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The Cross Cultural Barriers Between An American And Chinese Healthy Food Company Essay

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Globalisation has dramatically changed the international business landscape. Corporations are now presented with unprecedented opportunities for growth, development and multinational expansion (Dobbs et al, 2013). With increased market and technological integration also comes the immense movement of people; connecting different cultures and nationalities from across the globe. It is now widely considered that diverse organisations are the most successful organisations, with cross-cultural collaboration often improving overall work efficiency by ‘integrating collective wisdom and strength’ (Li, 2011, 114). However, cross-cultural collaboration can also generate an organisational challenge, as disparate cultural backgrounds can often cause unintended misunderstandings (Li, 2011). The primary aim of this paper is to provide an analysis of an organisational merger between an American and a Chinese healthy food company, which will be situated in China. The authors of this paper will be acting as consultants, aiming to identify the cross-cultural barriers between the United States and China. Both organisations have identified the international merger as beneficial to their strategic objectives, however certain cross-cultural differences must be acknowledged as a potential challenge. Therefore, using relevant cross cultural theories, models and literature, this paper will advise how cultural challenges could be minimised. The paper will focus on issues surrounding communication and

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