A Study Of Politeness In Communication Among Employees In Multinationals In China

With the ever-growing economic globalization at the early beginning of the 21 st century, Chinese economy has witnessed more vigorous development. As the biggest developing country, China has attracted more and more foreign companies to come to seek for the opportunities of investing and doing business here. Against such international background, this phenomenon has highlighted the increasing interaction between different cultural groups. As we know, in order to reduce cost and adapt to local markets, an increasing number of multinationals tend to recruit local employees while dispatching high-level managers and skilled workers from home. On the one hand, more Chinese are provided with opportunities to enter into these well-known multinationals; on the other hand, there may arise some misjudgments, if employees from different cultures are not fully aware of cultural differences between them.Although China has been experiencing both social and cultural reform by the influences of Western values and life styles, there still exist various kinds of misunderstandings and conflicts because of different cultural backgrounds. Based on an empirical and quantified study, this paper seeks to portrait the characteristics of politeness phenomena in cross-cultural communication in multinational companies in China.This paper is mainly composed of six chapters. Chapter One briefly introduces the subject and the purpose of the study, as well as organization of the study. Chapter Two gives a picture of the multinational enterprises in China at present and the significance of this study. Chapter Three focuses on the theoretical background of the study on politeness in communication, which included Leech's politeness principle, Brown & Levinson's face theory, and Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Chapter Four contains analyses of four aspects (modesty, refusal, face work and power distance) of politeness phenomena among employees in multinationals in China. This chapter firstly reviews the differences of face theory and politeness principle between Chinese and Western Cultures and then puts forward first-hand and second-hand information accordingly. After that a research is conducted to four politeness case studies. Finally, the thesis summarizes both the differences and misunderstanding reasons in politeness phenomena. Chapter Five gives employees in multinationals in China three suggestions, which will be helpful in solving politeness problems. The last chapter comes to the conclusion. When learning a language, we have to learn its culture background, especially the knowledge of politeness in communication. It is the only way to make cross-cultural communication smoothly. We also have respect for their language using rules, and try to put this in our language learning and practicing.