The Difference in American and Chinese Culture Management Essay

The Difference in American and Chinese Culture Management - Essay Example The paper tells that Chinese have a high context culture, which is that they are found to be more socially oriented, to be more confrontation-avoiding, and to have more trouble dealing with new situations. Typically in a high context culture like that of China while applying Hofstede’s cultural dimensions is it can be drawn that Chinese have high power distance that is there is high inequality amongst people which can easily be observed in their conduct and behavior as the rich, higher in rank and the older in age are perceived as more powerful and authoritative members of the society for example, like at Motosuzhou most Chinese organizations have a bureaucratic organization structure with decision making, control and managing power lying in the hands of the top management. As compared to US-based firms who as per their cultural values have a lower power distance with a respect for equality allowing room for autonomy at lower levels of management as in the case of Electrowide, Inc. Secondly, individualism in Chinese culture is very low as compared to the US culture. Chinese have a highly collective society where people act in the interests of the group. Thirdly, Chinese culture dominates the role of men in their society making China a masculine society where men are preferred over women in the workforce and are given more benefits, offered higher salaries and favored over women. As the case study mentions men hold a higher proportion of the Chinese workforce as compared to women, â€Å"An overview of the labor force reveals that males account for slightly more than half of the workforce and occupy the great majority of leadership positions. Though traditional Chinese society is male-centered†¦ Furthermore, the instances where Tom and his male counterpart were more socially accepted at the casual get-togethers and meetings with the Motosuzhou team where Barb was mostly sidelined in discussions and conversations despite her fluent Chinese language sk ills. While on the contrary, in the US both men and women are given equal opportunities with no or very minimal gender bisness. Women are a huge part of social gatherings and conduct meetings, discussions, and conversations with men at ease. Fourthly, uncertainty avoidance is observed to be low in most high context cultures and the same holds true for China, Chinese are also risk-averse people. For instance, the dealings of Ai Hwa and Motosuzhou’s prolonged delay in discussing the joint venture (JV) details provides an example of Chinese being inherently ambiguous about their dealings. Furthermore, the incident before the article â€Å"Motosuzhou/Electrowide, Inc.: Guanxi in Jeopardy,† being published in the newspaper in the case study shows the extent of ambiguous dealings in China where the US officials (Tom and his counterparts) left Ai Hwa’s building confused. Culturally, uncertainty avoidance is high in the US where people like to keep things, clear, concis e, timely and planned ahead of time. Lastly, long-term orientation in China is high where people plan and prepare, aim and strategize in advance for the years to come. On the contrary, the US has low long-term orientation which can be one of the reasons for more organization becoming ‘learning organizations’ and the trick behind the fast pace of innovation in the US markets.