Cultural Values, Etiquettes and its Impact on Business Communication

This report analyzes the impact of different cultural values and etiquettes on business enhancement, particularly focusing on the challenges faced by 'Beauty Pro,' an Australian multinational company, in its Chinese operations. It identifies intercultural challenges related to meeting etiquettes, differences in business mentality, and the role of intercultural communication and body language. The report highlights specific issues such as appointment scheduling, punctuality, dress codes, gift-giving customs, and the significance of gestures and greetings. Furthermore, it addresses the importance of understanding numerology, decision-making processes, and negotiation styles in Chinese business culture. The report concludes with recommendations for mitigating these challenges, including employee training on Chinese cultural values, leveraging local expertise, and adapting communication strategies to foster better business relationships and conduciveness.

Running head: EFFECTIVE BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
EFFECTIVE BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1EFFECTIVE BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
Table of Contents
1. Analysis of the current situation............................................................................................2
1a. Intercultural challenges in case of meeting etiquettes......................................................2
1b. Cultural difference in business mentality.........................................................................3
1c. Intercultural communication and body language.............................................................3
2. Recommendations..................................................................................................................4
References..................................................................................................................................5

2EFFECTIVE BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
Topic: Different cultural values and etiquettes and its impact on the business enhancement
1. Analysis of the current situation
Intercultural communication is a severe challenge that most of the international companies
have faced in case of enhancing their target market. "Beauty Pro" is an Australian multinational
company distributes organic cosmetics. The demand for these products is huge as people love to use
organic elements and for their skin. The company has the overseas business and there is a country
office also in China. There are some intercultural problems appears in China and as a country
manager, the man has to identify the prevalent issues and mitigate those for the enhancement of the
target market. The basic difference prevails in cultural values and etiquettes (Hovav & D’Arcy, 2012).
This is quite common that business mentality, greeting style, conversation styles, body language,
meetings and meals, numerology, decision making and negotiation all these processes are different in
both the nations, so evolution according to the situation is needed for the development of business.
The major challenges are:
1a. Intercultural challenges in case of meeting etiquettes
In case of business meeting etiquettes, appointments are very important in Australia. These
are very easy to schedule. Punctuality is also important in case of business meetings. The attitude of
meetings is relaxed though they are dealing with serious events. In Australia, emotion and feelings in
business dealings are not important enough, rather the business person has to show their business
card, facts and figures. In China, dress code is an issue (Bain et al., 2012). A person should be well
dressed in conservative suits. Bright coloured is not tolerable in some cases and meeting will not be
placed in some cases. Punctuality is also a vital mannerism in China. At the completion of the
meeting, visitor is expected to leave the room before the Chinese counterpart (Appadurai, 2012). This
use of an interpreter is also available in China and businessman can use that process of interaction.
The business cards need to be gold in colour. The alignment of prestige and prosperity is there and the
Chinese maintain that with ethical manner. In Australia, carrying card in enough but in China, the
visitor has to present the card with both hands by facing the recipient ( Kwek & Lee, 2015). Presents
are considered as bribery, which is illegal in the country, so bring present in business dealing is

3EFFECTIVE BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
prohibited. These are the cultural changes that Australian people are facing when they trying to
enhance their business in China.
1b. Cultural difference in business mentality
Australian are not so formal in greeting, rather their greetings are casual and relaxed. On the
other hand, the greeting is considered one of the most important gestures in China. This is the title of
courtesy. Handshakes are quite common if the Chinese counterpart initiates the gesture. The
Australian may say "G'day' or "G'day mate", however, the Chinese people maintain a composure
during the meeting. There is no extra emotion in any sort of time (Jaca et al., 2014). The process of
questing anything needs to be direct and these questions are needed to be relevant to the topic. Use of
red ink is prohibited in case of signing in China. In China, 4 is considered the unlucky number and 8
is considered as lucky (Kaynak, Wong & Leung, 2013). The meeting is allocated according to this.
There are some terminologies that associated with the native land of Chinese counterpart help the
business process and provide an extra acceleration in business.
1c. Intercultural communication and body language
Intercultural communication is another barrier for business dealing. In the case of Australia,
long-standing personal relationship does not stand and interpersonal relationship is also very
professional in manner. Rather an appreciation in China and appreciate with couples of words is also
important and they love that. There are some popular welcome topics and themes mentioned in
between meeting and this art of conversation maintained in that process (Zukin, 2012). The political
discussion needs to be avoided in case of business meetings. In between business dealings, visitors
need to take care by using string negative statements. The process of alternatives can be used instead
of these words. In Australia, the high-pressure techniques are not used and the decision-making
process is slow and protected (Kwek & Lee, 2013). In China, conscious movements of body language
are important and self-control and respectfulness maintained in that case.

4EFFECTIVE BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
2. Recommendations
The recommended process of mitigating those challenge situation and provide a better
business conduciveness is the crucial aspect in this process. For the developed meeting etiquettes
employees’ need to understand the core values of China. The values are different in all the cases
comparing to China and Australia, Australian business employees should stay at the place and
examine and evaluate the business dealing process and then processed for the meeting. The
recommended success will be evaluated by the completion of business dealing.
In case of business mentality, effective knowledge of business etiquettes is needed. In this
situation, help from any Chinese faculties in business administration will initiate the process and
Australian businessmen can take that help from these people. The business mentality also depending
on the relationship with the Chinese counterpart and gesture will show by the person, the process of
decision making and meeting mannerisms are different in that case (Kaynak, Wong & Leung, 2013).
In the case of decision making, Australian people focus straight on the point but the tendencies of
extended negotiations and patience in meeting in China is the main difference between these two.
However, well-maintained business dealings and association with Chinese counterpart in a traditional
manner of success will prove the effective recommendation of that process.
The last problems deal with intercultural communication and body language and Chinese has
completely different body language process and gestures. Training is the important recommended
solution in that case and trained employees of Australia will handle the situation and perform in a
right way in China (Kwek & Lee, 2013). Non-verbal communication is not applicable in that case so
the effective use of verbal communication with or without an interpreter is necessary and relevant for
the enhancement of business.

5EFFECTIVE BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
References
Appadurai, A. (2012). Commodities and the politics of value. In Interpreting objects and
collections (pp. 88-103). Routledge.
Bain, P., Vaes, J., Kashima, Y., Haslam, N., & Guan, Y. (2012). Folk conceptions of humanness:
Beliefs about distinctive and core human characteristics in Australia, Italy, and
China. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 43(1), 53-58.
Hovav, A., & D’Arcy, J. (2012). Applying an extended model of deterrence across cultures: An
investigation of information systems misuse in the US and South Korea. Information &
Management, 49(2), 99-110.
Jaca, C., Viles, E., Paipa-Galeano, L., Santos, J., & Mateo, R. (2014). Learning 5S principles from
Japanese best practitioners: case studies of five manufacturing companies. International
Journal of Production Research, 52(15), 4574-4586.
Kaynak, E., Wong, Y. H., & Leung, T. (2013). Guanxi: Relationship marketing in a Chinese context.
Routledge.
Kwek, A., & Lee, Y. S. (2013). Consuming tourism experiences: Mainland Chinese corporate
travellers in Australia. Journal of Vacation Marketing, 19(4), 301-315.
Kwek, A., & Lee, Y. S. (2015). How “face” matters: Chinese corporate tourists in Australia. Journal
of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 32(1-2), 120-140.
Zukin, S. (2012). Whose culture? Whose city?. In The urban sociology reader (pp. 363-371).
Routledge.