International Assignments December 4th, 2021
This assignment is exciting for me because learning about workplace differences between cultures, truly fascinates me. I recently listened to a podcast where author of “The Culture Map” was the guest. It was enjoyable to hear her experiences working with cultures and changing her views past the American expectations. The map allows you to click on whichever countries you are working with and receive a cultural mapping of the selected countries/cultures. With this, you can view how two (or more) cultures fall on eight culture map scales, comparing how each builds trust, gives feedback, and makes decisions.
In regards to our lectures this week, these ideas were helpful. The country I’ve chose to compare is China. Research regarding the cultural distance between China and the US has found that there are many differences between the two countries and Hofstede’s model (Xiumei, et al). For example, the U.S. has a higher display of Individualism while China works more collectively. China also puts much more emphasis on Long Term Orientation than the U.S. does. This orientation means that in the workplace, China may value tradition and reputation more than the United States.
Based on our lectures, I would take the difference in laws into consideration. For example, termination of employees looks different from what we’re used to here in the U.S. China’s laws actually favor the employee more and being able to fire an employee without cause or severance pay require more specific circumstances (Global). This could help me feel more stable taking a job in China where I may feel that I would have more time to get my footing in the role without the fear of not having job security. Another idea to consider is the differences in communication. Erin Meyer describes how she traveled to China to speak and learned that unlike American’s they do not ask questions in the same way. Due to the culture, Chinese people tend to leave several seconds of silence before speaking up where westerners are accustomed to speaking up frequently in order to stand out. She learned that she wasn’t recognizing many valuable opinions from other cultures and was catering more to American norms (Bellis). This consideration could help me refrain from “stealing the show” with Chinese coworkers and recognize the difference in how we share our knowledge.
Recognizing the differences in values, laws, and communication would be key with being able to succeed in the workplace in China.
Citations
Bellis, Rich. “How Not to Run a Meeting with Your International Colleagues.” Fast Company, Fast Company, 6 Mar. 2017, https://www.fastcompany.com/3068755/how-not-to-run-a-meeting-with-your-international-colleagues.
Global, L&E. “Termination of Employment Contracts in China.” L&E Global Knowledge Centre, 4 Feb. 2021, https://knowledge.leglobal.org/termination-of-employment-contracts-in-china/.
Xiumei, SHI, and WANG Jinying. “Cultural Distance between China and US across Globe Model and Hofstede Model.” International Business and Management, http://cscanada.net/index.php/ibm/article/view/j.ibm.1923842820110201.004. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/j.ibm.1923842820110201.004
