Cultural Difference Between Ch Essay Research Paper

Cultural Difference Between Ch Essay, Research Paper

Cultural Difference between Chinese and Americans in Business

Since domestic and multinational corporations are now marketing their products and services around the world, an understanding of intercultural differences has become evident. Managers of multinational corporations and joint ventures have to negotiate, operate, and make strategic plans that adapt to cultural differences in each environment. As business relationships with China increase, management of multinational enterprises and joint ventures are beginning to realize that success may be jeopardized if attention is not paid to cultural differences (Brunner, Koh, & Lou, 1992).

Major differences between the Chinese and the Americans include language, geography, history, religion, and political and economic systems. All of these lead to cultural differences. Cultural differences may be interesting to tourists and to students of culture; but to business people, they are impediments. Differences need to be recognized before they can be understood. Only when we begin to understand the differences can we change our ways, adjust our business practices to accommodate the differences, and finally communicate to our counterparts in a mutually understandable manner.

Language is the first obstacle. The Chinese are making tremendous efforts to learn other languages, especially English and Japanese. Americans, too, are emphasizing foreign languages in nonliberal arts. Business schools stress language acquisition. Even learning to say “please” and “thank you” is a sign of goodwill (Slate, 1993).

Beyond the language barrier, significant cultural differences impede working relationships. The Chinese are rather group-centered, living together under the same roof and working together in a group. They depend on each other in their lives and in their work. They emphasize winning honor for the group or for the family. Americans, on the other hand, are independent and individualistic, stressing the dignity, rights, and achievements of the individual and the space and freedom of the individual. Americans in business own farms, factories, companies, and their biggest enterprises are privately owned, while in China, most enterprises are still state-owned. At work, Americans have private offices or they may have an individual cubicle. At home, even small children have their own room. In China, people can work together in the same room and share their homes with many family members. The work environment and the reward systems cannot ignore these differences but must accommodate them.

People’s willingness to express themselves and take risks is different. Americans are open-minded, straightforward, and easy-going. They have rich facial expressions, revealing to some extent whether they are happy or unhappy and whether they have done their business successfully or unsuccessfully. Americans can more easily say “no” and are more likely to show their frustrations and anger when things are not working out. In negotiations, Americans can be more than emphatic in their demands; some use drama as a ploy. The Chinese on the other hand, are rather introverted and conservative, and they don’t reveal their feelings easily. They treasure something inside. It’s hard for them to say “no” if others ask them to do a favor. The Chinese are more subtle and indirect in their behavior. As a result, it’s not always easy to tell if they are happy (or agree) with a particular suggestion or part of a negotiation. The Chinese prefer to seem agreeable. Their inclination to avoid disagreements can be problematic. Americans should not assume that a Chinese counterpart has agreed with a negotiation simply because he or she has not “disagreed.”

In China, when people meet with each other socially, they just shake hands. They are not accustomed to hugging, especially between male and female. In business, greetings are accompanied by exchange of name cards. The Chinese offer their name cards with two hands to show their respect. After receiving the cards, they will look at them and read them silently so that they can remember the other person’s name, his company, and his business status, to show interest in the other person. In the U.S., business cards are exchanged less often. The card is not ordinarily offered when people first meet but rather if one of the parties wants to call or send something to the other. Americans present their business card with one hand, accept the other person’s card, and tend to put the card away without looking at it. They are expected to remember the other person’s name and affiliation without the help of a name card.

Chinese use names differently from Americans. Americans use first names most of the time, even the first day they meet, which makes them seem very friendly. First names are used when speaking to men or women, old or young, children or adults. Using first names is just a custom that does not imply friendship. In China, last names are normally used. For instance, if an American manager’s name is Bob Leigh, Chinese people would call him Mr. Leigh instead of Bob to show respect for him. A Chinese manager named Li Ning would be called Mr.Li (his last name), not Mr. Ning. Of course, the Chinese use first names all the time at home and among their close friends; Americans need not press their counterparts to be informal nor