Cultural Compasses in Business:

What Literature Reveals About American, Iberian, and Italian Management Styles

I've spent my career studying how different cultures approach leadership and business management. I particularly focus on the differences between American business culture and those of Spain, Portugal, and Latin America. While these Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries have their own distinct ways of doing things, I've noticed that American management methods often get applied there without proper adaptation, and this usually doesn't work well.

To really understand a culture, it helps to look at their popular stories and literature. The books and tales that everyone grows up reading can tell us a lot about how people think and behave. For example, many classic American stories—like Moby Dick, Apocalypse Now, and even cartoons like Coyote and Road Runner—show how focused Americans are on achieving goals. This goes hand in hand with Benjamin Franklin's famous advice about being careful with time and resources: "Time is money" and "A small leak will sink a great ship."

American business practices match perfectly with American culture—just like a glove fits a hand. Both put a strong emphasis on reaching goals efficiently and practically.

In contrast, Spanish and Portuguese cultures work differently. They place more importance on:

• Building and maintaining relationships

• Staying loyal to their close-knit groups

• Pursuing noble ideals

You can see this in their classic stories. While American stories often focus on achieving practical goals, famous works like Don Quixote (from Spain) and The Lusíadas (from Portugal) care more about honor and ideals than efficiency.

To put it simply: Americans have made being focused and efficient into something to admire, while Spanish and Portuguese cultures admire pursuing noble virtues and ideals, even if they're not always practical.

Spanish and Portuguese cultures have their own unique differences, particularly in how they view honor. Let's focus on the Spanish view of honor for now, setting aside how these cultures differ in trust.

In Spanish culture, honor is closely tied to two main ideas:

• Justice

• Human dignity

You can see this in famous Spanish plays like Fuenteovejuna and The Mayor of Zalamea. These stories show communities standing up together against unfair leaders or authorities. This tells us something important about Spanish culture: when people feel their dignity is being violated or they're being treated unjustly, they believe it's honorable to stand up against this together as a group.

Portuguese honor is quite different from Spanish honor. It's more about personal responsibility than group action. There's a famous Portuguese story that shows this perfectly—the tale of Egas Moniz:

Egas Moniz was responsible for a young Portuguese king who had promised loyalty to Spain's king. When the Portuguese king broke this promise, Egas Moniz did something remarkable. Even though it wasn't his fault, he felt personally responsible for the broken promise. So he took himself and his family to the Spanish king to face punishment.

This story shows what honor means in Portuguese culture: It's about keeping your word. It's very personal (what you feel you must do) rather than about what others think. You take responsibility for your actions, even if it means facing tough consequences. You do what's right because it's right, not because others are joining you.

This is quite different from the Spanish idea of honor, which is more about groups standing together against unfairness.

Egas Moniz, o Aio

When we talk about different views of honor, we can't ignore the Italian perspective, especially Machiavelli's ideas. In his famous book "The Prince," Machiavelli took a very different approach to honor than his contemporaries.

Instead of seeing honor as simply doing what's morally right, Machiavelli suggested looking at it as a tool for effective leadership. He basically said, "Let's think about honor in terms of what works, not just what's virtuous." This was a revolutionary way of thinking about honor, and it's still relevant to how we think about business leadership today.

Think of it this way: While others saw honor as a moral compass, Machiavelli saw it more like a chess piece—something to be used strategically to achieve your goals.

When we look at famous Italian writers and their stories, we can see a common thread: Italians seem particularly skilled at handling change while staying true to what's most important.

This shows up in the works of several major Italian authors: Lampedusa, Calvino, Pirandello, and Dante

Their stories often explore how people and societies can change and adapt while holding onto their core identity—kind of like changing your clothes while still being yourself. This suggests that Italian culture places special value on being flexible and adaptable while still maintaining what matters most.