Americans At Work - A Guide to the Can-Do People

Craig Storti

Intercultural Press
A Nicholas Brealey Company

First published by Intercultural Press, A Nicholas Brealey Company. For information contact:

Intercultural Press, Inc. Nicholas Brealey Publishing PO Box 700 3-5 Spafield Street Yarmouth, Maine 04096 USA London, EC1R 4QB, UK Tel: [phone] Tel: [phone] Fax: [phone] Fax: [phone] www.interculturalpress.com www.nbrealey-books.com

2004 by Craig Storti

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

Printed in the United States of America

08 07 06 05 04 1 2 3 4 5

ISBN 1-931930-5-8

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Storti, Craig.

Americans at work : a cultural guide to the can-do people/Craig Storti
p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN: 1-931930-05-8 (pbk.)
1. Alien labor ” United States ” Handbooks, manuals, etc. 2. Visitors, Foreign ” United States ” Handbooks, manuals, etc. 3. National characteristics, American. 4. Group identity ” United States.
5. Organizational behavior ” United States. 6. Intercultural communication ” United States. I. Title. HD8081.A5S76 2004 650.1'3'086910973 ” dc22 2004008234

To Judy Carl-Hendrick: the best friend a writer could have.

Acknowledgments

As always, my deep gratitude to Toby Frank, for this book and for all the others. Patricia O Hare and Nicholas Brealey gave me very astute advice on tone and balance. Judy Carl-Hendrick, as usual, was good on the big picture and on the details; her deft touch enhances every page.

Every book s unsung hero is the writer s spouse, who gets to share all of the grief and none of the glory . To Charlotte, my love and thanks.

About the Author

Craig Storti is a nationally known figure in the field of intercultural communications and cross-cultural adaptation and is the author of several widely used books in the intercultural field:

• The Art of Crossing Cultures

• The Art of Coming Home

• Cross-Cultural Dialogues

• Figuring Foreigners Out

• Old World/New World: Americans and Europeans

He has more than twenty-five years of experience training businessmen and women, academics , diplomats, civil servants, and foreign aid work- ers in undersanding and working effectively with people from other cultures. and diverse backgrounds. As a trainer and consultant, he has advised Fortune 500 companies on international joint ventures and expatriate/repatriation issues, led cross-cultural workshops for international agencies and nongovernmental organizations on four continents, and assisted numerous corporations and government agencies to better manage global teams and a multicultural workforce. His clients include

• Nike

• U.S. Department of State

• Exxon Mobil

• Federal Aviation Administration

• Best Buy

• NASA

• British Telecom

• FBI

• Pfizer

• The University of Chicago

• FedEx

• Tulane University

• Target

• Vanderbilt University

• The United Nations

Craig Storti is also a well-known speaker and has written for a number of national magazines and major newspapers, including The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and the Chicago Tribune. He has lived nearly a quarter of his life abroad ” with extended stays in Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist cultures ” and speaks French, Arabic, and Nepali.