International Intercultural Management - China - Case Study Example

International Intercultural Management Contents Contents 2 Introduction 3 Discussion 4 Culture of China 4 Chinese Values 5 Impact of Nation’s culture on Organizational Culture 6 Comparative Analysis of China’s culture with culture of other countries 6 Analysis of Leadership in Global Context 9 Conclusion 9 Reference List 11 Introduction In this era of modernization and globalization, the concept of intercultural management has received great emphasis. Culture is the collection of values, ethics, beliefs, knowledge, religion and all other material and immaterial objects practiced by a relatively large group of people. In broader sense, culture is the cumulative behaviour followed by individuals and groups through generations (Minor and Lamberton, 2010). In today’s contemporary business dynamics, researchers have experienced growing importance of establishing intercultural environment, as a result of rapid expansion of globalization and international trade. Such cultural aspects hold importance especially for multinational companies, operating in a large number of countries with diversified and distinctive cultural practice. Intercultural management includes construction of team with internationally connected managers, adopting versatility in leadership management, motivating an organization to integrate globally and diversify their workforce and enhance cross culture learning. Such cultural practices enhance the negotiation power for the mutual benefit of all the parties engaged into the system and improve management of human resource in global context. In various countries, intercultural dinners are arranged on many occasions in order to promote and accelerate the idea of cross culture integration, diversity and multiculturalism. Intercultural dinner is well-recognized practice in the premier educational organization of many western countries such as Canada, Geneseo, on many occasions like Ramadan or Iftar, where individuals coming from various corners of the world are encouraged to perform their cultural activities (Scarborough, 1998). In this paper, the culture prevailing in China will be analyzed from the perspective of their economic, topographic, political as well as organisational sphere such as leadership, employee management and reward systems. Discussion The People’s Republic of China is one of the traditional and ethnic countries in the world. In terms of population, China is densely populated with inhabitants of 1.35 billion as estimated on 2013 among which almost 70% of the population constitutes of young inhabitants. Though, more than 292 ethnic languages can be found in the country, most of the people speak Chinese which was derived from Sinitic branch (Tian, 2000). The country is free from any religious restrictions. However, Chinese people mainly follow Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism. China follows socialist market economy. As per the International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates of 2014, economy of China is the second largest according to their Nominal Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and this is the largest economy in the globe in terms of their purchasing power parity. China economy is one of the fastest growing economies with a uniform growth rate of 10% maintained throughout a time period of past 30 years. Such smooth and sustained economic operations of China have attracted a large number of giant organizations to establish and expand their business in their economy and eventually the economy has been successful to become world’s largest manufacturing hub. China is second largest importer of goods, the economy constitutes for world’s fastest growing consumer marketplace. Clearly, such market opportunities invite business groups from all part of the globe and hence the country experiences assimilation of individuals, coming from various cultural dynamics (Estrella, 2013). Culture of China Chinese culture is assumed to be one of the ancient cultures of the world. Chinese culture is widely practiced in the large geographical areas of East Asia. However, traditions and rituals vary along the hills, planes and coastal areas, depending narrowly on the weather of the province (Charles and Tian, 2011). Chinese culture is enriched by the contribution of key ethnical factors such as architecture, music, literature, martial arts, visual art and many more. Another cultural aspect of China is the cuisine of china which includes a wide range of ingredients from their geographical distribution. The staple food of China is rice; however it widely varies according to the climate of the region. In the south, people prefers rice but people from northern region choose to eat wheat based loafs and noodles. Prior to modernization, people used to rely on grains and vegetables only. In recent era, consumption of meat and pork, especially in any occasions has become prominent. In the southern coastal areas, wide array of fish and vegetables are grown, hence dietary practices of this region largely differ from that of northern region (Charles and Tian, 2011). Chinese cuisine, which is famous around the world, incorporates the essence of the tradition flowing from the King’s dynasty of China. Chinese emperors were well known for their dining which used to consist over 100 dishes per meal. Over a period of time, some of those dishes became a part of their regular meal. Chinese cuisines have started chain of restaurants which have gained glory from experts throughout the world. Priole Pavilion, Fangshan and Hong Kong eastern style are some of the instances of such restaurants. The culture of consuming tea had been initiated from China only. Chinese put great emphasis on the method of preparation and consumption pattern of tea. “Tea Ceremony” which is famous by the name of Chinese Art of Tea is one of the renowned cultural activities of the country that involves preparation and presentation of tea leaf (Estrella, S., 2013). China celebrates lots of festivals in each calendar year. Boasting cultures of this nation rejoices festivals such that spring festival, lantern festivals, Qingming festival, dragon boat festival, double seventh festival, mid-autumn festival, double ninth festival and winter solstice festival. Most of these important festivals follows Chinese lunar calendar (Briley and Aaker, 2006). Chinese Values The inherent social values of China are mainly derived from the concept of Confucianism and Taoism. However, due to some highly debated aspect of this belief, Buddhism and Neo Confucianism are also practiced by Chinese citizen. The people of China highly believe on reincarnation and rebirth, hence they try to establish a connection between the present life and the life after death and control their deeds so that they will be provided a good life in the next birth for their good deeds in the present life ((Estrella, 2013). Traditional Chinese philosophy exhibits bureaucracy and hence, their social and organizational structure are highly influenced by exercise of authoritarian practises. However, democratic idealism of new Confucians that also inherits the traditional Asian values, are widely accepted in recent years. In fact, many Chinese are adopting European cultures as a result of expansion of global business and scope for education. Again, with the rise in militant power and increase in European control, in the 19th century, some of the cultural legacies of China were completely eliminated and European ethics were adopted during the introduction of socio political reform. As a result, the Chinese cultures have become stronger as a result of combining the key factors of European and Chinese culture. Such cultural transformations since inception of dynasty have made Chinese culture an element of experiment. China’s capability of revolution largely reflects in their social, political, economical as well as organizational dynamics (Taylor, Sharon and McLeod, 2001). Impact of Nation’s culture on Organizational Culture Organizational culture may be defined as a continuous system of values, beliefs, ethical practices and shared assumptions which are automatically inculcated among all employees involved into the business process and the people in the organization strive to follow the system which is reflected in their everyday activities. As a result of rapid expansion of globalization and increasing business opportunities in the emerging nations, organizations tend to operate into multiple countries. Hence, culture of the host country largely influences management practices of the guest country as the company is required to include local talents into their workforce to ensure smooth running of their business operation. Organizational environment also differ across countries in terms of regulations, market structure, bargaining power of consumers and distributors, customers’ perception and many more (Sun, 2007). However, how much cultural aspects of the host country will be infused into the organizational practices in order to maintain consistency or for the requirement of standardization, solely depends upon the country itself. According to the eminent psychologist Hofstede, management of a multinational company has to be culturally dependent in order to enrich their values and ethical practices in order to enrich their individual culture. Such practices help the leaders as well to enhance the strength for adaptability among their human resources into a foreign environment. Hence, reformation of the culture of host country and moulding the culture in a way so that it will be best fitted for the particular organization’s perspective may result in the best outcome for a multinational management (Charles and Tian, 2011). Comparative Analysis of China’s culture with culture of other countries Organizational culture holds a very important role in the study of organizational behaviour. Many theoretical and practical approaches have been used to ascertain the significance of organizational culture in a broader standpoint. However, across borders, organizational culture differs along with geo-political and structural variations among nations. Such differences can be best attributed by six cultural dimensions introduced by Geert Hofstede. The culture of China highly differs that of European countries such as Zimbabwe, France and Philippines (Trading Economics, 2014). This reflects in the cultural difference in the organizational practices as well. The six cultural dimensions, according to Hofsted’s study are power distance index, individualism versus collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity versus femininity, long term orientation and indulgence versus restraints. For instance, in European organizations, emphasis is given mainly on self-reliance and self-promotion whereas in China, importance is given on collective prosperity. Chinese people engage into an organizational relationship that is desired to be long term but organizational relationship in European structure is strictly objective oriented (Greet Hofstede, 2014). As a result of bureaucratic traditions running from the Chinese dynasty, in the organizations as well, the top managements incorporate exercise of autocratic principles in their behaviour towards employees. (Greet Hofstede, 2014) Uncertainty avoidance or tolerance of uncertainty shows the capability of the country culture to cope up with ambiguity and changes in the business environment which arises due to continuous innovation. China, being a moderate country, takes calculative risk before adapting any structural changes which is the main source of sustainability and constant growth for the nation as a whole. Reversely, tendency of avoiding uncertainty is very less among European companies. The management does not think twice before indulging themselves into risky operations if they can forecast a high return as an outcome of such risky business. Hence, avoidance of uncertainty is very high among most of the European organizations. Though a large part of workforce of both China and European organizations consist of male participants, the proportion of female employees is increasing at a faster rate in European job market than that of China. Indulgence versus resistant shows to what extent the people involved in the organization has the propensity to enjoy life or they restrict themselves into strict norms and regulations. Such indulgence is very less for China and the people in the organizations as compared to individuals into European organizations (Solomon and Schell, 2009). Another theoretical perspective to understand organizational cultural dimensions was the study proposed by Hall. Hall’s cultural factors include three distinct cultural aspects- Context, Time and Space (Tian, 2000). In case of business context, the culture can be of two dimensional such as high context and low context. In a high contextual culture, people involved in the organization prone to be more methodical and tend to work aligning with strict regulations and principles. Each and every modest detail is treated as of utmost importance in this type of culture. In contrast, low context cultural people invite explanation of details used in workplace as otherwise there is a chance of misunderstanding the requirement. For example, French culture appears to be high context as much of the information is available to the employees engaged in a French organization as opposed to China’s autocratic organizational structure (Minor and Lamberton, 2010). Time, in Hall’s cultural factors, can be of Monochronic or Polychronic. In monochronic time factor, timely actions are taken even if the requirement is not that urgent, employees are focused towards completing the job on time and they are highly concentrated to produce a quality job. Much priority is given to the work life as compared to personal life whereas in polychronic time frame, individuals working in the organizations believe in multitasking. Focus can be distracted in this factor easily as priority is directed towards personal relationship rather than work life. The last factor of Hall’s cultural factors, space, can be categorized into high territoriality and low territoriality. People with high territoriality are greatly concerned about ownership and hence, they tend to be very low contextual. In contrast, people with comparatively lower territoriality tend to share their ownership and work on a relationship model in the competitive environment. Thus, people with low territoriality are low contextual in their cultural practices. Such cultural dimensions show the difference between the cultural differences between China and other European countries. Analysis of Leadership in Global Context For a company operating in multiple locations across globe, management leadership should be moulded in such a way so that leaders become capable of managing diversified, cosmopolitan workforce efficiently. The leader should also be competent to address national as well as international issues arising out of economic and political disruption in a certain point of time to create long term synergy within the organization. In European countries, leader put emphasis on both task orientation and interpersonal relationship with their employees in order to become the source of continuous motivation. However, in Asian countries like China, focus of the leaders is task centric. According to Path Goal theory of Leadership, leaders can be of directive, supportive, achievement oriented and participative (Mobley, Li and Wang, 2012). Where European leaders are achievement oriented, the leaders in China are highly directive. Hence, power distance is high between the management and employees of China. However, with the development in globalization and international trade, more and more European countries are coming to China and other emerging nations in order to plug lucrative business opportunities. Hence, the leaders should incorporate the positive factors of cultures of their host nation in order to manage successfully today’s highly decentralized organizations and devise strategies accordingly (Solomon and Schell, 2009). Conclusion After studying the culture of China in global context, it can be summarized that China’s ancient culture is enriched with lots of traditional and contemporary values and ethics which are highly reflected in their organizational practices. Apart from that, being one of the world’s fastest growing economy, more and more foreign investors are attracted to expand business in this emerging economy. Such effects of globalization give rise to the need for international intercultural management. For establishment and expansion of business, both the companies engaged into operations, should understand the cultural differences and accordingly shape their organizational culture to enhance acceptability in the host country and to enjoy benefit of such assimilation of intercultural aspects in the long term as a result of globalization. Reference List Briley, D. A. and Aaker, J. L., 2006. When does culture matter? Effects of personal knowledge On the correction of culture-based judgments. Journal of Marketing Research, 43(2), pp.395-408. Charles, E. and Tian, K. R., 2011. China Compared with the US: Cultural Differences and the the Impacts on Advertising Appeals. BusinessPress.com. [Online] Available at: [Accessed: 16 December 2014]. Estrella, S., 2013. Adobo: The History of a National Favourite. [Online] Available at: [Accessed: 16 December 2014]. Greet Hofstede, 2014. The Hofstede Centre. [Online] Available at: [Accessed: 16 December 2014]. Minor, L. and Lamberton, L., 2010. High Context & Low Context Cultures. Cascade Business News. [Online] Available at: [Accessed: 16 December 2014]. Mobley, W. H., Li, M. and Wang, Y., 2012. Advances in Global Leadership. London: Emerald Group Publishing. Scarborough. J., 1998. The origins of cultural difference and their impact on management. West port: Quorum Books. Solomon C. M. and Schell, M. S., 2009. Managing across cultures: the seven keys to doing business with global markets. London: McGraw Hill. Sun, S., 2007. On cross-cultural pragmatic failure in English advertisements translated from Chinese. Sino-US English Teaching, 4(6), pp. 60-65. Taylor, H., Sharon, A. and McLeod, P.L., 2001. Effects of Ethnic Group Cultural Differences on Cooperative and Competitive Behaviour on a Group Task. Academy of Management, 34(8), pp. 827-847. Tian, R. G., 2000. The Implications of Rights to Culture in Trans-national Marketing: An Anthropological Perspective. High Plains Applied Anthropologist, 20(2), pp. 135-145. 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