The above four dimensions illuminated the most important cultural differences that affect on business. International managers should be able to aware not only the cultural difference but also the intercultural communication.
Gudykunst and Kim (1992:13-14) classify intercultural communication as 'a transactional, symbolic process involving the attribution of meaning between people from different cultures'. Different nations use different languages, so there will be loss or misunderstanding during interpreting. And in some culture, people use implicit words more than others, like China. Thus, the non-verbal communication is important, especially the scenic communication. It includes gestures, body language, eye contacting. The more scenic part in communication, the harder for people to transmit and receive information. Another part is the concept of time. From that, punctuality is the same but reflects different reality. We all know time is money. But when there is a conference, the German usually presents 5 minutes before the start. Spanish will be late for 15 minutes. But in their mind they are both on time. That is something that managers should understand. In my mind, there is another aspect of time, called 'the use of time'. The American and Northern European have a linear time concept. These societies are referred to as Time-Bound societies. Southern Europeans and Arabs regard time in a linear way but more things they can do or handle at the same time. That can be called 'multi-active time'. And then there is the Asian view of time, cyclical time. Asian thinks time will come around again when it pass away, also the opportunities and risks. Besides the above three aspects of communications, there left the space. It is a big concern of in intercultural communications. When you have a conversation with a foreign business partner, the space between you and him are referred to the personal boundary of every culture. Ignorance of space can be lead to real bad impression from other side.
The last but not the least, I would like to talk something about the cross-culture negotiation I researched. Negotiation is a course that at least two groups of people trying to reach an agreement with the others for their own benefit. There are two things in negotiation: the topic and the course. During cross-culture negotiation, the course is the crucial obstruction. Different negotiation ways are produced by different cultures. Under this circumstance, there is a classic standpoint of procedures: exploring with no objective, task oriented, persuading period, and sign contract. International managers should be aware of every procedure. And during each procedure, the strategy, technique, substance, time, sequence and the focal point are different.
In this essay, I wrote about the cultural differences. There are four dimensions: power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism and masculinity. After that, I talked about the intercultural communication, which contains language, non-verbal communication, time and space concept. The conclusion is different cultures do cause problems in business. We cannot change or solve the cultural difference. To avoid misunderstanding, clashes, and bias, the international managers should realize and understand the different cultures, adapt themselves to fit into the business environment in order to get the best achievement in business.
话语分析二十年
试论应用语言模型框架中句子的四个平面理论