Erin Meyer – “The Culture Map”

• USA
• American employees are known for giving explicit positive feedback, using words like
“fabulous” and “awesome.” When it comes to negative feedback, they prefer to deliver it in
writing.
• England
• British employees tend to be less direct than Americans, both when complimenting or
criticising. They use adverbs like “maybe” and “possibly” to soothe criticism.
• Germany
• German employees tend to give negative feedback directly, and are less likely to provide
positive feedback in general.
• France
• French employees are more likely to give negative or constructive verbal feedback in the
workplace. When it comes to positive feedback, their principle is: “No news is good news.”
Erin Meyer – “The Culture Map”
• Australia
• Australian employees are considered to be the most direct of all Anglo-Saxon countries, providing blunt
feedback, both positive and negative. This can sometimes cause conflict with Americans, who sometimes
find this style arrogant.
• Brazil
• Brazilian employees are known for their indirect and implicit language. This applies both for positive and
negative feedback.
• Argentina
• Argentinian employees are considered to be the most direct in giving feedback among all Latin American
countries. According to Meyer, neighbouring countries tend to perceive this as arrogant behaviour and it
can cause conflict.
• Mexico
• Mexican employees are less direct than Americans. When they’re criticizing, they like to make the
criticism more comfortable, by adding: “That’s an interesting point, but another interesting point might
be…”
 Erin Meyer – “The Culture Map”
• Nigeria
• Nigerian employees are known for having a very direct way of providing feedback, which is
very unusual for other African countries.
• Ghana
• Like other African countries (except Nigeria), Ghanaian employees tend to avoid direct
confrontation. Their way of providing constructive feedback to someone is by telling a
mutual friend.
• China
• Chinese employees tend to modify their feedback according to where an employee sits
within the hierarchy of the company. For example, a businessperson would give softer
feedback to a colleague but will strongly criticize a subordinate.
• Japan
• Japanese employees are famous for giving the most indirect feedback. They usually skip
giving negative feedback at all so the recipient must find the implicit meaning.