The Impact Of Sino-US Cultural Differences On Staff's Communication In Cross-Cultural Business Workgroups

Since China opened its door to the outside world in the late 1970s, many American companies have been flooding in. During this period, with the rapid development of economy, China became stronger and stronger. Since the beginning of this century, many Chinese companies have also set up their subsidiaries in America. Recently, for the purpose of reducing unnecessary management and coordination, and achieving great accomplishments, many of these multinational companies have established workgroups at all levels of the organization. However, the performance of these workgroups is sometimes disappointing. It has been found that when Americans and Chinese work together, they are more likely to have disagreements in the communication process due to their different values, beliefs and backgrounds that are influenced by their own cultures. They can't cooperate with each other well, so the goal of the workgroup can not be achieved. Therefore, it is necessary to look into their different opinions in the communication process and try to analyze the influence of cultural differences on such disagreements.This thesis first introduces cultural theory, communication theory and group theory. On the basis of case studies, Chapter 2 elaborates different opinions between Americans and Chinese on the elements of effective communication. Based on Hofstede's four cultural dimensions, and Hall's high-context and low-context theory, Chapter 3 analyzes the impact of cultural differences on staff's communication from the following three aspects: the influence of individualism-collectivism, the influence of high-context and low-context communication, and the influence of power distance. The thesis also points out that since cultural differences do exist and can't be avoided, group members should be aware of cultural differences, recognize and respect cultural differences, use different perspectives, and enhance adaptability and flexibility so that their disagreements will decrease and the synergy of the workgroup can be brought into full play.