“If we compare Portugal with China, in Portugal we can tolerate being comfortable with silences of up to two and a half seconds in a dialogue, and the same research showed that in China people can go for eight or even 10 seconds without sensing that something abnormal is happening", said Erin Meyer today at the QSP Summit, at Exponor, in Matosinhos (Porto district).

Speaking at the opening session of the event at Exponor, the author of "The Culture Map: Breaking Through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business", from 2014, presented several examples of how cultural differences can affect relationships in the business world.

The professor at INSEAD in Paris explained that in some cultures, if you "remain silent for a few seconds, you are likely to interpret that silence as something negative, indicating anger or annoyance, but in others "that same silence can be interpreted as something quite positive", in which someone may be "a good listener" or "thinking carefully".

According to a graph shown as a result of her recent research, Japan, Thailand, South Korea, China, Finland and Indonesia are at the top of the cultures most comfortable with silence, and at the other end are countries such as Italy, the United States, France, Spain, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Portugal and Brazil. In her presentation today, Erin Meyer also addressed distinct themes of corporate culture in various countries, focusing mainly on how it varies in matters such as giving or receiving negative feedback or how work meetings are experienced and their conclusions are interpreted. According to data presented by the author, the countries with a business culture that tends to give negative feedback more directly are the Netherlands, Russia, Germany, Denmark, Poland or France.

On the other hand, countries such as Japan, Thailand, South Korea, Colombia, Mexico or Saudi Arabia are on the opposite end of the spectrum, where negative feedback is given more indirectly.

As for work meetings, it is necessary to provide more context about the conclusions and operationalization of tasks in countries such as China, Japan, South Korea, Thailand or Ethiopia, and less context in cultures such as the United States, Australia, the Netherlands, Germany, Canada or New Zealand.

"In a low-context culture, while we are communicating, we assume that we have a reduced level of reference points, knowledge and information", which favours "explicit, simple and clear" communication.

On the contrary, in a high-context culture, "we assume that we have a broad set of shared references", in which good communication is understood as being based on "nuances or being implicit", also taking place through layers of understanding.

According to the author, when different cultures meet, there are different perceptions about what is interpreted and expected from meetings, with some assuming it automatically based on how events unfold and 'reading the room', but this is not the case in other cultures, where sometimes it is necessary to write down conclusions.