his habit to make lots of appointments for the same time and then to be late for all of them. He apparently dislikes appointments.

Later that day, I had lunch with Alberto and other colleagues from the office at a local restaurant in Rome. (Or is it Roma?) He wanted me to try the mozzarella di bufala salad and their local sparkling water. However, I told him I was on a dairy-free diet and I would prefer a diet Coke and a burger and fries. You can imagine how shocked I was when he went ahead and ordered lunch with the bufala salad and dessert with the smallest strawberries I had ever seenfragoline di boscotheir so-called wild strawberries. Of course, everyone finished with an espresso.

I tried talking about the upcoming strategy presentation while Alberto was sipping his sparkling water at the beginning of the meal. But he kept changing the conversation to other topics, like the World Expo 2020 meeting in Dubai in 20212022, which was delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. I guess that the Italians hosted this expo in 2015 in Milan. Why talk about the World Expo? Were we exhibiting in Dubai in 20212022? Was I supposed to go to Milan during my stay? I wondered if my new manager was simply unprepared to discuss our evaluation of the impact of the pandemic on our specific business plans during lunch.

In the afternoon, I had scheduled a meeting with several Italian managers to discuss the key performance indicators of our staff in the European Union. We had to evaluate the effects of the pandemic on virtual work and decide whether to renew our commercial real estate office contracts with various agencies in Rome and Milan. This had the potential of saving our firm a lot of money in the future. I figured that the Italians were used to working at home now due to several lockdowns in 20202021. Thus, I had pre-arranged this meeting through several emails with both Word and PowerPoint attachments describing the main points in the agenda and ultimate presentation. I also included points about our strategic objectives, time frames for completion of each project, and teams that I had arbitrarily formed across all levels of Italian management.

When I got to the boardroom for the presentation, several of the managers were conversing about the 2006 FIFA World Cup game in Germany where the Italian mens team beat France. There was more discussion on who would be the winner in the 2022 World Cup game in Qatar. Some of the Italian managers seemed unconcerned over their colleagues being a few minutes late; in fact, they were in no hurry to begin. Since they were so crazy about soccer [How could they call this football?!], I asked if I could buy tickets for a local match and invite their friends too. This would be a great bonding experience for us outside of the office.

At the start of the presentation, I tried to warm up the audience with one of my icebreakers; this usually receives a lot of laughs in the United States. However, no one laughed! Did they miss the punch line? Do the Italians have no sense of humor?

I know that the Italians need to work more on teamwork to build group cohesiveness and better participative management skills. I strongly felt that this would be a good time to allow the low-skilled employees to work side-by-side with upper management in Italy. I thought that we could start using some key team-building concepts in the Italian organization to foster better communication and empower and motivate the low-skilled employees.

For some reason, the managers really did not appear to like my team-building ideas. This would really give them the opportunity to work one-on-one with the factory workers. Any advice? I also informed the managers that we would have to work late at night and possibly some weekends to get the job done. I told them not to worry about food for these late-night meetingswe would get the equivalent of Uber eats to deliver to the office. Then, more awkward silence. One of the managers informed me that our office building was officially closed by 6.30 p.m. by the security guards. I panicked. How was I supposed to get my work done at the office? I regularly plan Zoom meetings at 7.00 p.m. with my U.S. staff. Was my internet connection stable enough in my apartment in Rome? How was I going to get my work done?

My last appointment of the day was with the owner of an apartment I wanted to rent in Rome. By this time, I thought I was getting the picture. As soon as I arrived at his office, his assistant asked me if I would like a macchiato? No, thank you, I said. But, when the apartment manager, Claudio, arrived, I instantly liked him. His English was perfect, and he told me that he had studied at Villanova University as an undergrad in 20102015. We got to talk about the Wildcats. He gave me all kinds of recommendations for travel to Florence, Venice, and Milan. He even told me that there was a Starbucks in Milan. I could hardly wait to get a regular cup of coffee! But I could not believe how small the apartment was in Rome compared to my house on the cul-de-sac in Radnor. I am really going to miss my personal space. How can the Italians live like this?

I need your help! What am I doing wrong?

John

[End of email]

You are a cross-cultural consultant for DSI International. After Nancy received this very long email from John in Italy, she decided that an outside specialist was required to resolve the cross-cultural difficulties that are apparent in this communication.

Please evaluate the case in terms of your knowledge of the main ideas stemming from both the lecture and articles on understanding cross-cultural differences. The articles include the following: Silent Language of Overseas Business, Cross-Cultural Communication for Managers, Being the Boss in Brussels, Boston, and Beijing, and Cultural Differences Are More Complicated than What Country Youre From.

What advice can you give John Olsen based on this information? Please keep in mind that the Italians are a high context, polychronic culture. The U.S. culture is low-context and monochronic.