¶ … Roles and Experiences in Cross-Cultural Business
Cross-cultural differences are recognized as the biggest barrier to doing business in the world market (Fan & Zigang, 2004). Research aimed at exploring cross-cultural differences in regards to international business investigated key differences in personality traits between business leaders in different countries. The key finding demonstrated by this research was that the factors that counted for most of the differences experienced by executives working internationally were agreeableness and emotional balance (PR Newswire, 2007). This is expressed in differences between countries with regard to how extensively group harmony is valued and the extent to which emotions are expressed or muted (PR Newswire, 2007).
The way businesses in China experience and process risk has been found to differ significantly to that of the West (Brumagim & Xianhua, 2005). These differences may be appropriated explained through prospect theory, which hypothesizes that potential losses are experienced more intensely than potential gains (Brumagim & Xianhua, 2005). This results in increased risk-seeking in situations involving loss, and increased risk-avoiding behavior in situations involving gain, and businesses in China demonstrated preferences for risk-seeking in both loss and gain situations (Brumagim & Xianhua, 2005). This bias leads to cross-cultural differences involving decision-making with regard to business practices.
Cross-cultural differences are not only found between businesses of the West and businesses of the East. Significant differences can also be observed in business communication between Western countries. Reinch (1995) described key cross-cultural differences in business writing between British, American, and Finnish businesses. This research focused primarily on the way requests are formulated for business communication, and a primary finding was that the single-culture perspective of an individual can often result in the erroneous presumption that cultural artifacts represented in business writing are indicative of universal characteristics...
These challenges are primarily the result of drastic cross-cultural differences that exist in the realms of language, etiquette, cultural norms, and protocol. These challenges are met and solved through the implementation of creative initiatives that bridge the gap between businesses of different cultures.
Fan & Zigang (2004) describe the challenges that cultural differences pose when dealing in business matters with China. Foreign investors have increasingly recognized the appeal of the Chinese market due primarily to the globalization of world business (Fan & Zigang, 2004). However, with this increase in relations between China and businesses in the West, difficulties in cross-cultural management have demonstrated an unprecedented increase (Fan & Zigang, 2004; Business Editors, 2003). Most of the failures experienced by companies engaged in international business are a result of cultural differences being neglected (Fan & Zigang, 2004). These cross-cultural differences include difficulty in communication, different objectives, potentially higher transaction costs, as well as different ways of cooperation and methods of operation (Fan & Zigang, 2004).
Key differences between China and the West include a significantly greater sense of individualism in the West in comparison to China, and the West has shown to be more short-term oriented, while China is more long-term oriented (Fan & Zigang, 2004). Overall, China and the U.S.A. In particular differ immensely with regard to their political systems, economic systems, laws, and social values. This is reflected in key differences in the business realm with regard to conflict management, cooperative strategies, decision-making, motivation systems, and work-group characteristics (Fan & Zigang, 2004).
The resolution of ethical dilemmas in business cross-culturally presents some challenges. Roselli & Singer (2010) emphasized…
