Cross-Cultural Communication in Foreign-Funded Enterprise 外资企业的跨文化交际.doc

cross-cultural communication in foreign-funded enterpriseabstractwith the picking up of the globalization and the development of our economic construction, there has been an upsurge in the internationalization of enterprise operation. concerned statistic data makes clear that millions of foreign-funded enterprises establish branches or subsidiaries in china after the 30 years of reform and opening-up. there are hundreds of thousands of chinese employed by the foreign-funded enterprises. the culture, mode of thinking, value and behavior which is different from chinese ones will come together with the foreign capital, modern technology and advanced management. these factors definitely will have a communication with traditional chinese culture, mode of thinking and behavior , and thus cause collision and conflict in the intercourse. how to deal with this conflict causing by cross-cultural communication will be the leading factors which determine the success or failure of the foreign-funded enterprises in china. on the basis of the current conflict of cross-cultural communication faced by the foreign-funded enterprises, the cause of these conflicts and the ways to deal with these problems will be mainly discussed in this paper.key words: conflict cross-cultural communication foreign-funded enterprise 外资企业的跨文化交际摘 要随着经济全球化进程的加快和我国经济建设的进一步发展，企业经营国际化已经成为势不可挡的热潮。有关统计数据表明，改革开放30年，在我国成立子公司或者分支机构的外资企业已有数百万家，受雇于这些企业的中国员工达几百万。随着外国资金、先进的科学技术以及管理方式的引入，而随之引入的肯定是不同的文化、思维方式、价值观、以及行为方式。这些因素必将与古老的中国文化、思维方式以及行为方式发生交流。在这个交流过程当中，势必会产生各种矛盾以及冲突。怎么样去解决这种跨文化交际中引起的冲突，将会成为决定外资企业在华成败的主导因素。基于外企目前在跨文化交际过程当中遇到的种种冲突，分析产生这些冲突的原因并寻求解决这些冲突的方法是本文讨论的主线。关键词：矛盾 跨文化交际 外资企业 contentsabstract.摘 要.1.introduction.12.the problem of cross-cultural communication.3 2.1. different value.3 2.1.1. individualism vs. collectivism.3 2.1.2. centralization vs. decentralization.4 2.1.3. long-term orientation vs. short-term orientation. 6 2.1.4. ascription-oriented vs. achievement-oriented.7 2.2. different mode of thinking.8 2.3. different rule and regulation.9 2.4. different behavior way9 2.4.1. verbal communication.10 2.4.2. non-verbal communication.113. the influence of cross-cultural communication conflict.13 3.1. the influence on cooperative strategies.13 3.2. the influence on hr management of the enterprise.13 3.3. the influence on producing and organizing.14 3.4. the influence on enterprise culture.144. the method of dealing with cross-cultural communication conflict.15 4.1. viewing the cultural differences in a proper way.15 4.2. cross-cultural cultivation.15 4.3. absorbing the elite part of chinese traditional culture.16 4.4. integrating different cultures.16 4.5. management localization.16 4.6. establishing the relevant curriculum on cross-cultural communication in college.175. conclusion.18reference.19acknowledgement.20 191. introductionthe integration of the world economy is the mainstream of the world economy development, which results in the production across the boundary of the nation. working in cooperation with a due division of labor has been developed from inter-company and internal-cooperation to international cooperation. internationalization of enterprise operation is the way used by developed countries to take advantage of the international resource to strengthen their economic power. cross-cultural communication will be more and more important in the process of the enterprise internationalization. peter. brooke who is special in management said that foreign-funded enterprise is the multi-cultural organization, the critical points of their management is how to combine different cultures better. as the foreign-funded enterprises national culture and ways of management are different from the country they invested in, it must cause the conflict between the local employee and the investor. it will become a big barrier to the development of the enterprise. management specialist david .a. leeks said that the reason why the foreign-funded enterprise will fail is that they ignore the conflict caused by cross-cultural communication.the reform and opening-up policy of china appeals to a lot of investment from abroad so that the quantity of foreign-funded enterprises increase rapidly .as the foreign-funded enterprises bring a lot capital, modern technology and new management mode , they have become an important part of chinese economy, and play an important role in the development of chinese economy. however, the success of foreign-funded enterprise in china is not easy, because they need to overcome a lot of conflicts in cross-cultural communication caused by the culture difference. the former manager of shanghai volkswagen said that if the foreign-funded enterprises want to succeed in china, they must accomplish two goals: first: technical localization. second: managing localization. the second goal, managing localization, mainly refers to how to deal with the conflict of cross-cultural communication and establish the enterprise culture which can fit for multi-culture environment in foreign-funded enterprises.if we want to deal with these problems, we firstly need to know the definition of culture, how the culture influences the communication, and what is cross-cultural communication, and the element of cross-cultural communication and what kind of cross-culture communication problem will be faced by foreign-funded enterprise.we define culture as the deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, timing, roles, spatial relationships, concepts of the universe, and material objects acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving. larry a. samovar, richard e. porter and lisa a. stefani. communication between culture m.beijing. foreign language teaching and research press.2008.p53. there are seven characteristics of culture that most directly affect communication: 1 learned, 2transmitted from generation to generation, 3based on symbols, 4dynamic, 5integrated, 6ethnocentric, 7adaptive.cross-cultural communication is communication between people whose cultural perceptions and symbol systems are distinct enough to alter the communication event.larry a. samovar, richard e. porter and lisa a. stefani. communication between culture m.beijing. foreign language teaching and research press.2008.p48 . cross-cultural communication is made up of four elements:the first element of cross-culture communication is perception, “the process by which an individual selects, evaluates, and organize stimuli from the external world.” cultural perceptions are based on beliefs, values, and attitude systems.another cross-culture communication element is verbal process: how we talk to each other and think.the third element is nonverbal process, involving use of actions to communicate. the implications of these actions are different from culture to culture.the fourth element is that the context of the communication event is influenced by culture.there are mainly four differences causing the conflict of cross-cultural communication in the foreign-funded enterprises:1. different value between different cultures.2. different modes of thinking between different cultures.3. different rules and regulations between different cultures.4. different behavior ways between different cultures.how to deal with above four problems will be the critical factors for foreign-funded enterprises which want to succeed in china.2. the problem of cross-cultural communication2.1.different value value will limit the peoples behavior in communication. the value can be accepted by one culture may become unacceptable in another culture. as the origin of eastern culture and western culture difference, history background difference, and the development process difference lead to immense difference between eastern and western value. there are mainly four types of value conflict will be faced by the foreign-funded enterprise in the process of cross-cultural communication:1individualism versus collectivism.2centralization versus decentralization.3long-term orientation versus short-term orientation. 4ascription-oriented versus achievement-oriented.2.1.1. individualism vs. collectivismbased on geert hofstedes individualism and collectivism culture dimension, if some people prefer “individualism”, it means that they will emphasize individual benefits, personal freedom, rights, competition and independence when dealing with the interpersonal relationship. however, for the people who prefer “collectivism”, they will pay more attention on how to cooperate with each other and how to create more benefit for the collectivity, and the conception of “i” is closely connected with family and friends. under the studying of geert hofsterde on 53 countries and areas, we found that some western countries are typical “individualism”, america ranks the fist. and some asia countries such as china, japan incline to “collectivism”.the “individualism” countries will emphasize personal struggle, how much salary you can get and whats your position in the company are totally decided by your personal ability and your performance. however, the “collectivism” countries will emphasize cooperation with each other. they think that personal performance cannot be separated from collectivity and obsession of hierarchy and working experience will be seen as the important factors. its the big communication barrier to the western country enterprise when they establish the branch or subsidiary in asia. the below case which happen in the foreign-funded enterprise in japan, which founded by american can show these problem clearly.case description:american: mr. sugimoto, i have noticed that you are doing an excellent job on the assembly line. i hope that the other workers notice how it should be done.japanese:(he is uneasy).praise is not necessary. i am only doing my job.(he hopes other japanese workers do not hear.)american: you are the finest, most excellent, dedicated worker we have ever had at jones corporation.japanese: (he blushed and nodded his head several times, and kept working.)american: well, are you going to say “thank you,” mr. sugimoto, or just remain silent?japanese: excuse me, mr. jonesmay i take leave for five minutes?american: “sure.”american:(he is annoyed and watched sugimoto angrily). i cant believe how rude japanese workers are. they seem to be disturbed by praise and dont answer youjust silent.徐宪光. business communication m. beijing. foreign language teaching and research press.2007.from this case, we can found that being praised by superior among the colleagues, mr. sugimoto should feel happy rather than embarrassed according to american “individualism” which advocates the personal performance and creativity. however, mr. sugimoto is japanese whose country encourages “collectivism”, emphasizing that individual should be loyal to the collectivity, the member should be united as one rather than emphasizing personal performance. thats why mr. sugimoto felt embarrassed when he was praised by jones, because he thought that mr. jones had separated him from his colleagues which made him lose face in front of his colleagues.when communicating with the people has different culture background, its important to know the peoples perception on individual and collectivity in the foreign-funded enterprise.2.1.2. centralization vs. decentralizationin business area, centralization and decentralization refer to different managing way of the enterprise. when we introduce these two conceptions, we firstly introduce another theory of geert hofstedes on culture dimension-power distance. “power distance is the extent to which less powerful members of institutions and organizations within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally.geert hofstede. culture consequences m. beverly hills: sage pubilication.1998.p262 .” power distance describes also the extent to which employees accept that superiors have more power than they have. furthermore, superiors opinions and decisions are always right because of the higher position they have. in countries with high power distance employees are too afraid to express their doubts and disagreements with their autocratic and paternalistic bosses. the index for power distance (pdi) describes the dependence of relationships in a country. 6in the investigation carried out by hofstede, we found that the pdi (power distance index) of china is 80 which at the seventh of 40 countries being investigated. however, the pdi of most western countries are less than 50. for example, the pdi of america is 40 which just at the 35th of 40 countries being investigated. the pdi is in proportion of centralization and in reverse proportion of the decentralization. in china, most local enterprises prefer centralization, the decision tree is from the top to the bottom. so the chinese employee always thinks that their superior decision is right and the only duty of them is carrying out the decision made by their superior. although when their superiors make a wrong decision, they are afraid of expressing their doubt and own opinion. however, most western enterprises prefer decentralization, the decision tree of these enterprises are from the bottom to the top. most directors of the company encourage their employees to express their own opinions; they would like to use a democratic way to manage their company. they think that everyone is equal, and various departments and different positions set by the enterprise are just for improving the working efficiency of the enterprise. so foreign-funded enterprises director will find it difficult to know the chinese employees real thought and stimulate their creativity and let them take part in the management of the company. this will mislead them to think that the chinese employees are lack of responsibility. the only way they can do is to obey the decision made by their superiors. the below examples can show this situation clearly.conversationwhat is the real thinking of each otheramerican: how long will it take you finish this report?i asked him to participate.chinese:his words have no sense. he is my boss. no matter what decision made by him, i must obey.chinese: i dont know. how long should it take?asking for an order.american:he refuses to take responsibility.american: you are in the best position to analyze time requirement.pressing him to take responsibility for his own actions.chinese:there is non-sense, i am an employee. i have no choice but to obey. chinese: ten days.american:thinking that he lacks the ability to estimate time: this time is totally inadequate.american: take fifteen. is it agreed you will do it in fifteen days? offering a contract.chinese:these are my orders: fifteen daysin fact, the report needed thirty days of regular work. so the chinese worked day and night, but at the end of the fifteen day, he still needed one more days work.american: where is the report?making sure he fulfills his contract.chinese: i will be ready tomorrow.american: but we had agreed it would be ready today.teaching him to fulfill a contract.chinese:the boss is stupid and incompetent! not only give me wrong orders, but also not even appreciate that i do a thirty-day job in sixteen days. the chinese thought that he cant work for such boss and hands in his resignation. the american is surprised.窦卫霖. 跨文化商务交流案例与分析m.北京.对外经贸大学出版社.2007.p27 the root problem which resulted in this conflict is that the definition of the power structure is different between them. in chinese culture, the power structure is centralization, so chinese employee thought that the american was his boss, there is no doubt that he should take a responsibility to make a decision, the only duty of the chinese employee was tried his best to reach the order set by his boss. however, the power structure in american is decentralization, the boss thought that the relationship between him and the chinese employee was equal instead of leader-member relation, so he hoped the chinese employee can participate in the decision process in order to create the maximum profit for the company. 2.1.3. long-term orientation vs. short-term orientationgeert hofstede said that long term orientation stands for the fostering of virtues oriented towards future rewards, in particular perseverance and thrift. its opposite pole, short term orientation, stands for the fostering of virtues related to the past and present, in particular, respect for tradition, preservation of face and fulfilling social obligations. in the enterprise operation, the long-term orientation enterprises pay more attention to cultivate employees ethic and the sense of belonging. in the short-term orientation enterprise, the ability of the employee will be thought highly than the experience, they would like to pursue the short-term profit rather than the future of the enterprise.the research on long-term orientation and short-term orientation in 23 countries doing by bond, china is at the head which belongs to the long-term