Language

Be sensitive to issues related to religion and tolerance in the workplace. There is a fine line between allowing permitted forms of religious expression and letting those become intrusive in the eyes of other workers.

Value Systems and Relationships

The USA scores the highest of all countries on the individualism index, lower than average on power distance and uncertainty avoidance and above average on masculinity. Relocating employees to different parts of the United States can have a profound effect on the overall work experience. Work locations with considerable diversity of languages, ethnicities, races and geographic backgrounds may require new skills for working effectively.

Business Climate

It is important to not only attract and retain diverse talent, but also to effectively leverage diversity for competitive business advantage. Employees from diverse racial and ethnic groups can provide insights on how to best serve local customers with the same background. They may also interface more effectively with counterparts abroad who are from their country of origin in order to foster rapid and efficient communication.

The Pew Global Attitudes Project is an interactive database that allows users to explore public opinion trends in 55 countries on topics ranging from attitudes towards the U.S. to peoples assessments of their own lives to views about globalization, democratization and extremism and other important issues.

The country ranks as no. 18 (of 180 countries) on Transparency International’s 2008 Corruption Perceptions Index.