A Comparative Study Of Chinese And American Corporate Cultures

The concept of corporate culture is attractive because it may provide some language for speaking about the"personalities"of organizations. Actual organizations seem to have personalities which are fairly stable over time and independent of their actual members. Most companies spend the vast majority of their time focusing on their business processes; little if any time focusing on the core values that define their corporate culture. But history and research both show that these values are the single greatest factor in business success or failure. Nowadays with further development of the world economy and increasing trends of globalization, more and more companies realize the importance of cultural aspects that can drive tangible factors such as customer satisfaction, employee productivity and turnover.This thesis defines the concept of the culture of organizations, and analyzes its relationship and difference with national cultures. The bulk of the thesis is devoted to a comparative study of Chinese and American corporate cultures, analyzing them with different tools: the Chinese organizations can be divided into some distinctly different types like SOEs and SMEs. Therefore a detailed analysis is given based on different types of organizations The thesis also addresses common features shared by all Chinese organizations. US corporate culture is analyzed from core values of the national culture and work ethics of Americans, which help shape the characteristics of their corporate culture. The thesis also analyzes factors that affect corporate culture and how corporate culture influences performance of the organization.As China is getting more and more involved in the international community, an increasing number of foreign companies are investing or operating in China, and more Chinese companies have a presence outside China. Consequently, conflicts may arise due to differences in management modes and corporate cultures. This thesis analyzes how cultural conflict is affecting cooperation and provides suggestions for effective communication among people with different cultural backgrounds, which is mainly focused on interactions between Chinese and US companies.