Intercultural Business Communication Between America and China

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Intercultural Business Communication between America and China With globalization going on, China and America, as the first and second largest economic country, have been interacting closely in terms of economy. As we all known, culture plays a critical role in business communication. Understanding the other party’s culture can lead to success of business, while cultural misunderstandings in business activities can be destructive. Therefore, to achieve fruitful results from business interaction, we need to be familiar with both American and Chinese culture. This paper will start with the cultural values of America and China with theories in the field of intercultural research, then focuses on business protocol in these two cultures, and finally offers some keys leading to effective intercultural communication. The significant study, conducted by Geert Hofstede, identified four dimensions on which country cultures differ, which are individualism versus collectivism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance versus uncertainty tolerance, masculinity versus femininity. For American, individualistic culture is emphasized, which stresses individual achievement and rights, such as making decisions for himself or herself. While Chinese are opposite, who emphasize the group’s achievements and rights, including the group’s right to make decision for the individual. As for power distance, the degree to which less-powerful members of an organization tolerate unequal distribution of power, China has high power distance, which is comparatively small in United States. Americans tend to be uncertainty tolerance and less concerned with unforeseen consequences, thinking that change is positive. However, Chinese prefer to avoid uncertainty and arrange things in a way that minimizes unforeseen consequences, also regard change as negative thing. In terms of the last dimension proposed by

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