Dean Foster

For almost two decades, Dean Foster has been involved in researching, writing about, and consulting on the nature of culture and its role in society, work and politics in a globalizing world. As founder and former Worldwide Director of Berlitz Cross-Cultural, as well as the founder and President of his own company, Dean has played a central role in the development of the field of cross-cultural training and consulting.

As an author and commentator, his works have focused on the intersection of national culture and human behavior; as visiting lecturer and faculty, his research and presentations revolve around the development of cultural theory in the post-modern, or post-global, world. Dean works with most major Fortune 500 companies, national governments and NGOs (the United Nations and World Trade Institutes, among others), and as guest lecturer and faculty for a variety of premier educational institutions, such as Harvard Business School, Columbia University School of Business, Darden Business School, and others. His work has taken him to over 65 countries. He is a frequent guest commentator on culture, work and international social issues on CNN, CNBC, and numerous radio shows; he is regularly interviewed in print media, such as Newsweek, USA Today, the New York Times, and elsewhere.

Dean is a familiar presenter at major international conferences related to international cultural issues. He is an active member of and speaker at the annual international conferences of the National Foreign Trade Council, the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD), the International Institute for Human Resources (IIHR), the Global Business Association, the Employee Relocation Council, and other organizations, and served as an Executive Board member of the International Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research (SIETAR).

Dean has written many articles as well as the book,Bargaining Across Borders, which was voted as one of the top ten business books of the year in 1994 by the American Library Association. Presently, Dean's new book series, The WorldWise Guides to Global Etiquette, began with the release in 2000, with The Global Etiquette Guide to Europe and The Global Etiquette Guide to Asia, followed up in 2002 with The Global Etiquette Guide to Africa & The Middle East and The Global Etiquette Guide to Latin America. Dean is a Contributing Editor with National Geographic, writing the monthly "CultureWise" column, appearing in National Geographic Traveler Magazine.

Dean is on the faculty of Fordham University, Graduate School of Business, NYC, and he received his Master's degree in Sociology from the Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research, NYC.

Most Requested Topics:

•  Do Expatriates Really Need Cross-Cultural Training?: Understanding the values,

  attitudes and behaviors of people in various countries is key to knowing how to do 

  business with them. So often, we take for granted that everyone's culture is similar

  to ours. To help companies gain a competitive advantage in the global

  marketplace by understanding and learning about other cultures, training

  organizations, such as Windham International, offer cross-cultural training.

•  Western Workers, Eastern Ethos--The Ying And Yang Of Managing In Asia: Over

  the next decade, a staggering 75% of the projected growth in international

  business will come from the world's emerging markets--particularly from China,

  and its neighbors in the Pacific Rim. Clearly, American business and the

  American  workers who follow are packing their bags and going very Far East. And

  therein lies the challenge: East meeting West. As technology brings the world

  together, clashes of cultural differences are magnified, ironically, just as we learn

  about new ways of working and living together on the planet. Like the two parts of

  the universal whole, as represented in the Buddhist symbol of yin and yang, both

  East and West must ultimately accept that they are each only half the story of what,

  only with the other, will result in a perfect combination.

•  Gender and Work in a Global World: Regardless of the reasons, men and

  women  certainly are different, and if those differences are made clear within a

  particular culture, those same differences become ever more striking between

  cultures. The different ways that different cultures handle the two genders makes

  working across cultures a challenge to members of either gender, but especially

  so for women, who, in many cultures, are traditionally ascribed a subordinate

  position in the workplace. These challenges have grown dramatically as

  organizations have increased their global operations over the last two decades,

  and have been acutely felt by male and female managers and the organizations

  they work for. Predictably, individual behaviors and organizational policies have

  both helped to change but also reinforce some of the difficulties.

•  Taking Cultural Training into the Global Millennium: Suddenly, despite the Y2K

  fizzle, the magic of millennial change is beginning to make its mark. There is a

  growing awareness of things "then" and "now", of "the Old Way" and "the New

  Way", of "the Establishment Economy" and "the New Economy". There is nothing

  magical about the millennial marker, but there is undeniably a palpable "then" and

  "now" which has settled into almost all aspects of human endeavor, including the

  field of intercultural training.

•  **Deciphering The Mysterious American Challenges of Working & Living in the

  US:**  While many Americans may assume that everyone really wants to be

  American, and given the chance to live in the U.S., actually become American, it is

  not reality. You won't find an American lurking underneath every other nationality.

  Believing that people are essentially the same, and that given the chance most

  people would opt to live typically American lives, is an American myth that mirrors

  American egalitarian values more than it mirrors reality. The fact is, many non-

  Americans can find living and working in the U.S. a challenging and difficult

  assignment. This has important consequences for companies relocating

  employees and families into the U.S. Just as organizations have learned the cold,

  bottom-line lessons of lost investments and human resource disasters when

  sending Americans off to foreign lands ill-prepared, companies must consider

  similar consequences when bringing in non-Americans for life and work within the

  U.S. Adjusting to the U.S. requires the same kind of cross-cultural training.

•  Managing the Dragon & the Tiger: Now for the first time, your managers can

  develop the global skills they need in order to work more effectively with both their

  Chinese and Indian colleagues. This new, combined cross-cultural program for

  both China and India blends the best of our in-depth 2-day "Doing Business With

  China" and our 2-day "Doing Business With India" programs into one

  comprehensive 2-day program that makes it easy for you and your team to learn

  all they need to know about the business cultures of these two emerging Asian

  giants.

•  Managing the Dragon & the Tiger: Now for the first time, your managers can

  develop the global skills they need in order to work more effectively with both their

  Chinese and Indian colleagues. This new, combined cross-cultural program for

  both China and India blends the best of our in-depth 2-day "Doing Business With

  China" and our 2-day "Doing Business With India" programs into one

  comprehensive 2-day program that makes it easy for you and your team to learn

  all they need to know about the business cultures of these two emerging Asian

  giants.

•  Relocommunication- Defining the Heart of International Relocation Traing: The

  primary needs of international assignees are still not being addressed to the

  degree necessary by IHR service providers. This article will take a closer look at

  what those needs are, and make some suggestions for more successfully

  addressing them than the current situation presently provides.

•  **Deciphering the Mysterious American- Challenges of Working & Living in the

  U.S.:** Believing that people are essentially the same, and that given the chance

  most people would opt to live typically American lives (however that may be 

  defined), is an unique American myth which that mirrors American egalitarian

  values more than it mirrors reality. The fact is, many non-Americans can find living

  and working in the U.S. a challenging and difficult assignment. This has important

  consequences for companies relocating employees and families into the U.S.

  from abroad.

•  GLOBAL POSITIONING: Negotiating in the Post-Global World