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Cross-cultural differences
The USA (USA) and China have rapidly engaged in international trade and business negotiations. Therefore, it's important to analyze the cultural distance that both countries have to minimize or avoid misunderstandings and conflicts (Shi and Wang, 2011). Both the nine dimensions in GLOBE and the five dimensions in the Hofstede model can allow us to better understand cross-cultural differences between China and the USA. Project GLOBE's major purpose is to increase available knowledge relevant to cross-cultural interactions (Shi and Wang, 2011). The definition of the nine cultural dimensions that GLOBE studies are in Table I.
In the above chart, GLOBE characterizes values as the idealized culture. While GLOBE characterizes practices as what actually happens in real life. The author of GLOBE recognized that:
(i) values and practices both serve to differentiate between societies and organizations; (ii) the values and practices each account for unique variance; (iii) the values and practices scales interact; and (iv) the dimension of values and practices can be meaningfully applied at both levels (societal and organizational) (Shi and Wang, 2011).
Based on Table II, China in value has a lot of assertiveness orientation (AO), but in practice it doesn't. While the USA ranks high on both the value and practice areas. Chinese culture has significantly less AO, while the USA scores high. Furthermore, based on the definition in Table I, it can be determined that the US culture has a high degree of assertiveness, confrontations and aggressiveness, while China has a significantly lower score.
Based on Table II, China ranks lower in value, but in practice it ranks significantly higher in institutional collectivism (IC). The USA scores significantly lower in value and average in practice. Moreover, based on the definition in Table I, the Chinese culture in practice has a significantly higher degree of integration among groups, at the expense of autonomy and individual freedom which implies that the Chinese culture tends to focus more on the success of the group, then their own success. They are more willing to give up autonomy and individual freedom to assure the success of the group. In US culture, individuals tend to be more focused on their own success and are less willing to give up autonomy and individual freedom for...