id or innovative actions (Brislin, 1993). Most Arabic, Islamic countries, including Kuwait, fit this description.
Conversely, Western countries, including the United States, tend to be characterized by high tolerance for uncertainty, lower power distance between subordinates and leaders, a short term time orientation, individualistic rather than collectivist, and masculine rather than feminine (Brislin, 1993; Hofstede, 1980, 2000).
Given this general background, the research question addressed in this report is: How do Kuwaiti business people who regularly deal in their professional lives with Western business people perceive the communication styles of their Western counterparts? A related question is: Will Kuwait business people who regularly deal with Western business people agree with Hofstede's (1980; 2000) dimensional attributes as listed above? A final question is: Asked to rate the agreeableness of communicating with their Western business counterparts, will Kuwaiti business people indicate a high or low level of comfort in this area?
The purpose of the paper is, therefore, to answer these questions as a means of examining the communicative differences between tow different groups of business people. The time frame for the research consisted of a month of library research followed by two weeks of survey research and a week during which the final report was completed and data analyzed. The report is significant in that globalization is leading to integration of business entities and business people, thus necessitating an understanding of how culture impacts upon communication (Trenholm & Jensen, 2000).
According to Fertig (1996), human beings adapt to their social and physical environments through the medium of culture. People also spend a great deal of time and effort imposing a meaningful order on their life experiences through the use of significant symbols. The systems of symbols that constitute a c...