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Chapter – 8 General Cultural Differences between the West and China

China, as the largest market and possibly the most appealing market in Asia, is entering into global collaboration with a wide range of foreign partners. apart from the foreign direct investments, FDI, from Asian countries, the second and the third largest investors are from North America and Europe. It seems necessary to investigate the cultural differences between China and its international business partners in North America and Europe.

To clarify the differences between China and the West, we will refer to Hofstede's four cultural dimensions Among researchers who have given a variety of definitions of culture, Hofstede is one of the first to adopt a pragmatic problem-solving approach in the field and relates culture to management. He defines culture as a kind of 'collective programming of the mind, which distinguishes the members of one category of people from another' (Hofstede, 1980). He explained that culturally-based values systems comprised four dimensions: power distance, individualism/collectivism, masculinity/femininity, and uncertainty avoidance.

By comparing some Western countries and China along these five dimensions according to their cultural dimension scores (Data source: Hofstede, 1991), some tentative conclusions may be drawn. First, Western countries seem to be generally lower (United States of America 40, Canada 39, United Kingdom 35, Germany 35, and France 68) than China (80) in power distance.

Second, in terms of individualism, Western countries are generally much higher (United States of America 91, Canada 80, United Kingdom 89, Germany 67, and France 71) than China (20). Third, Western countries seem to have short-term orientation while China is considered to be long-term oriented.

Among these Western countries, America is frequently investigated in cross-cultural research, partly because of its economic power, partly because of its cultural representativeness. To a certain degree, the United States is considered as representing the so-called 'Western culture'. Therefore, a comparison between USA and China seems to help clarify the cultural differences between the West and China and related cross-cultural challenges.

China and USA differ greatly with regard to their economic systems, political systems, social values, and laws, despite the substantial changes that have occurred in China during recent years. Data shows the cultural dimension scores of USA and China (Data source: Hofstede, 1993). Some differences can be found. First, in terms of power distance, the scores of China are twice as t本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。