Cultural Analysis for Business in Different Country

This article discusses the importance of understanding corporate culture in different countries, specifically focusing on the differences between Australian and Chinese corporate culture. The Hofstede theory is used to analyze six important attributes: power distance, uncertainty avoidance, indulgence, masculinity, individualism, and long-term orientation. The article provides insights on how to conduct effective business in a cross-cultural setting.

Running head: CULTURAL ANALYSIS FOR BUSINESS IN DIFFERENT COUNTRY
CULTURAL ANALYSIS FOR BUSINESS IN DIFFERENT COUNTRY
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

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CULTURAL ANALYSIS FOR BUSINESS IN DIFFERENT COUNTRY
Culture can be defined as the set of learned behaviors as well as beliefs that mainly
characterizes a group of people or a society. Anthropologists mainly divide culture in three
different levels like the international culture, national culture as well as subculture. However,
another sublevel of culture has high significance in every corporate and professional business
environment. This is called the corporate culture (Jiang, Gollan and Brooks 2017). This is mainly
seen to refer to the different beliefs as well as behaviors that participate in determining the
procedures about how employees and management interact in the office environment and handle
outside business transactions. Researchers are of the opinion that corporate culture gradually
develops organically over time from the variety of the cumulative traits of the people hired by
the company (Kwek and Lee 2015). This assignment will help to show how Mary (the individual
in the case study) will utilize the Hofstede analysis and will learn about the corporate culture of
Chinese firms so that she can conduct effective business.
In order to conduct effective business, Mary, who is acquainted with the Australian
culture of business and management, needs to develop cultural knowledge about the different
attributes of corporate culture in China. She needs to take the help of Hofstede theory by which
she can develop good amount of knowledge of the culture of business in Mr. Lau’s organization
and engage into effective partnership.
The first important component that an individual should first focus is the power distance.
This can be defined as the extent to which the less powerful members of the institutions and
organizations within a particular nation expect as well as accept the fact that power is distributed
unequally. Australia has a very low score of power distance like 36 which signifies that the
leaders of Australian organizations encourage development of hierarchy for convenience where
the seniors are always accessible and approachable. Managers have huge dependency on the

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subordinates and both the stakeholders engage in transparent conversations where information is
shared and consulted frequently and actively (Manrai et al. 2018). Here, communication is found
to be direct, participative as well as informal. China, in this attribute score about 80 where the
society believes that inequalities are acceptable in people and subordinates do not aspire beyond
their rank. The relationship between the leaders and followers are polarized and subordinates are
influenced by formal authority and are accepting of the fact (Hong et al. 2018). While working
with the new people in the Chinese organization, she should be respectable of the relationships
shared by the seniors and juniors regarding power distance and should not try to be over friendly
or too informal with staffs. This may not be liked by the organization. She should maintain a
power distance with the subordinates so that the workers do not suffer from cultural shock and
get confused or perceive her in negative ways.
The second important fact is individualism. This dimension mainly explains the degree of
interdependence that a society is observed to maintain among the members. In societies which
are individualist, the professionals are mainly seen to be looking after their own self or their
families. However, in the collectivist society, people are seen to be belonging to group systems
where individuals take care of each other in exchange of loyalty. Australians are found to be
quite high in this attribute scoring a total around 90. In this corporate culture, employees are
expected to be self-reliant and display initiative. Hiring is entirely based on merit and evidence
about how one performs or the qualities he has. However, the score of china in this attribute is
quite low for about 20 where people act for the interest of the groups (Alexander, Thompson and
Murray 2017). Relationships are seen to be cooperative for the in-groups but they display hostile
behavior with the out groups. Personal relationships are given importance over task as well as
company (Armstrong et al. 2017). For example, while Mary will be conducting the cross-cultural

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business, she should try to understand the culture, promote, and respect group working providing
importance and sharing information with the whole, group rather than taking an individualistic
approach.
The next attribute is the masculinity attribute. This attribute mainly refers to the focus
developed by the corporate culture that mainly tends to motivate people in two ways – “wanting
to be the winner and develop as the best” called the masculinity and “liking what the employees
do” that is called the feminine trait. On the level of masculinity attribute, a high level of score is
seen to indicate an interesting feature. This states that society is driven by the achievement,
competition as well as success. Here the term success mainly means being the best or the winner
in the field. A low score on this attribute means high on femininity where the main dominant and
guiding values of the society is quite different. This is seen to involve caring for the others and
maintaining a high quality life (Hung and Rundle-Thile 2014). Australia is seen to score 60 on
Masculinity that states that they are proud of their success and achievements in life. China is also
seen to have a value of 66 that states that Chinese corporate culture is also driven by success
where they are even ready to sacrifice their family and leisure. Therefore, this attribute should be
kept in mind and therefore, Mary would develop a working culture that should be competitive
and gives scopes to the workers to show their skills.
Another important attribute is called the uncertainty avoidance which mainly describes
the extent to which members of any organization or a culture can be exposed to the feeling of
being threatened by ambiguous or unknown situations and thereby beliefs on institutions which
try to avoid this (Choudhary, Kumar and Phillip 2016). The nation of Australia scores a
moderate rank of about 51 which provides them a scope to prepare themselves for future
uncertainties but may not be very well adapted and through about the procedures for uncertainty

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avoidance. The score of the Chinese nation is quite low for about 30. They are quite comfortable
with ambiguity and there adherence to laws and rules unlike the westerners are quite flexible to
suit with the actual situation and pragmatism.
Another important aspect of this analysis is the long-term orientation. This dimension
mainly helps to describe how each and every society are successful in maintaining some links
with their own past so that they can properly deal with the challenges of the present and even the
future. Researchers are of the opinion that corporate societies that tend to score low in this
attribute mainly prefer the maintenance of the time-honored traditions and norms while viewing
societal change with suspicion (Sharma et al. 2017). Those who score high on this attribute are
mainly seen to take a more pragmatic approach where they encourage different types of thrifts as
well as efforts in the modern education to reflect a way of preparing oneself for the future.
People of the Australian origin are more normative in thinking procedures as the nation scores 21
in this attribute. They tend to be exhibiting strong respect and support for traditions and shows
small propensity for saving for the future (Vogel et al. 2015). They focus on achieving quick
results. On the other hand, china is seen to score about 87 in this attribute that makes it evident
that the nation is a believer of pragmatic orientation where people are shown to adapt to the
traditions easily to changed situations. They can adopt quite easily and are believers of saving
and investment, thriftiness and shows perseverance in achievements of the results (Mar et al.
2015). Therefore, Mary should not focus on traditions much, should provide them scope to adapt
themselves with the situations, and should not force them to achieve results, as they believe in
perseverance for providing the best outcomes.
The next attribute is called the indulgence. This attribute mainly describes the extent to
which people are seen to try their best for controlling the desires as well as the impulses

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depending upon which the individuals were raised. Usually, the strong control is called
indulgence and strong control is called restraints. Australia is seen to have a high score for about
71 and is therefore seen to be indulgent is nature. They are generally seen to be exhibiting a
willingness to realize the various types of impulses as well as desires in regards with that of
enjoying lives and having fun (Lo et al. 2017). They are seen to display a very positive attitude
as well as also having a tendency towards optimism. They are also seen to provide much
importance on leisure activities and thereby act as they please and spend money as they wish. On
the other hand, china is seen to score for about 24 that show that they are not much aligned to
leisure activities. They are more restrained where they feel that are bound by social norms and
feels that indulging them in other co curricular activities would be wrong. They are also seen to
control gratification of their desires (Wang et al. 2017). Therefore, when Mary would be
deciding the working styles or would be coming into partnership with this organization she
should be not considering any activities for leisure or would not need to consider about engaging
them in any activities for leisure. The Chinese people are more restrained. They may not like
this gesture shown by Mary.
From the above discussion, Mary can successfully develop ideas about the differences
and variations of the corporate culture she needs to consider when coming into partnership or in
any cross-cultural business deals with the Chinese organization of Mr.Lau. She should consider
the six important attributes like power distance, uncertainty avoidance, indulgence, masculinity,
individualism and long-term orientation between the two nations. These would help her in
ensuring cultural sensitivity while interacting with the people from other culture and would put
away situations of cultural shock. This would ensure success of her business plans.

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Appendix:
Hofstede analysis for China and Australia