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导读：这是一篇 International Businesses and Management课程的essay,需要用哈佛格式来完成，要说明白跨文化管理在国际商务中的重要性和作用是什么？使用两个国家作为案例研究。Study on how to deal with cross-cultural management towards Chinese and American staff in international business activities
1.0 Introduction引言
随着全球化时代的到来，越来越多不同文化背景的人参与国际商务活动，如何开展跨文化管理，协调和解决不同文化之间的矛盾和冲突，已成为国际商务活动的关键因素之一。（Men和Tsai，2012年）。本研究以霍夫斯泰德模式、霍尔模式等跨文化管理理论与模式为基础，以中美文化为研究对象，探讨如何在国际商务活动中进行跨文化管理。研究结果为跨国公司实施跨文化管理提供了有价值的参考。
With the advent of the era of globalization, more and more people with different cultural backgrounds participate in international business activities, how to carry out cross-cultural management to coordinate and resolve contradictions and conflicts between different cultures has become one of the key factors in international business activities (Men and Tsai, 2012). In this study, it is based on cross-cultural management theories and models such as Hofstede model and Hall model, taking Chinese and American cultures as the research objects to discuss on how to conduct cross-cultural management in international business activities. Results of this study provide valuable reference for multinational companies in implementation of cross-cultural management.
2.0 Literature review文献综述
2.1 Culture文化
2.1.1 The definition of culture 文化的定义
Herskovits（1955）将文化定义为一群人的共同价值体系。Hofstede（1980）认为文化是人的心理活动，他指出文化影响着人们关注的东西、如何行动以及如何判断他人和事物。Trompenaars（1993）认为，文化是一个群体解决问题和缓解困境的方式和手段，而不仅仅是一套价值体系。
Herskovits (1955) defines culture as a shared value system of a group of people. Hofstede (1980) believes that culture is the mental programs of people, and he points out that culture affects what people pay attention to, how to act and how to judge others and things. Trompenaars (1993) thinks that culture is ways and means that a group uses in solving problem and alleviating plight, rather than just a set of value system.
2.1.2 Function of culture in a society文化在社会中的作用
文化在社会中的作用主要体现在以下三个方面。
Function of culture in society is mainly reflected in the following three aspects.
2.1.2.1 Integrating 集成
文化是一个社会群体中不同成员之间交流的中介，如果他们能够分享文化，那么他们就能够有效地交流，消除障碍，促进合作（Lee，Kim and Park，2015）。
Culture is the intermediary for communication between different members of a social group, if they are able to share the culture, then they will be able to communicate effectively to eliminate barriers and facilitate cooperation (Lee, Kim and Park, 2015).
2.1.2.2 Guiding and maintaining order
The formation and establishment of a culture means that certain values and norms of behavior have been recognized and complied with, this also means the formation of some kind of order (Ladhari, Souiden and Choi, 2015).
2.1.2.3 Inheriting
From generation standpoint, if the next generation agrees with and shares culture of the previous generation, then the culture will have the function inheritance (Ladhari, Souiden and Choi, 2015).
2.1.3 Hofstede model
Hofstede (1980) figures that culture is a psychological process jointly possessed by many people with the same education and life experiences. There are differences between this process of different groups, different regions, countries. Such cultural differences can be divided into five dimensions: power distance, uncertainty avoidance index, individualism versus collectivism, masculine versus feminality, long-term and short-term orientation. Hofstede model confirms the existence of significant differences between cultures of different nations, and these differences is rooted in people's minds and it is difficult to be changed easily.
2.1.4 Hall models
Hall (1955) was based on context, spatial distance between people and attitude towards time to classify different cultures. According to Hall cultural context, culture will be divided into high-context culture and low-context cultures. Considering high-context culture, semantic carrying is more dependent on context, the communicative language itself often does not cover all the information; in low-context culture, semantics consists mainly in communicative language. Hall (1983) believes, based on the time dimension of culture, the world can be divided into monochromic and polychromic sense of time, people with monochromic sense of time have strong sense of time, they focus on objectives, tasks and results, rather than relationships. People with polychromic sense of time are on the contrary. According to different habits of people in using personal space, Hall divides culture into contact culture and noncontact culture). Hall (1966) believes that Arabic culture, Southern European and Latin culture belongs to contact culture, while American, Asian, Nordic culture belongs to noncontact culture.
2.2 Cross-cultural management
2.2.1 Concept and importance of cross-cultural management
Cross-cultural management refers to management behavior of overcoming the differences between different cultures and on this basis to re-shape the unique culture of an enterprise to ultimately create a renowned performance (Georgieva, Jandik and Lee, 2012). The importance of cross-cultural management in international business activities of multinational firms and companies is reflected in the following aspects. Firstly, cross-cultural management is conducive to resolving problems arising from cultural differences, cultural conflicts in multinational companies (Lee, 2014). Secondly, multinational companies are through cross-cultural management to allow employees with different cultural backgrounds to form and follow common values, beliefs, codes of conduct to improve the overall performance of employees (Kaba and Osei-Bryson, 2013). Finally, multinational companies are through superior cross-cultural management to be able to gain a competitive advantage through cultural differences (Aggarwal and Goodell, 2014).
2.2.2 Cross-cultural management model
3-step model is one of the most common used cross-cultural management models, it divides cross-cultural management into map, bridge, integrate three steps. In the map phase, business managers should understand what cultural differences there are; in the bridge stage, managers should communicate with employees about cultural differences. In the integrate phase, managers should manage differences through building participation, resolving conflicts, building on each other’s ideas (Aggarwal and Goodell, 2014; Lee, Kim and Park, 2015).
2.2.3 Cross-cultural management strategies
There are generally the following four cross-cultural management strategies: localization strategy, global enterprises in foreign countries need to hire a considerable part of local staff, as local employees are familiar with local customs, market dynamics and various government regulations, and they are easy to reach a consensus with local consumers (Deephouse, Newburry and Soleimani, 2016); cultural compatibility strategy, although there is a huge cultural differences between a home culture and a host culture, they are not mutually exclusive, but complement each other, applying them to a company's operation can take full advantage of cross-culture (Lee, Kim and Park, 2015); cultural innovation strategy, it is an effective integration of corporate culture of a parent company with the local culture to build a new corporate culture, this new culture not only retains the characteristics of corporate culture of the parent company, but also adapts to the local cultural environment (Lee, Kim and Park, 2015); occupation strategy, when a multinational corporation directly invests abroad, its foreign branches keep only the corporate culture of the parent company (Lee, Kim and Park, 2015).
3.0 Comparison of differences between Chinese and American cultures
3.1 Comparison based on Hofstede model
It can be seen from the above table that there are large differences between the two countries in terms of power distance, individualism / collectivism, long-term and short-term orientation. Power distance refers to the degree of people’s acceptance of cases such as unequal distribution of power in an organization (Hofstede, 1980). The power distance index of Chinese cultural is high, people are usually indifferent about inequality. The power distance index of American culture is lower, Americans have a strong spirit of resistance towards inequality distribution of power.
Individualism / collectivism is a measure of whether an overall society focuses on personal interests or collective interests (Hofstede, 1980). Relations between people in American society are loose, people tend to care about their families; and Chinese people are in contrast, they are willing to sacrifice personal interests for collective interests, and they also want to be protected by the community.
Long-term orientation and short-term orientation refers to national values for long-term interests and short-term interests (Hofstede, 1980). Chinese culture has more emphasis on consideration for the future, focusing on savings, thrift and reserves. American culture focuses on immediate interests, focusing on respect for tradition and the burden of social responsibility.#p#分页标题#e#
It can be seen from Table 1 that, China and America belong to countries with a relatively much masculinity and less uncertainty avoidance.
3.2 Comparison based on Hall’s model
American culture belongs to cultures of low context. Americans tend to be outspoken, frank and forthright in communication, through language to convey clear information and emphasize rationality and logic. Chinese culture is a high-context culture, Chinese people usually do not directly reveal their feelings, they generally do not use aggressive language. In Chinese culture, language receiver’s sensitivity and ability to understand implications becomes particularly critical (Men and Tsai, 2012).
American culture has the unidirectional characteristics of time, Americans appreciate the value of time, they have a strong sense of time and focus on objectives, tasks and results, rather than relationships. Chinese culture has multi-directional characteristics and their sense of time is relatively poor. For Chinese people, the relationships are essential (Hall, 1966).
Both American and Chinese cultures are low-contact culture, people are very sensitive to physical contact, in daily conversation, the two sides will maintain a appropriate distance, they usually try to avoid long time contact with strangers on crowded buses or subways, to squeeze from crowded people is considered to be extremely impolite (Hall, 1966).
3.3 Changes in American and Chinese cultures
With China's economic reform and opening up, as well as joining WTO, Chinese people have also undergone lots of changes in performance of culture. There are some differences between these changes and Hofstede’s conclusions. For example, Wei, Liu and Calabrese (2010) analyzes that the improvement of living standards and the impact by European and American culture make Chinese young people show more and more individualistic characteristics in their daily lives and work (Xu, Hou, Tracey and Zhang, 2016). In addition, with the development of China's Internet and the introduction of Western democratic ideas, Chinese people's sense of power is also increasing, so Chinese people’s degree of enduring concentration of power is reduced (Xu, Hou, Tracey and Zhang, 2016).
Due to the impact of the world economic situation and the financial crisis, Americans also change a lot in terms of uncertainty, short and long-term tendency. Americans used to have low risk uncertainty and advocate the concept of high-risk, high-return, they dare to consume and like enjoyment. However, the outbreak of the financial crisis make more and more Americans increase the degree of uncertainty avoidance, they choose a more secure, long-term investment way. For example, in 2015, US households reduced holdings of a total of $ 249 billion of equity assets and increased $ 187 billion and $ 308 billion on funds and bonds which have lower investment risks (Browne, 2015).
3.4 Cross-cultural management
There is such a Chinese-American joint venture engaged in business of development of mobile APP in China. The company has strong technical strength in APP development, but it still faces a series of problems in business and management in China. Firstly, it should resolve the conflicts and contradictions of arising from cultural differences caused by Chinese-American staff to establish a harmony, cooperation team atmosphere. Secondly, it faces the problem of how to improve and take advantages of Chinese-American employees to design outstanding products to improve the company's competitiveness. Finally, how to establish a corporate culture and values mutually accepted and recognized by Chinese and American employees to ensure the development of long-term sustainability of the enterprise. To solve these problems require the management to take appropriate cross-cultural management strategies and models.
Cultural integration and innovation strategies take advantage of bilateral cultures of a multinational company as orientation, it combines with the characteristics of the company's development to create its unique corporate culture, if employees take this culture as a criterion, they will consciously regulate their own behavior, which will be development power of the company. This mode is more suitable for cross-cultural management between China and America. Specific implementation processes can refer to 3-step model and be shown as follows (Aggarwal and Goodell, 2014; Lee, Kim and Park, 2015).
3.4.1 Map
It should invite experts to lecture members about culture work to improve employees' awareness and understanding of another culture. In international business activities, managers and staff of cross-cultural companies should learn to use a neutral term to describe culture-related things to try to avoid or eliminate cultural bias. There is no good or bad culture, only the suitable and the unsuitable (Georgieva, Jandik and Lee, 2012). In addition, for managers, to learn about other cultures and have an inclusive consciousness and respectful attitude is not enough, they also needs to learn more details of other cultures, because how to deal with details can reflect professional levels of cross- cultural managers (Georgieva, Jandik and Lee, 2012). For example: Chinese culture has the characteristics of multiple-direction of time and they have a poor sense of time, therefore when management assign tasks to Chinese employees, they should pay attention to the development of a clear timetable and plan to ensure that Chinese employees can complete their work on time. American culture belongs to cultures of one-way of time and they have a strong sense of time, but they are not good at dealing with interpersonal relationships, therefore, management should help American staff to maintain good relationships with Chinese employees.
3.4.2 Bridge
Cross-cultural management should be through the establishment of communication mechanisms to carry out sensitivity training and formal training to recognize cultural differences to form cultural identity (Lee, Kim and Park, 2015). First, it should establish culture communication mechanisms to encourage staff to exchange more to enhance understanding. Again, management and staff of both sides should be arranged to carry out cultural training, such as short lectures, role-play, situational dialogues, case studies, group discussions, visits and so on. Finally, through training and learning, it can cultivate pillars talents who understand both Chinese and American cultures and management. For example, as Chinese culture is a high-context culture, in communicating with Chinese employees, it usually does not need to criticize them directly, otherwise they will feel insulted. American culture is a low-context culture, when communicating with American staff, it should be straightforward, or they will feel confused and do not know what to do.
3.4.3 Integrate
It should encourage the presence of different values, the vigor of seeking for flexible management of enterprises lies in innovation. Management under the circumstance of a single culture is difficult to innovate because of fixed thinking modes. In the environment of cross-cultural management, comparing with each other, learn from each other may be the opportunity for innovation. On the premise of understanding the strengths and blind spots of both cultures, looking for cultural differences can carry out innovation understood and accepted by each other (Lee, Kim and Park, 2015). Thus, multinationals between China and the US can encourage existence of different values and seeking diversified management methods, these attempts may bring new inspiration to the management of multinational companies. For example, management of Chinese people focuses on the overall interests and long-term interests, while management of the US has emphasis on efficiency and individual ability. In Sino-US multinationals, to adopt a Chinese style of management towards management personnel and use an American style of management towards staff will be an appropriate method.
Lee, Kim and Park (2015) point out that when there are two or more cultures coexist a company, considering management, it should pay attention to respecting and understanding each other's culture, communicating with equal manner. On this basis to find the combination point of two cultures, to take the advantages of the two cultures can establish unified values to gradually form a common management philosophy and corporate culture. New corporate culture has both inclusive enough, but also innovative, plasticity. New corporate culture should be comprehensive, innovative, figurable. The new corporate culture and values should include characteristics of both American culture and Chinese culture, such a management philosophy and corporate culture is easier for employees of both sides to accepted to reduce cultural friction, so that each employee can take the initiative to make their thoughts and conduct consistent or at least compatible with the company's main business purpose (Lee, Kim and Park, 2015). For example, both Chinese and American cultures have masculine characteristics, they are aggressive and persistent for seeking for money. Therefore, in management, it should spay attention to material incentives, through salary increase, promotion and other incentives to encourage Chinese and American employees to contribute to the enterprise.
4.0 Conclusion
In this study, it is based on cross-cultural management theories and Hofstede’s model, Hall’s model, taking Chinese and American cultures as research objects to discuss how to carry out cross-cultural management in international business activities. The author believes that in international business activities, it should mainly deal with cross-cultural management work in three areas, first is to allow employees to understand and respect cultural differences, followed by a good communication between employees from different cultural backgrounds. Finally, unified values should be established gradually within the enterprise to form a common management philosophy and corporate culture.#p#分页标题#e#
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