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Cross Cultural Awareness for International Managers The foreigner interested in designing, implementing and evaluating effective management development programmes must read widely in order to gain an appreciation of this diverse and complex continent, its peoples and social organizations, and the context within which organization and management takes place. (Kiggundu cited in Miner 112) The advantages of inter-organizational cooperation have long been clear, including in international business contexts ranging from joint venture partnerships to importer-exporter relationships. As product life cycles continue to shorten and the rate of technology diffusion increases, the strategic importance of alliances to international firms rises (Jackson 290). This strategic phenomenon has impelled firms to seek alliances across borders and cultures. However, these alliances are confronted by many problems arising from differences in national culture, organizational culture, core competencies, and strategic objectives (Dutton 240). Recently Fortune 7, an American company in the food and apparel industry began expansion into the Chinese and African market for the first time. Certainly, one of the aims is expressing those humanistic and community centered values they express in America.
Similar to many multinational corporations, top management had very limited awareness of how to reach the aim and how to use these new culture as a source of competitive advantage. Fortune 7 's origin goes back to 1970 when Mr Dear founded Fortune 7 Clothing Factory in Los Angeles. In 1985 Fortune 7 soap-manufacturing plant was opened, followed in 1991 by the opening of Fortune 7 Oil Refineries. It is recognized today as one of the successful companies in the USA, being listed in Top 20 Most Highly Respected Companies. It is now one of the largest and fastest growing manufacturer of clothes, vegetable oils, fats, margarine, soaps and protein concentrates in the USA that began expansion into China and Africa. To conceptualize culture, we employ Schwartz and Bilsky's (cited in Adler & Graham 517) theory of the universal structure of values.
This theory suggests that there are three universal human requirements: biological-based needs, social interaction requirements, and institutional demands for group protection. These three requirements "preexist any individual" and therefore can be used to conceptually organize human values, or define, what the authors refer to as the "structure" of human values that is common for all cultures (Adler & Graham 515). According to this theory, the structure of values is based on (1) end states or modes of behavior, (2) individual, collective, or mixed interests, and (3) motivational domains. Motivational domains are specific types of motivational concerns that the various values express (Schwartz & Bilsky, cited in Adler & Graham 516). For example, using the Rokeach values, Schwartz and Bilsky found that values such as "pleasure" and a "comfortable life" reflect the enjoyment motivational domain. The other motivational domains include achievement, restrictive conformity, security, self-direction, maturity, and pro-social.
The primary interest in the cross-national values studies of Schwartz and Bilsky has been to verify that a consistent values structure exists across national groups, thereby leading to the conclusion that the "major social and psychological processes that structure value systems are universal" (cited in Adler & Graham 518). Using the Rokeach values, Schwartz and Bilsky (cited in Adler & Graham 517) demonstrated that while national groups may attach different levels of importance on particular values, the values themselves generally appear to reflect the same motivational domains across these groups. In summary, the values structure remains quite steady across cultural groups. However, in their research, they have not linked the motivational domains to business outcomes.
Furthermore, the unit of analysis in previous values studies has been the nation state, with the implicit assumption that nations adequately represent cultural groupings. Rather than making this assumption, the present study shows the cultural level according to cultural anthropology and sociology descriptions and through the identification of a level conceptually linked to the outcomes being examined (Adler & Graham 519) ). Since culture has been defined as a "shared value structure that results in decreased variability" in individual response to stimuli (Lenartowicz & Roth 305), we expect that shared cultural values among managers will lead to similar managerial orientations. We adopt Rokeach's definition of values as "an enduring belief that a specific mode of conduct or end-state of existence is personally or socially preferable to an opposite or converse mode of conduct or end-state of existence" (cited in Lenartowicz & Roth 307). As stated previously the values structure is represented through the motivational domains.
Further, while we anticipate universality in the values structure, i. e. the set of values reflecting a particular motivational domain will remain constant, the relative importance of different domains to specific cultural groups is expected to vary. Cultural variation is reflected through these differences (Harrison 17). The central question then concerns the appropriate cultural grouping or layer to reflect these motivational domain differences as they relate to business practices and outcomes. Thus, we may conclude that a difficult-to-define construct, "culture" is often generalized as: 1) a shared pattern of being, thinking, and behaving; 2) something learned from childhood through socialization; 3) something deeply rooted in tradition that permeates all aspects of any given society.
A Chinese perspective Cultural differences present themselves in the very basics of everyday lives. Cultural opacity takes place when a cultural concept is unique to a culture. This may occur when some culturally defined concepts are transposed from one cultural setting to another. For instance, the American concept of "privacy" sounds more like an alien notion than an individual right to many Chinese, whose culture lacks a similar social norm.
And "program, " a popular term in the U. S. , may not translate into an exact Chinese equivalent because the English word has different meanings in different contexts, some of which do not exist in China. Likewise, Chinese "dance, " literally translated into "work unit, " makes little sense to Americans since "dance" in China means far more than a mere workplace. "Yin" and "yang, " other important Chinese cultural concepts, perhaps will never be completely understood by Americans because of its subtle and intricate connotations of the nature of the universe being positive / negative , wet / dry , cold / hot , light / dark , minus / plus , and female / male (Xing 14). Regarding business management, American culture has nurtured a series of methodologies designated as classical, behavioral, and modelling, while Chinese management, to some extent, absorbs nutrition from ancient Chinese cultural wisdom such as Sun Tzu's "The Art of War" that gives strategies suited for business "wars. " Chinese firms have drawn insights from a horse racing legend in which a commoner, whose three horses (the best, the middling, and the slowest) were all a bit slower than the three horses belonging to the king, won two out of the three races because he raced his slowest horse against the king's fastest (resulting in a loss), his middling horse against the king's worst, and his best against the king's middling horse. Had he raced his horses against the king's in the same rank, he would have definitely lost all three games (Marshall & Bush 873). In an attempt to generalize, it is possible to work out some models representing the conceptual framework of the Chinese and American cultures.
These models do not provide an exhaustive picture of the two cultures, but they do illustrate the fundamental differences between them. One question may arise regarding the Chinese model: Why should Confucian ideology and the past tradition, rather than other contemporary forces, be looked on as the working determinants for today's Chinese culture? An explanatory argument, not an answer to the question, could point to the following: 1) over the long history of the Chinese civilization, Confucian ideology has been firmly established as an undeniable system governing nearly all aspects of Chinese lives; 2) thousands of years of a feudalistic system have dominated the Chinese view of themselves and the world; 3) it is uniquely true that, to gain acceptance in China, new ideas have to be proved compatible with classics and tradition. Chinese values have continued to be prized by minds more traditionalist ic than traditional with tradition disguising nostalgia for the past; 4) the current Chinese campaign for "modernization" is not necessarily a process of change in the Chinese people's fundamental mentality or behavior (Eckhouse 110). To be aware of these points is, perhaps, to cross an important threshold for reaching a sound understanding of the Chinese people. In many a case, quick-fix tips for U.
S. companies dealing with China tend to be misleading, because they ignore the essentials upon which Chinese cultural complexity and richness are built. Cross-cultural management strategies should be based on cultural implications that derive from basic values, beliefs, world views, and social relationships (Dutton, Duke rich & Harquail 240). For American companies doing business with China, it pays to acquire a sense and a flavor of how Chinese culture works as an organic whole before accepting well-intended tips. For a generalized picture of the Chinese national character, the following listing may serve as the gist: sanity, simplicity, love of nature, patience, indifference, old roguery, fecundity, industry, frugality, pacifism, contentment, family orientation, intuition, submission, dependency, conservatism, sensuality, and reluctance (Xing 15).
It is not difficult to see that some of these traits are vices, others neutral or admirable qualities. They are a blend of the weakness and strength of the Chinese nation. Traits that suggest a passive or conservative state of mind, rather than a spirit of youthful vigor and achievement, definitely have negative effects on economic activities and social development. American minds are inclined to tackle problems in the following manner: 1) identify / define the problem; 2) analyze and understand the problem; 3) set a goal / objective ; 4) identify, evaluate and select the options available; 5) plan and schedule; 6) implement and control; 7) follow-up, assess results (Eckhouse 82).
Far and wide, this process seems to be used by Americans even though it may not be formally expressed. Its strength lies in its salient...
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Research essay sample on Cross Cultural Awareness For International Part 1
