Discussion On The Mechanism Of Cross-cultural Integration Based On Grounded Theory

Different from the general enterprises,multinational corporations are inevitably affected by the two-tiered culture of the home country and the culture of the host country,which are encountered in business objectives,market selection,raw material selection,and management methods.Some multinational companies have withdrawn from the host country market because they cannot solve the cultural differences.How can we solve the cultural differences in essence? The academic community proposes that cultural integration is the fundamental solution.For the cultural integration,predecessors studied the process of cultural integration,the model of cultural integration and the strategy of cultural integration,while the internal mechanism of cultural integration has not been discussed in-depth.We took JATCO(Guangzhou)as an example,collected rich data though semi-structured interviews and other ways,and used the grounded theory to encode214 labels,53 concepts,19 sub-categories,6 main categories and the core category of“cultural integration” eventually.The study shown that:(1)Intercultural integration consists of seven basic elements: cultural differences,cultural potential differences,cultural conflicts,cultural identity,cultural integration,cultural reinforcement and influencing factors,among which cultural integration is the key element;(2)Internal relations between seven elements: cultural differences presuppose cultural conflicts,and are also potential obstacles to cultural integration;cultural potential differences are necessary conditions for cultural conflicts;cultural conflicts are inevitable practical obstacles for cultural integration;cultural identity meiges the cultural integration on the surface;Cultural reinforcement strengthens and solidifies the results of cultural integration;(3)Intercultural integration is divided into three stages:“cultural differences conflicting——cultural integration fulfilling——cultural integration strengthening”,in which the cultural integration fulfilling stage undergoes“micro-psychological perception——the process of surface behavioral identity——the integration of deep values”;(4)Intercultural integration does not stop at the consistency level of behavioral patterns and values,but also the penetration andsharing of values and behavior patterns among all employees.There are some suggestions for multinational corporations to come ture cross-cultural integration.Firstly,dissecting cultural differences through the phenomenon,and grasping the cultural differences beyond the psychological tolerance of employees;secondly,resolving cultural conflicts from implicit values which determine explicit conflicts of behavior;furthermore,using targeted guidance to promote consensus behaviors;finally,focusing on sharing and gaining employee recognition of corporate culture.We sort out the elements of cross-cultural integration in this paper,and expound the logical relationship among various elements.Besides,the internal mechanism of cultural integration are analyzed,and provides some guidance for multinational enterprises to solve the problem of cultural integration.These expand the theoretical system of cross-cultural management at the same time.