by Magda D. Healey

Created on: February 20, 2011   Last Updated: February 21, 2011

Intercultural etiquette is the etiquette of intercultural relations. The culture is reflected in everything people do, and the etiquette (manners and conventional requirements as to social conduct in general or particular social situations) is one of the most visible and noticeable differences between cultures.

A genuine application of intercultural etiquette requires knowledge, sensitivity and respect for cultural differences in manners and customs on both sides, although it is usually assumed that the “visitor” will attempt to respect and to some at least extent comply with the etiquette of the “host” culture. And thus, a business person visiting a country and wishing to set up an operation there would be expected to have awareness of the local manners and behave accordingly; and the same would apply – perhaps even more so – to somebody visiting a local at their home, or a visitor on a purpose-designed cultural exchange. Similarly, if visiting somebody from a different culture at home even in one's own country, one should assume that within that space the etiquette from that culture would apply (though being unaware of the rules is more excusable in this situation and as long as people are willing to inform the visitors, they shouldn't get offended if they get things wrong).

However, in the modern globalized world, the precise application of intercultural etiquette is even more complicated that that. Many multinational companies have their own cultures, and despite operating in many markets and employing people of various national, ethnic and religious backgrounds, they promote fairly unified values and manners, often based on western European/American business cultures.

And even those terms shouldn't be taken to imply a single, congruent and unified etiquette, as there are more than skin-deep differences between various European nations and whole books have been written about cultural differences between the UK and the US, a large proportion of which actually concerns etiquette.

Certain rules of etiquette are very prescriptive, and can be learned almost by rote (though a graceful application usually requires many years of practice), like the famous Japanese business card etiquette or the hand-shake exchange of everybody with everybody so common in many European cultures. Table manners are usually very prescribed and what is considered rude in one culture (for example holding hands under the table during the meal is

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