Cross-National Management: Questions
Although the Chinese company Nice Group and the American company it is entering into a partnership with may not face linguistic barriers, they are likely to face considerable cultural barriers that could impede their mutual understanding. The first likely communications obstacle is one of managerial styles. America is a highly individualistic culture, and tends to prefer managers who adopt an empowering or 'coaching' style, meaning that they either give employees considerable autonomy and/or provide support and guidance to employees. This is true particularly regarding complex tasks that require professional expertise. Employees are regarded as valuable human assets who can make a meaningful contribution to the company. In contrast, within high-context cultures such as China, there is a tendency to prefer a far more directive style of management, and to view employees' individual needs as less important than serving the collective (Motivation, n.d, Handout).
Another issue is one of accepted practices of doing business. In a developing world economy such as China's, ethics regarding bribery and corruption tend to be far more fluid than in a developed world nation. For the Nice Group, what is considered normative behavior within the Chinese bureaucratic context is not likely to be the same as in the United States, where rules are expected to be obeyed.
A third issue is that of stereotyping. This is almost impossible to avoid, even today: Chinese managers may have stereotypes about Americans, and Americans may have stereotypes about their Chinese colleagues. No one comes to the negotiating table as a blank slate. The dangers of stereotyping should be kept in mind, even while one must be aware of cultural...
Americans are famously more 'monochromatic' thinkers and tend to approach problems in a fairly linear, top-down fashion. In contrast, members of high-context societies such as the Chinese tend to be more polychromatic in their way of thinking: issues are viewed as multi-valenced in nature, and are perceived as manifesting subtle levels of social meaning (Dimensions of culture, Slides 13-14).
Q2. Even if the two groups of hotel employees work for the same chain, their relationships will likely manifest cultural tensions. The first leadership challenge is that front-of-line staff are likely to be better-educated than the back-of-the-house employees, causing the employees behind the scenes to bristle with cultural and class resentment. This will generate a lack of team unity. There may be additional national and cultural conflicts that arise, based upon historic resentments between front-of-house and back-of-house employees. For example, a higher-level employee at the hotel restaurant who is an English-speaking native of India may be resented by a member of the kitchen crew with roots in Pakistan. Staff members may display active or passive resistance to front-of-house orders. The back-of-the-house employees may resist or undermine the front-of-the-house staff's efforts to make guests feel at home. Back-of-the-house staff may also harbor a sense of anger and resentment against hotel guests who are affluent and come from cultures and nations with which…
