BUS 600: Week 2 - Assignment Example

Business Introduction The paper compares and contrasts Brazils and Chinas national cultural dimensions using Hofstede’s five cultural dimensions, and as well provides recommendations requisite for management of the cultural differences in communication.Similarity between Brazil and China based on Hofstede’s five cultural dimensions According to Hofstede’s five cultural dimensions, Brazil and China prefer to socialize and familiarize with whom they are doing business with, rather than getting straight before closing any deals.

They generally take considerable time when establishing outstanding and pleasing relationship prior to conversing business. Therefore, strong relationship is the approach before closing a deal by business people in both countries. Further, Hofstede’s five cultural dimensions indicate that Brazil and China are pleased with hierarchy levels and authority, even though there is a difference in the way they address a business situation. On the other hand, an individual is likely to lose face if openly criticized and because of defying vocal rules, the criticizer too will follow the trend.

Both countries put emphasis on rules (Hofstede & Hofstede, 2004). When discussing business, Brazilians and Chinese tend to prioritize not only with the companies, but also with people. This is to avoid interchanging of negotiating teams, which can bring about a restart of the business negotiations. Additionally, both countries prefer face-to-face meetings rather than a communication that is based on telephone or in written form. Consequently, creating relationships is part of the culture in Brazil and China because they maintain contacts and networks.

Differences Brazil and China, on the other hand, as indicated in Hofstede’s five cultural dimensions do have a number of differences. First, the Chinese way of building relationship is based on regular long dinners and extended days and time. Brazilians feel that sharing a meal is crucial, but they value it differently from the Chinese business people. Furthermore, swapping business cards is a way of exchanging communication by Chinese business people, which is unceremonious to Brazilians. The relation extended by an individual characterizes the relationship with the entire company as defined by Chinese culture.

According to the Brazilian view, the company is not that important than the person they are dealing with in a business negotiation. Moreover, the Brazilian culture tolerates someone interrupting someone else while speaking, hugging and backslapping if the business people are already acquainted. Chinese, on the other hand, find it unacceptable. Further, the Brazilian society pays more attention to the individuals, creating a difference from the Chinese who identify collectivist ways in terms of group contemplation to prevail in a business (Said, 2003).

Recommendations In order to address the culture differences communication issues between organizations in the two countries, a simplified model of transaction communication can be applied. This is invoked when both organizations are negotiating a business deal whereby a simultaneous discussion should be developed. The speaker of each company may observe with a grin, nodding or scowl by the second person, which denotes agreement prior to transmission of all the other words. As such, issues related to incomplete transmissions or interruptions, individual conclusion of each others sentences will be managed (Baack, 2012).

Additionally, this model contributes to understanding, agreement and conversation rather than vise-versa. On the account, elements that focus encoding, transmission, decoding, and response will give a breakthrough probably in a situation of culture difficulty.Conclusion The paper has compared and contrasted between Brazils and Chinese national cultural dimensions using Hofstede’s five cultural dimensions. It has also provided a model to address communication in terms of the different cultural perspectives.

ReferencesBaack, D. (2012). Management communication. San Diego, CA: Bridge point Education, Inc.Hofstede, G. & Hofstede, G.J. (2004).Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind. New York: McGraw-Hill U.S.A., 2004. Said, E. (2003). Orientalism. New York: Vintage Books. Retrieved from http://www.pucsp.br/icim/ingles/downloads/papers_2010/part_9/32_Cultural%20Differences%20Between%20Countries%20The%20Brazilian%20and%20the.pdf