中美商务文化差异

Contrastive Analysis on Intercultural Business Communication between China and AmericaContrastive Analysis on Intercultural Business Communication between China and America【Abstract】There is a great discrepancy between Chinese culture and American culture.More and more people have come to realize the cultural impact and possible negative consequences that come from inappropriate communication during international business transactions. This study aims to examine the main difference in business communication between China and America and make contrastive analysis on them,and attempts to study the impact of the difference on intercultural communication and put forward some advice to achieve a successful intercultural communication.This paper finds that there is much difference between Chinese and American when people have a business communication, that is China cultural is collectivism large distance ,strong uncertainty avoidance,high context, polychromic time culture. While American cultural is individualism,small power distance,weak uncertainty avoidance,low context,monochromic time culture.The findings of this study will help practitioners become more cognizant of cultural difference in business communication, and thus be able to prepare more effective strategies to manage a perfect intercultural business communication.【摘要】中国与美国的文化之间存在着巨大的差异，在国际商务交往的过程中，越来越多的人认识到由于文化差异的影响而导致的消极结果。本文旨在找出商务交往过程中中国与美国之间文化的差异，并进行了对比分析。本文发现，中美商务交往的过程中确实存在着巨大的文化差异，中国文化强调集体，具有等级性，规避不确定性，间接性以及时间多元性。而美国文化则强调个体，等级性比较低，直接性以及时间单元性。本文的研究结果对跨商交流务参与者认识文化差异从而顺利进行商务交流具有一定的帮助作用。【Keywords】culture ,intercultural communication, cultural impact【关键词】文化，跨文化交流，文化影响 IntroductionWe might think that Chinese and Americans are totally different people. Not only the way they look different, but also the different cultures. So, what are the differences between Chinese and American culture? More and more people have come to realize the cultural impact and possible negative consequences that come from inappropriate communication during international business transactions. It is appropriate to give some consideration to the subject of intercultural communication and training. The ability to communicate at various levels by writing, speaking,debating, negotiating or simply talking became one of the most important skills necessary to be an effective manager or a businessman. Nonverbal communication the so-called silent language is a source of many misunderstandings. In the world where distances are diminishing and technological progress makes rapid, almost instant communication possible, there is more potential danger of a conflict, misunderstanding,or simply of a business loss, resulting from our deficiencies or inabilities to communicate successfully. Apart from basic communication skills,intercultural awareness is extremely important in a world where international contacts increase and become crucial to opening new markets and new avenues for international business operations. Daphnee Lee. Beliefs on “avoidant cultures” in two French multinational corporations. Cross Cultural ManagementJ.An International Journal,2013,20(1), 20-38. Literature ReviewAs Barnard Barnard,The Functions of the ExecutiveM.Boston: Harvard University Press,2012:115(1938) states, “communication” is one of the three essential elements to an organization, as well as “common purpose” and “willingness to serve”.Zuoxiaoping (2005)pointed that the influential power of communication could be a determinant of a corporate culture when communication is taken from various facets: not only as exchange of information, but also as collection, storage, reproduction and transfer of information左小平，国际商务谈判中的文化因素J.商业研究，2005（6），165-167 Previous research has shown that culture influences peoples preferences of conflict management styles.Based on the results of a comparative study of 318 Taiwanese and 245 American business employees, Knutsonetal(2000) concluded that compared to Taiwanese Chinese,American participants perceived the existence of conflict more frequently and preferred a direct, solution-driven conflict management style. Knutsonetal,Politeness.Some Universals in Language Usage,M.Cambridge,Cambridge University Press,1938:42-45 Kameda, N. (2001) states that any business, trade or educational mission conducted in a foreign country requires some kind of understanding that we enter an entirely foreign world of thinking, responding, perceiving reality Kameda, The implication of language style in business communication: focus on English versus JapaneseN, Corporate Communications, 2013,Vol. 6 No. 3, 144-159.Renyi(2010) says that the so-called silent language of non-verbal behavior is limited to an entirely different cultural code than the one we are familiar with任忆.从文化差异看跨文化交际中英汉两种语言的差异J. 考试周刊. 2011(09). Renlingling also finds that the type of responses we receive may be misinterpreted by us or we can misunderstand completely what was being said or not said 任玲玲.浅析中美文化差异J. 湖北经济学院学报(人文社会科学版). 2010(06) .Lijunru(2007) did a survey about the difference of praising and responding words between Chinese and American,and found that it is obvious choose when Chinese and American responding praise and compliment. 李俊儒.称赞语及其应答语对比研究J.国外外国语研究,2007(4),21-26Liuxianfang(2007) points out that American culture emphasizes the individualism and self-realization, totally focus on business operations target, strength and competitiveness.American never fix business with pleasure. However,Chinese culture is indirectly,Chinese would like to talk business while eating9刘贤方.谈判桌上的中美文化J. 中国经济周刊. 2007(38),44-46. DiscussionAccording to the Concise Oxford Dictionary, culture is the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively. From anthropologic perspective,culture is the customs, civilizations, and achievements of a particular time or people.From Social Perspective,Culture is what a society does and thinks. Culture covers everything of a society.Communication is derived from the Latin word communicare, meaning to share with or to make common, as in giving to another a part or share of your thoughts, hopes, and knowledge.It is the perception of verbal and nonverbal behaviors and the assignment of meaning to them.In western cultures, communication is studied as the means of transmitting ideas. Western cultures emphasize the instrumental function of communication; that is, effectiveness is evaluated in terms of success in the manipulation of others to achieve ones personal goal. Definitions of communication from many Asian countries stress harmony, which is most notable in cultures with a Confucian tradition. Intercultural communication refers to communication between people whose cultural perceptions and symbol systems are distinct enough to alter the communication event.There is much difference in the intercultural business communication between China and America.Some contrastive analysis has been done as follows,which contains several obvious aspects. Past Orientation vs. Future OrientationAs we all know,China has a long history of five thousand years with a resplendent civilization and tradition. Chinese are proud of their five-thousand-year civilization and their intelligent and diligent ancestors who created such a splendid culture. So Chinese movies almost tells some unknown history stories of the famous ancients or the anecdotes of the Royal,such as “Zhenhuanzhuang”, “jingzhongbaoguo” and so on.So we can say that China cultural is past orientation cultural. In Chinese eyes,there is a strong belief that the past should be the guide of making decisions and discovering truths. The Chinese proverb “consider the past and you will know the present” clearly states how important history is to the study of their culture. As Sangren(1987) concluded: “for China ,history itself is the text through which heavens order can be known”. It is no wonder that history is important to both the Chinese people and anyone seeking to understand the Chinese Sangren.History and Magical Power in a Chinese Community.Stanford, CA:Stanford University Pres,198711徐朝.中美文化自我的差异与跨文化交际J. 培训与究,2001(03),11-1712 梁峰.文化差异对国际商务合作的影响J. 企业改革与管,2008(03),54-5713 陈曦.美国文化的精髓-个人主义J. 读与写(教育教学刊).2008(04),26-3114莫丽玉.中国文化与美国文化对比J. 安徽文学(下半月).2006(09),6-915 潘绍中.有关文化和美国文化研究的几个问题J. 外交学院学报. 1992(03) 16 曲宪明.中美在跨文化交际中时间观的差异J. 太原城市职业技术学院学报. 2007(02) .But American cultural is a typical future orientation.American believe future would be better than present and past, “new”, “innovative” are the most poplar words standing for revolution and hope. The themes of most American movies are about exploration into Space,time travel for future and so on. American are curious and they prefer to imagine what will happen and what they can or should do in the future or under some particular circumstance,such as “2012”, “Avartar”, “Star Trek” and so on.Products in China would be regard as being of high quality if the seller or the brand has long experience of selling it,so Chinese advertisement would like to use “old age ”, “hundreds years stores” etc to make their products popular among consumers. In America,some new things may be sell like hot cakes because of their unique feature ,so sellers would like to advertise the new with “never get ” or “get it before others” etc. Individualism Versus CollectivismIndividualism means that the society is individual oriented,which is a loosely knit social framework; individuals are supposed to take care of themselves (I Culture ),such as America, North European countries and so on.However,collectivism is group oriented society which is a tightly knit social framework; individuals can expect their relatives, or other in group to look after them(We Culture or I-less Culture),such as Asian countriesIn America culture, the interest of the individual prevails over the interests of the group.But in China we find societies in which people from birth on-wards are integrated into strong, cohesive in-groups.Such a difference usually reflects in the America and the China advertisements. For example, as Chinese have the tendency of following suit, the Chinese advertisements take advantage of such kind of psychology. Advertisements tend to focus on group behavior because Chinese consumers always believe the more people buy a product, the better quality it will have. To be exact, they try to persuade consumers into purchasing the advertised with the masses. We can find many examples in our daily life, which stress group behaviors such as “when everybody adds fuel ,the flame rise high”, “the more people the more strength”, “even the dog swaggers when its master win favor”.These show the collective culture of Chinese people in their work. They are greatly ready to cooperate with group members. They tend to have a homogeneous work with little differentiation between managers and workers. The high value placed on the collective fosters mutual dependence in a group environment:they interact and conduct work activities as group efforts,everyone has duty to contribute his most to the collective.However, it is just contrary with the America advertisements because individualism is firmly established in western culture and in American mind. Words such as “unique ”,”self ”spread out products or services features that match with ones distinction. The following advertisements show this orientation clearly.“to be number one ”,”you are the best ” and so on. Large versus Small Power Distance Large power distance countries accept a hierarchical order, for example, China. However, small power distance countries strive for equalization, America it is. From the perspective of” Large versus Small Power Distance”,we can see that there are two absolutely different aspects between China and America,Firstly,in America ,hierarchies reflect the basic inequality of people,which is only convenient ways of organizing activities .Secondly, Chinese are comfortable with hierarchical relationships.but,American prefer equal relationships.Chinese accept differences in power,and think whoever holds power is right and good, The less powerful are dependent on the powerful.Well American dislike or distrust authority,whoever uses their power will be judged as to whether they use it in the right way,and interdependence between less and more powerful persons. Strong Uncertainty Avoidance Versus Weak Uncertainty Avoidance People who have strong uncertainty avoidance are uncomfortable with uncertainty and ambiguity, and are intolerant with deviance. For example,American.On the contrary,people who have weak uncertainty avoidance would like to practice counts more than principles and deviance is more easily tolerated. China it is.In fact,Chinese try to avoid uncertainty and ambiguity by providing stability for their members, establishing more formal rules, not tolerating deviant ideas and behaviors, seeking consensus, and believing in absolute truths.They are also characterized by a higher level of anxiety and stress and think of the uncertainty inherent in life as a continuous hazard that must be avoided. There is a strong need for written rules, planning, regulations, rituals, and ceremonies, which add structure to life.On the contrary, American have a low-uncertainty avoidance need. They more easily accept the uncertainty inherent in life and are not as threatened by deviant people and ideas, so they tolerate the unusual. They prize initiative, dislike the structure associated with hierarchy, and more willing to take risks, are more flexible, think that there should be as few rules as possible, and depend not so much on experts as on themselves. As a whole, members of low-uncertainty avoidance cultures are less tense and more relaxed - traits reflected. High Context Culture vs Low Context CultureWe can easily find that China cultural is the high context culture which most of the information is either in the physical context or internalized in the person while very little is in the coded.On the contrary,American would like to choose the mass of the information which is vested in the explicit code.Chinese are expected to read the others mind during communication, so the message is quite indirect, dependent on hints, the use of the eyes, distance between bodies.For example, they put high priority on keeping harmony, preventing anyone from losing face, and nurturing the relationship. When a bad-news message has to be delivered, and context alone cannot deliver it, the message will probably be indirectly organized in circumlocutory words.In low-context American culture, the responsibility for meaning falls mainly to the speakers, whose job it is to formulate ideas into clear language. The more lucid speakers are, the more highly regarded they are as communicators. Monochromic Time Culture vs Polychromic Time CultureM-time is noted for its emphasis on schedule ,segmentation,punctuality and promptness. It features one event at a time and time is perceived as a linear structure.American culture is typical M-time cultures.P-time is less rigid and clock-bound. It features several activities at the same time and time is perceived as more flexible an more human centered. Chinese culture is typical P-time cultures. American people usually engage in one activity at a time, compartmentalize time schedules to serve self-needs, and tend to separate task-oriented time from social time. While Chinese people tend to do multiple tasks at the same time, tend to hold more fluid attitudes toward time schedules, and tend to integrate task needs with social needs. Chinese person using a P-time orientation, for example, will stop a conversation with one person to take a phone call from another, especially a friend or relative. They tend to emphasize the connection between people, fluidity, and the flexible nature of time. The Chinese make little distinction between private and public life. They often work many hours beyond work time, especially if they believe that it is necessary. For some business people, schedules in their non-business hours are much more hectic than during business hours. People in the Chinese commercial community even presume that a persons business will decline if they have nothing to do, or no one to deal with, after working hours. In contrast, American people who follow M-time schedules tend to emphasize individual privacy, schedules, and appointments.American people would like never fix business time and pleasure time and there is obvious distinction between private and public life. Form 1 list several main difference from the perspective monochromic time culture vs polychromic time culture between Chinese culture and American culture.DifferenceChinese(P-time)American(M-time)Do many things at once timeDo one thing at a time concentrate on the job.Consider time commitments an objective to be achieved.Take time commitments (deadlines, schedules) seriously.Are high-context and already have information.Are low-context and need information.Are committed to people and human relationshipsAre committed to the job.Change plans often and easily.Adhere religiously to plans.Base promptness on the relationship Emphasize promptness.Change plans often and easily.Adhere religiously to plansForm1:Difference between Chinese culture(P-time) and American culture(M-time) Good evil and Bad evilWhat is the character of human nature? Chinese culture and American culture has different answer. In Chinese culture,The Three Character Classic(sanzijing-Southern Dynasty) has been used in Confucian education as long as eight hundred years as a primer for the learning of Chinese writing and Chinese ethical philosophy. It begins with the following words:Ren zhi chu, xing ben