- Tip 1
- British companies tend to develop managers to be 'generalists' rather than 'specialists' and managers are expected to be interested in, and take a view on, a wide number of topic areas.
- Tip 2
- Recent years have seen a change in working patterns with many people moving job and employer on a reasonably frequent basis.
- Tip 3
- British organisations have moved away from the traditional hierarchical models of the past towards a much flatter system. In the process, many layers of management have been removed.
- Tip 4
- Job descriptions in the UK are often very unclear and imprecise leaving a potential vacuum in ownership of task and decision.
- Tip 5
- Managers try to develop a close, friendly relationship with staff and like to be seen as part of the team rather than removed from the team.
- Tip 6
- The value of pure academic education is viewed with some suspicion. Respect is earned through experience rather than qualification. It is rare to see a professor or doctor on the senior management committee of a large UK company.
- Tip 7
- Managers find it difficult to articulate direct instructions and will often couch instructions in very diplomatic language.
- Tip 8
- There are a lot of meetings in the UK and they often fail to produce the desired decision.
- Tip 9
- The British do less empirical preparation for meetings than other nationalities - seeing the meeting as a forum for debating potential solutions.
- Tip 10
- Meetings are reasonably formally structured, roughly following a predetermined agenda and keeping more or less to time.
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