Foster Business Library


Business Culture


Foster Business Library research guides are aimed at University of Washington students, faculty, and staff, highlighting resources available to them; users not currently affiliated with the university may be unable to access some of these resources.
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Foster Business Library Databases:

The Foster Business Library offers an extensive collection of over fifty databases on its homepage; see under Databases. For a complete list of Foster databases, see the List of All Business Databases. Access to these databases from off campus requires that you first go to the Off-Campus Access button, in the upper right of all library webpages. These resources may not be accessed from off campus except by those with a valid UW Net ID and password. For more information on Foster business databases, click Databases, A-Z. For information on which Foster business databases to use, see the Database Index. For information on accessing Foster databases from off campus, see Database Access. For guidelines on responsible database usage, see Database Usage.

  • Gale Virtual Reference Library:   The Gale Virtual Reference Library is a database of encyclopedias, almanacs, and specialized reference sources for multidisciplinary research. Under Nation and World, see Countries and Their Cultures. See the Etiquette section for each country.

  • STAT-USA:   In this database are business, economic, and trade statistics and data from the U.S. Department of Commerce and other Federal government sources. To access international information, go to Country Commercial Guides. These guides contain information on the business and economic situation of foreign counties and the political climate as it affects U.S. business. They are produced annually by U.S. Embassy staff including the Department of State, the Department of Commerce and the Department of Agriculture. In these guides, look for the section on Business Travel which usually starts with a few short paragraphs under Business Customs.

    Web Resources:

    Unlike library databases, Web resources are available wherever you have web access; they do not require that you access them via the Off-Campus Access button, in the upper right of all library webpages. When using web resources, be sure to evaluate the credibility of these resources. For a subject index to web resources, see Business Resources on the Web on the Foster Business Library homepage.

  • Business Culture Around the World:   This Foster Business Library research guide provides links to many books and web resources on business culture, arranged by region and by country.

  • Guidelines for Business Etiquette:   This Executive Planet site provides business etiquette guidelines for over forty-five countries, with information on making appointments, business attire, conversation, management culture, gifts, making deals, entertaining, plus links to country information.

  • International Business Etiquette:   This Arizona State University Libraries site offers unannotated lists of print resources on this topic, arranged alphabetically by region.

  • Wikipedia:   This free online user-created and maintained encyclopedia can be a good starting point for an orientation to a topic. See their entry for Cross-Cultural Communication.

    Foster Business Library Reference Collection:

    The Foster Business Library Reference Collection consists of business handbooks, encyclopedias, dictionaries, and other quick reference tools. It is located behind the Reference Desk in Foster, arranged by call number. Reference materials cannot be checked out; they may only be used in the library.

  • Multicultural manners: new rules of etiquette for a changing society.
    This 280-page paperback is arranged not by region or country but by body language, clothing, colors, foodways, gifts, male-female relationships, verbal expressions, etc. The index provides limited access to information by country.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: BJ1838 .D74 1996.

  • When in Rome or Rio or Riyadh.
    This paperback is subtitled as cultural questions and answers for successful business behavior around the world, arranged not by country, but by behavior—with an index at the beginning of the book, by country.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: G156.5 .B86 .O46 2004.

  • CultureGrams World Edition.
    This large two volume ring binder set provides four-page profiles for 190 countries, arranged alphabetically by country, with a map, and sections on land and climate, history, people, customs and courtesies, lifestyles, and society (including government, economy, transportation and communications), plus development data, and recent events and trends.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: GT150 .C858 2006.

  • Mind your manners: managing business cultures in the new global Europe.
    This paperback, in its third edition, covers communication, thinking, organization and leadership, meetings, negotiations, Europe as a region, and the Nordic, Baltic, British, Low, German-speaking, central, Latin and Balkan countries of Europe.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HD70 .E8 .M653 2003.

  • World trade almanac.
    This older work is arranged alphabetically by country name, with 10-page profiles for each nation. Included in each profile is a page on business culture, including cultural cautions.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF1371 .W67 1996/1997.

  • Dun & Bradstreet's guide to doing business around the world.
    Covering the U.S.'s top forty trade partners, this reference work offers ten page country summaries about these forty countries that include five top cultural tips plus brief demographic data, holidays, and work week information.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF1416 .M78 2001.

  • Encyclopedia of business ethics and society.
    This five-volume reference work includes 900 essays by scholars, arranged alphabetically by topic, on all aspects of business ethics. See the essays on ethics in international business.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF5387 .E53 2008.

  • Doing business internationally: the resource book to business and social etiquette.
    Arranged by region, this work provides six-page profiles of each country's history, social conventions, introductions, customary business practices, business entertaining, dining out and public customs.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF5389 .D64 1997.

  • Global business etiquette: a guide to international communication and customs.
    This guide is arranged by topic, not country; chapters include travel customs and tips; language and greetings; gestures; dress and appearance; attitudes and behaviors; dining and tipping; conversational customs and manners; and oral and written communications and etiquette. For each chapter, there are country-specific tips for Canada, China, England, France, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, South Korea, and Taiwan.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF5389 .M375 2006.

  • Kiss, bow or shake hands.
    This paperback is arranged alphabetically by country name, with seven page profiles for each country, detailing the country's history, government, language, religion and demographics, cognitive styles, negotiation strategies, value systems, locus of decision making, sources of anxiety reduction, issues of equality, business practices, protocol, gestures, dress and gifts.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF5389 .M67 2006.

  • International business etiquette: Asia & the Pacific Rim.
    This 200-page paperback is arranged alphabetically by country name, with twelve- to fifteen-page profiles of thirteen countries, covering why people do business in each country, some background information, statistics, currency, dates, ethnic makeup, holidays, language, religion, weather, business attire, etiquette and conversation, gestures, gifts, protocol, decision-making, meeting manners, tips, toasting, and important cultural taboos.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF5389.3 .A78 .S23 1999.

  • International business etiquette: Europe.
    This 300-page paperback is arranged alphabetically by country name, with twelve- to fifteen-page profiles of twenty-five countries, covering why people do business in each country, some background information, statistics, currency, dates, ethnic makeup, holidays, language, religion, weather, business attire, etiquette and conversation, gestures, gifts, protocol, decision-making, meeting manners, tips, toasting, and important cultural taboos.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF5389.3 .E85 .S23 1999.

  • International business etiquette: Latin America.
    This 200-page paperback is arranged alphabetically by country name, with twelve-page profiles of fourteen countries, covering why people do business in each country, some background information, statistics, currency, dates, ethnic makeup, holidays, language, religion, weather, business attire, etiquette and conversation, gestures, gifts, protocol, decision-making, meeting manners, tips, toasting, and important cultural taboos.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF5389.3 .L3 .S22 2000.

  • How to say it for executives: the complete guide to communication for leaders.
    This paperback is aimed at leaders and how they can best communicate, orally and nonverbally, through speaking and presentations, business writing, meetings, and personal behaviors. In particular, see chapter 13, entitled Bridging Cultures.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF5718 .M549 2005.

  • Doing business in the new China.
    This guide to doing business in the current Chinese climate includes a section entitled To Do's and Taboos in China, on salutations, titles, greetings, conversational topics, language, body language, and gifts, as well as negotiation tips, on pages 50 to 66, with other useful tips throughout the book.
    Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HG5784 .Z56 2004.

    Foster Business Library Books:

    The Foster Business Library maintains a collection of over 70,000 books on all business topics. To search for materials on all three campuses of the University of Washington, go to the UW Libraries Catalog, in the upper left corner of the Foster Business Library homepage. Search by keyword, title, author, series, etc.

    To limit the results of your search just to materials in the Foster Business Library collection, use the Modify or Limit options at the top of the search results and change the library location to Foster Business Library. Availablity is indicated on the right of each online catalog record. First, note in which collection, within Foster, your materials are in, since the library has ten different Collections, each in a different location and often with differing arrangements. "Available" indicates that the book should be on the shelves under that call number and available for you to check out. "Due" and a date indicates that the book is already checked out to someone and is due back on the date indicated; you can have the "Request/Place Hold" feature to recall the book for your use.

    If the material you want is not in the collections of the University of Washington, you can use the "Search Summit" feature to repeat your search in the combined holdings of over thirty cooperating libraries in Washington and Oregon. Use the "Request This Item" feature in Summit to have books in those library sent here to Foster for you to check out.

    The Foster general stacks collection is located south of the main part of the Foster Business Library, through the two pass-throughs into the basement of Balmer. The arrangement is by call number, from A (at the east end, near the Copy Center) to Z (at the far west end).

    Try searching the UW Libraries Catalog under these subject terms:

    Click on the subject headings above to launch UW Libraries Catalog searches for books on these subjects in the Foster Business Library collections.

    Examples of Foster Business Library titles from these searches include:

    Or try the list of business culture books (arranged by region and country) in the Foster Business Library Research Guide to Business Culture Around the World (noted above, under Web Resources). Clicking on the title of any of the many books in this guide will take you to the UW Libraries Catalog record for the book, indicating where the book is located and whether the book is available for you to check out or to consult in the library.

    Foster Business Library Articles:

    Articles in academic journals, magazines, trade periodicals, and newspapers are one of the best sources for any kind of research. While the Foster Business Library offers a large periodicals print collection, comprising over 800 titles, articles are most easily accessed online, 24/7, in such fulltext article databases as EBSCO Business Source Premier, Factiva, LexisNexis Academic, Newsbank Infoweb, and ProQuest Databases. These article databases are available in the library or from off-campus, and provide access to over 10,000 periodicals and millions of articles.

    Library access to most ProQuest databases will terminate at the end of spring quarter 2008, except for ProQuest NewsStand, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, Historical New York Times, and the Historical Wall Street Journal. For more about this change, see UW Libraries Providing New Databases. After this change, comprehensive article searches should be performed in EBSCO Business Source Premier, Newsbank Infoweb, and ProQuest NewsStand. Also, after this change, links to the articles below will be broken.

    ProQuest Databases:

    This database--actually, a family of over two dozen databases--offers full text articles for over 10,000 publications, including scholarly journals, magazines, trade and industry periodicals, newspapers, and reports on a very wide range of topics. To find articles on specific topics, search by word or phrase by keying your search phrase into the search box--or search for your topic in the Topic Guide.

    Your search terms will be highlighted in red in each article.

    As an example, a search in this database for the phrase "Business Culture" produced over three thousand articles, including over three hundred articles in scholarly journals, over 170 magazine articles, over six hundred articles in industry publications, over fifteen hundred newspaper articles, almost a dozen reports, and over eighty dissertations.

    In this database's Topic Guide, the nearest subject terms for Business Culture are SUB(Corporate Culture), with over thirty-five thousand articles; SUB(Cross Cultural Studies), with over seven thousand articles; and SUB(Business Travel) and SUB(Culture), with over a hundred articles.

    Examples of articles, from the searches above, include:

    Help:

    15 October 1999; updated 30 April 2008.   Peter Stevens, Business Librarian, stevens@u.washington.edu.