Luna Pen

When decisions are necessary, especially risky ones, Americans do things differently than Chinese people do. Americans like to get involved and, if possible, make the decisions themselves. They are less likely to avoid the situation for fear of embarrassment or uncertainty. If they are uneasy about their authority to make a decision, they are content to defer or delegate. The Chinese are more likely to make decisions in groups where many people participate. This is somethine to consider when doing business with the Chinese because the way we would handle things in America might make them feel slighted or

This process has more significance in most countries except the Unites States. The approach in the U.S. is to get down to business straight away without wasting too much time on people. This is in stark contrast to the process in China where the focus is on building “Guanxi”, that is, the intricate and omnipresent network of personal relations. The U.S. approach can be a huge problem when doing business with China. The American efficiency interferes with the patient development of a mutually trusting relationship – the very basis of an Asian business agreement. This is what happened in the case study. Mr. Smith had done his research and was aware about the Chinese business methodology, but he did not think it was important to implement it. He was well advised by Mr. Tang. Mr. Tang, even though pointed out the significant features of the “American” and the “Chinese” way of doing business, did not stress enough to make Mr. Smith understand its significance. Mr. Tang also jeopardized his relationship with Mrs. Ming whom he had known for many years by not disclosing that the supplier was not a direct supplier.

Sex-role expectations were a very important issue in the relationship between An-Mei and her daughter. Throughout the mother's life, she was expected to

"Germany's 'social market' economy largely follows free-market principles, but with a considerable degree of government regulation and generous social welfare programs" (Doing business in Germany, 2013, Export.). When contemplating entering the German market, it is useful to learn from the example of other firms, including their mistakes. Germany, although superficially similar to the United States, Great Britain, and other European countries in many ways, has some critical cultural differences which will impact the ways in which a foreign company presents itself and interacts with local organizations.

Another cause is represented by the Manager’s idea that he can develop a well-established business in the Eastern German because of cheap labor and raw materials. His choice to expand on German marketplace was not based on rational facts or clear developed objectives.

Last fall, my wife and I put our home up for sale. Our motivation was simple, with the money we would get from the sale of our home we could pay off all our debt and have plenty of money left over to invest, eventually saving enough to buy a bigger home. Emboldened by the allure of liquidity I listed our home for sale and waited for the offers. Indeed the offers did come in, in fact over the next few months we were in and out of escrow three times.

     On the other hand, Chinese worker are centered on relationship. Chinese focus on relationship with others and live in the world of trust. Chinese trust people around them in their work place. Often, Chinese did not require signing contract in every agreement unlike American where all agreement must be in contract. By trusting others credibility, it helps create a friendly working environment and promotes intimate relationship among the workers. However, their main weakness is their business culture, where they are quiet and reserved which will reduce their credibility when dealing with American. They weakness also made them a weak immediate decision maker. As for interpersonal problem, Chinese are very concern about the good relationship, and hold it as their top priorities. Chinese would not do any agreement or trade that could harm their relationship with others. Lastly, Chinese are very polite and indirect. They try as hard to prevent the relationship from

Chinese workers believe that close personal relationships are imperative to effective communication. American companies don’t share the same views and some organizations have even related this to workplace fraternization, which can result in disciplinary action. Since we don’t believe that these relationships are necessary, or even appropriate, we don’t form them and this could affect a bi-national workplace and possibly even carry over to business dealings outside of the company. The Chinese believe that, when conducting business with other people, a relationship must first be formed to gain the trust of business partners.

Another value that is very important in Chinese culture is trust. Trust lies at the heart of successful long-term intercultural business relationships. Therefore, Oldtown employee must be prepared in gaining the Chinese Manager in China trust to deal with business. In China, the cross-cultural business relationships, trust plays an indispensable role since partners from different cultures don’t always have the same values or assumptions about how business works. When trust is developed, partners can navigate difficult issues over time by fostering a candid exchange of ideas, issues and agendas. Developing trust can significantly reduce what Westerners often complain of in their dealings with Chinese counterparts: unpredictable behavior and a lack of transparency. As a Chinese executive at Google put it, “In China, your success depends on how well a person trusts you.”

Both countries view family as a key aspect of their life. German have a strong bond with family. For example, everybody goes back home for reunion at Christmas and Easter. Family would spend time together for enjoying the long holiday. Chinese also emphasize family gathering and reunion, just as German do. During the Spring Festival, a number of Chinese would travel from the city they are working at back to their hometown in order to celebrate and gather, given the fact that the Spring Festival is the most important festival to Chinese.

Stella Tingy-Toomey’s face negotiation theory goes in depth on how “people of different cultures respond to conflict” (Griffin, 2009). How does one protect his/her public self-image or refrain from embarrassing the other

strategy. She did most of the reading, but every once in a while she picked one of the

The resentment within the young girl’s family is essential to the novel because one can understand the young girl better as she makes her decision.

This paper aims to explore the cultural barriers that GM encounters while doing business in China especially in terms of language and Asian mind difference. As a matter of fact, we cannot examine all the cultural barriers due to the scope of the paper. On the other hand, some differences emerging from different thinking behavior between US and China are exemplified in the second part of the paper. In the first part, the company information and the SWOT analysis of GM are given before going further with the Asian operations of the company.

Mr. Fisher, President of Central Steel Door, made many mistakes in his efforts to hire a sales manager in Europe. First, advertising in the International Herald Tribune is only going to attract Americans who lack the intelligence and in-country expertise the company needs to successfully compete in unfamiliar markets. Second, he fails to make the most of these candidates that these ads generate by asking them for referrals and offering an incentive. He fails to use the limited success of the ads to successfully network into the international community. Third, the lack of sensitivity ot living costs in Belgium and Germany for sales manager led to them quickly resigning. Fourth, Mr. Fisher didn't coordinate with the Belgian government to ensure employment taxes were paid on time, leading to a bill for back taxes of thousands of dollars. Fifth, the hiring of ten local people to staff distribution centers and the firing of five of them not only had to be communicated months in advance to local government authorities, Central Steel Door is legally obligated to pay them for a full year of their salaries based on German law. Sixth, the ignorance of local, regional and national laws ends up costing the company more than it made on any sales in the region ruing the case study's timeframe. Seventh, Mr., Fisher neglected to consider how the cultural differences between the Untied