Miro Medvedec, an experienced project and technical manager, has coordinated work both in the Untied States and abroad. For two years, Miro Medvedec managed projects in Latin America for the Hamilton, Ohio-based Advanced Drainage Systems.

2. Miro Medvedec, an experienced project and technical
manager, has coordinated work both in the Untied States
and abroad. For two years, Miro Medvedec managed
projects in Latin America for the Hamilton, Ohio-based
Advanced Drainage Systems.
In recent years, developments in international trade have
led to increased communications between managers in
the United States and those in Latin America. The success
of these interactions depends largely on an understanding
of cultural differences in the two regions, as both the
speaker and listener are filtering the communication
through a lens of social and professional norms.

3. These norms may differ between Latin American and US
professionals, largely because US business interactions
tend to be content focused and to the point while Latin
American conversations incorporate subtle contextual
factors pertaining to a variety of social considerations. As a
result, managers from the US may seem overly blunt to a
Latino or Latina manager, whose conversations may seem
difficult for the US manager to understand.
Similarly, professionals from the United States come from
an individualistic culture that emphasizes independence
and autonomy.

4. By contrast, the Latin American culture focuses
on connections and reliance on one another,
which leads managers to prioritize relationships
and teamwork. To a US manager accustomed
to productivity as priority number one, this can
seem ingratiating, while the Latin American
colleague may see a focus solely on completing
the job as impersonal. It falls to both
professionals to understand where the other is
coming from and to view communications
through the cultural norm of the other.