Analysis On Learning Styles Of Chinese Employees At American Multinational Companies: Cross-cultural Perspective

With the intensification of globalization, importance of Chinese market is highlighted.More and more multinational companies are entering into China. Among them, theinvestment and expansion of American companies is eye-catching. As American companiescontinually expand their business in China, more and more Chinese talents enrol into theirstaff. Due to the huge difference between American and Chinese cultures, the values andthinking patterns of Chinese employees are in disagreement with American management. Inorder to moderate the discrepancy and enable Chinese employees' better adaptation toAmerican company's working environment, identifying and understanding these employees'values and thinking patterns becomes the key to sound operation of American multinationalcompanies in China.The thesis attempts to identify key characteristics of Chinese employees' learning style.Although Chinese and Americans have completely different learning styles, due toincreasing contact with foreign cultures, the learning style of Chinese is changing gradually.As for the Chinese employed at American multinational company in China, they are exposedto both Chinese and American cultures simultaneously. Therefore, their learning styles areinclined to shift away from those of Chinese working at state-owned companies.Understanding the learning styles of Chinese employees is the key for American companiesto conduct training successfully, and this has become the starting point of this study.After reviewing relevant studies and theories of Hofstede,Samovar and Porter on culturalpatterns as well as cultural influence on learning activities, the author puts forward fouranalytic dimensions of learning style: cognitive style, communication style, relational styleand motivational style. Based on the four dimensions, the author analyzes Chineseemployees' learning style and proposes four hypotheses. First, the author has summarisedkey characteristics of Chinese culture and American culture respectively, then by means ofquestionnaire the author has investigated two groups of people—Chinese working atstate-owned enterprises and Chinese working at American multinational companies in China.With the data collected from questionnaires the author tests the four hypotheses and analyzescultural impact on their learning styles. The thesis finally points out the limitations of thestudy and proposes some suggestions for future relevant studies.