Abstract
This research topic investigates the inquiry on how national cultures shape the organisational management cultures. Similarities and differences between the national cultures of China and the USA are being scrutinised for the purpose to examine the impacts of such features on the management cultures and strategies of organizations located in these two main world financial centres so as to achieve a majority of data to confirm how national culture relates and assists to shape the organisational management. This research uses the data collection methods of non-governmental organizations, including the invitation of participants or volunteers via social media, working emails, and invitation letters, involving the issues such as designing human rights and privacy. The result has established that high mobilization of culture differences in the USA had a notable positive consequence on companies’ organisational management culture. Alternatively, the Chinese cultures may bring some positive effect to the companies’ culture, but it was only significant to shape management culture influence in their domestic companies, excluding most of the multinational companies. Moreover, the differences in national cultural characteristics will greatly affect each organisation to choose their own management strategies. Raising up for cross-cultural and transnational management will be a huge challenge for organizations to take, especially if countries wish to establish bilateral or trilateral business relations and partnerships.
1. Introduction
1.1. Research Background
One of the key formation factors in an organisation’s culture includes its national culture’s history and environment, and it has been proven by studies that national culture affects the organisational management system greatly in many aspects [1]. Although national and organisational cultures are used to be classified as different phenomena, it is interesting to investigate the linkage between them and discover how national culture can influence an organisation’s practices. In this case, the similarities and differences between the national cultures of China and the USA will be analyzed, and the outcome of the analysis will be used for further investigation on the impacts of management cultures of organizations located in these two countries. By this approach, this research can recall the attention of building up a well-established organisational management culture, which is essential to take national cultures into account since national culture conducts the employees’ decisions, devotions, and standards of behaviour [2]. The aim and objectives of this essay is to guide readers for understanding that the national culture formed the common characteristics of human. This will further influence the responses to its organizations, resulting in a company’s identical organisational management cultures, especially in a country’s domestic companies. Therefore, it is essential and important to recognize the relationship between the national and organisational culture, proving that the differences in national cultures will have a great influence on how managers chose their strategies and supervised their organizations. Additionally, the challenges of high mobilization of culture differences faced by cross-cultural and multinational companies will be discussed for the purpose of examining some practicable solutions.
1.2. Theoretical Background
1.2.1. Theory of National Culture
Culture is not fabricated, but it is something that evolves with human, and it is the fundamental sources to create nationalism of a country. Since the nineteenth century, national culture is given by the definition of a comprehensive and multiplex system mixed with the elements of action, values, history, knowledge, and beliefs, which are identical by the particular social community and form their own practices. Hofstede realized that according to the past of historical process, nations were created as a part of social organisation, leading to a concept of culture to be closely related to the nation rather than the states [3]. If the countries obtain some particular historical practices nor heritages, it is likely to favour the further integration, original language, education system, and political system that are the examples of the most significant symbolic signature of a country since they obtain an excessive emotional load.
1.2.2. Organization and Management Culture
The reason why organisational culture has more than one interpretation is because this culture is made by the combination of values fabricated by humanity. To be more attributed to this notion, social sciences described organisational culture as everything generated by human themselves without arising from nature, and this culture reflects the deliberated situation and human activity gaining from the past [4]. The organisation and management theory is used to evaluate organisational cultures as a rational action, which is acceptable to identify the organisation with their effectiveness. To conclude the refinement of the organisational culture, we can apply the definition in the following statements:(i)Organisational management culture is the creation of social network that assists in maintaining the organisation.(ii)Organisational management culture is holistic and used to unite the company, remains stable, and minimises uncertainty to achieve internal integration and provide a working environment for the employees.(iii)The process of organisational culture is shaped and developed with a long history, and it will be inertial (ongoing). When the process has finished, the result will be shown during the deal in environmental problems and other internal coordination.(iv)Organisational management culture shows the process of cultural evolution and the process of socialisation.
1.3. Research Review
1.3.1. Section 1: National Culture Concept and the Corresponding Scopes
In general, cultures are separated according to the levels starting from individual, group, organisational, industrial, national, and geographic regions [5]. It is arranged according to the internal elements such as work outlook, history, goals and values, work role, communication mode, technical practice, customary rules, and other cultural activities, as well as cultural systems such as law, education, religion, economy, politics, and family status. Meanwhile, the term national is defined as the combination of economic, social, political institutions and culture group as to influence organizations on managing their people in divergent environments. Hofstede defined national culture as the general formation of the mind behaviour that helps to distinguish different human groups from one another. To be more precise, national culture can be used as the assumptions of practise by a given group because they are commonly influenced by the same attitudes, values, and beliefs of the same group members since they were young [6]. Hence, national cultural concepts are the collective programming activities made of and values from the past experiences [7]. Table 1 shows the definition of the national culture concept since 1961 to 2020 to explain how the dimensions changed over the past several decades.
1.3.2. Section 2: Hofstede’s Six Dimensions of Culture
(1) Power Distance. Solutions to money and power problems because in some countries, hierarchical status and inequality may often occur in specific cultures [8]. This degree of inequality is measured by Power Distance Index (PDI). A low PDI marks also represent that power in the society is equally shared and dispersed, and citizens will be expected to reject if power was distributed unfairly [9]. With the references of the map, a high PDI country like Malaysia that scored 100 marks is not going to initiate any action of unfairness but willing to be guided and follow the instructions by the governments.
(2) Individualism vs. Collectivism. The dimension of this emphasis is the unity of culture. Starting with the individualistic cultures, most people will have the mentality of independent and put themselves in the first place. People is likely to focus on the advantages of themselves and immediate family first, leading to a less tightly knit society. On the other hand, the collectivist cultures present the concept of “we” as a replacement of “I.” Citizens are connected with each other’s closely and willing to cooperate together. Psychologists believed that a country will be more benefited as a group than the self-esteem from the group mentality because citizens will have a higher sense of belongings [10]. This dimension is normally the easiest to perceive from the culture. According to the individualism versus collectivism score (IDV), countries such as America and Australia have a high score in individualism (IDV), indicating that they have weak interpersonal connection and the marketing campaign started in this country can be accepted and well understood. In contrast, cultures in countries such as China and Japan score low in individualism. Citizens are likely to work for their own intrinsic rewards and care less for others.
(3) Masculinity Versus Femininity (MAS). This dimension focuses on the distribution of works and responsibilities between men and women. Masculine societies present that the gap between men and women is less, while men are expected to acquit themselves assertively. The action of showing the success to others and voice out your feeling are seen to be positive characteristics in the society. However, feminine societies appear to be a great overlap between the female and male roles. A good relationship between the supervisors will be placed at first to prevent arguments [11]. The largest gap between the value of men and women is in Austria and Japan, and their MAS score is 79 and 95, respectively. The reason why they have such high scores is basically the men showed their “tough” during work and behaviours. By the studies of Samsung companies in Japan, the working style is closely related to the hierarchical and deferential style. The long working hours and low percentage for female employees to achieve advancement are developed to their organisational culture [12]. The USA and China have scored a close mark of 62 and 66, respectively, according to Table 2. This similarity can prove that although earning money and gaining achievement in both countries are important, citizens in the USA and China are also eager to maintain their relationship more orientally and achieve the quality of life. Workers may focus more on work-life balance and the flexibility in workspace. Therefore, the organisational management team of these countries can adjust their environment and workload according to this culture.
(4) Uncertainty Avoidance. This dimension can demonstrate how well the citizens can cope with anxiety and try to control their life in predictable and manageable methods. Alternatively, countries with a low uncertainty avoidance index are described with an open, relax, and inclusive living style. However, Hofstede pointed out that countries with high score may also acquire the personality of risk adverse, and they are likely to reduce ambiguities as low as they can in order to escape from failure [13]. With the glance of Hofstede’s model, countries with a low UAI scale can also represent the cultural tendency with a safe and conservative decision style, and this can be represented by Singapore that has scored a low mark of eight. The USA and China have scored a close mark in the Uncertainty Avoidance Index too. The citizens in both countries are likely to have the national culture of innovation and desperate to take opportunities on their own life instead of following behind others.
(5) Long-Versus Short-Term Orientation. Long- and short-term orientation can display how a culture choose its decisions when dealing about the questions of the present and future. The characteristics of a country with long-term orientation are described as more modest and pragmatic, and the citizens will prevent from any changes but emphasize more on customs and traditions [14]. As for short-term oriented countries, citizens are likely to focus on short-term gains and stick with consistency and truth. The USA is defined as a short-term orientation since the country reflects a great sense of social standards and nationalism. In term of business, this measure can measure how successful can a business be. If the business has a short-term orientation style, their goal is to get quick results as soon as possible on a quarterly basis. Meanwhile, a business with long-term orientation tends to be more patience and accepts short-term losses to achieve long-term gains [15].
(6) Indulgence vs. Restraint. As for the final dimension, it focuses on the natural human response, which is the level of urgent to satisfy desire. Different cultures will answer this dimension by choosing either appreciate (indulgence) or reject (restraint) this desire. Restrained culture countries tend to obtain characteristics such as pessimism and cynicism, and they stick closer with moral rules that contrast with those indulgence countries. Indulgence countries are prone to grab the chances of opportunities, be more carefree, and enjoy their spare time, and they have a low IVR score too. Eastern European countries and China are the good examples with a low IVR score. Employees only allow themselves a little time on leisure activities. At the same time, they are controlled with a restrained culture and present themselves in a more pessimistic way. The USA culture is different as they are more optimistic and allow the freedom of speech of citizens, feedback, and mentoring, which will prioritize at the first place to improve the countries [16, 17].
The six cultural dimensions will be scored on the scale within 0 to 100 for each dimension, and they will intertwine with each other and influence the countries when time passes. For instance, countries with long-term orientation will likely correlate the countries with the characteristics of uncertainty avoidance since both characteristics are related to the adherence of traditions. By applying Hofstede’s six dimensions of culture models, it can provide a correct framework for organizations to compare and contrast every culture and achieve success by choosing suitable strategies. In the case of the USA, high individualism is their historical significance. Therefore, organizations can apply employees’ rights and individual freedom to maintain their loyalty to the companies.
1.4. Comparative Analysis of the National and Organisational Management Cultures in China and the USA
1.4.1. China National Culture
The long history of the Chinese traditional culture has formed their unique characteristics. The national culture values have influenced the Chinese people to become harmonious, wise, honest, loyal, and hard-working [18–22]. Since the core value of harmony is described as “balancing the coordination between working,” it has been proven that the working performance of the Chinese is based on the personal relationship and used to be peaceful. The organizations will put more focus on the social relationship among the employees since the management teams are used to organise team-building regularly. The outstanding team spirit and loyalty lead to the practice of organisation to be prudence and obedient. The Chinese organizations are used to follow all the rules and laws without any reformation in the practices. Moreover, the situation of working overtime in China is common too since the Chinese are taught by the idea on sacrificing themselves in order to accomplish others when they were young. Therefore, the work-life balance is comparatively poor in China.
1.4.2. The USA National Culture
Studies have listed out that the American national culture is basically recognized as being freedom oriented and individualistic. Americans advocate privacy and equality, and their personalities are accustomed to independence, individualism, hospitality, and future achievement orientation. Comparing with Hofstede’s formation of national cultures, Americans are described as a high individualistic group of people who may not cooperate well during the group missions. The independent and aggressive personality may lead them to decision-making based on their self-interest instead of the positive benefits for the economy at large scale, affecting the loyalty as well. However, Americans are described as creativitive and future achievement oriented due to the education system when they were young; therefore, they may be likely to break the rules and innovate new ideas for the organizations. The working overtime practice is rare in the USA since they are more aware on the work-life balance and health practices.
In contrast, the managers in the USA are likely to be more individualistic, the management cultures may be more sensitive to the relative power of division managers and the power struggles, and the employees may have a greater competition among themselves. Interesting, China and the USA have a similar score in masculinity and has a biggest gap between individualism, displaying a phenomena that both countries are driven by the desire of achievement and success. However, the citizens in China may have a greater sense to achieve success for a society as a whole, while the USA has a stronger desire to attaining personal goals instead of assisting the countries.
2. Research Methods and Processes
2.1. Research Methods
For the purpose to disclose the research questions mentioned in Section 1.2.2, a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods that were applied to reveal the affection of national culture shapes the organisational management cultures. The research method comprises two major approaches of data collection: (1) a free anonymous questionnaire with employees and directors working in China, the USA, or multinational companies and (2) semi-Zoom interviews with employees or directors who volunteer to participate when filling the questionnaire e-mail. The Zoom interviews are held in different subareas within the same organizations so as to achieve the maintenance of common institutional context.
2.2. Research Processes
2.2.1. Data Collection and Recruitment
The empirical data in this research is observed from some major market within China and the US, and data is collected from open databases, questionnaire survey, and on-site observation to identify how national culture helps to shape the organisational management culture. The questionnaire is set up in Table 3.
Four research questions were superscribed within the options in the questionnaire. The reason for applying questionnaires to collect both qualitative and quantitative data is to ensure the consistency, while the questionnaire can provide the opportunity to analyze significant trends and differences between China and the USA cultures statistically. The survey is composed by the online questionnaires to prove the relationship between the national culture and organisational management cultures, and responses are collected in a costless and efficiency way. The survey has collected 166 suggestions from both genders of employees and directors located in the United States and Shanghai, China, with the age over 18 years old. Sheets of questionnaires are presented to participants though working e-mail and letter, and participants are accepted to fill in the answer anonymously to protect their privacy. Participant information sheets were sent and provided in the attachment of mail and website with the description about the aim of this research. Data is legally saved in the data protection system and will be deleted after the data analysis has been finished. Although the questionnaire may produce less in-depth responses, it can reveal the ideas of society directly. The responses are open ended and being taken for a grounded approach, and key categories can be identified through the data results. Responses may be answered with more than one option, and the multiple options will be classified as sophisticated responses. Following question 2, we get the following example (Table 4).
Throughout the quantitative analysis via correlational research, research object can be further refined so as to facilitate the understanding of the nature of things and predict the future of research. Data will be collected and analyzed using Microsoft Excel and “Survey Monkey” to conduct quantitative analysis.
2.2.2. Data Analysis
(1) Section 1: Participants. Gender, age, and the employment times are collected before the questionnaires started. The collective data has achieved upon 166 responses, and the breakdown of the group of participants is shown in Tables 5 and 6, representing the similar pattern of response in terms of the whole questionnaires.
(2) Section 2: Questionnaire and Zoom Interview Analysis. From the questionnaire, more than half of the participants are having their home countries in China, and they agreed that national culture has changed their personality during the teenage stage, influencing their working attitude when they joined into the organizations. During the zoom interview, two participants who are working in Apple, which is a multinational company, revealed that they avoid changing any management style but prefer to stay with the management scheme. Alternatively, the employers in the USA Apple department prefer an effective management style with appropriate communication and feedback collections from the workers and costumers. The differences of organisational management culture are most significant in questions 6 and 8 of the questionnaire. Organisations in China are used to have less concern about the components of leadership since they have an uncertainty avoidance and restraint personality. As a result, companies in China are likely to provide a regulations guide based on bureaucracy and leaders did not accept the opinions from the perspective of his/her teams. Long-term improvement is not increased as fast as the USA since the US organizations prefer an impersonal strategy of rules to satisfy every employees. In China, important decisions can be only determined by directors since they believed that they have more authority and knowledge. For example, the outcome statistics of question 2 in the questionnaire (Table 7):
According to the result of question 4 in the questionnaire, there is a close relationship between language and management cultures since the two variables affect each other interactively. Culture is empowered and developed though its original home language, and the way of presenting the language can become the method of employees to express and receive information directly. More than 70% of the participants agreed that language is an essential component to shape an organisational management culture, proving the importance of adopting appropriate language skills that can motivate employees and enhance efficiency during workplace. Question 4 in the questionnaire of empowerment within organizations leading to high productivity and high performance has revealed that the empowerment in language within the organizations can assist the leadership skills and achieve high productivity and performance to satisfy the needs of goals of companies (Table 8).
During the interview of managers in the USA Apple, the results have shown that they are desperate to learn about different cultures in order to adapt the modern way of business management from the parent company in the United States of America. Set up Table 9 as follows:
In the questionnaire, both managers chose to set up a department to sense the culture in an organization and enhance their own communication system to solve the problems faced by the multinational companies. This management culture has positive correlated with the indulgence and low uncertainty avoidance in their national culture characteristics. Comparing with the management style in the USA, China organizations are not able to bring the essence of the USA management into their organizations because of the reason on their high power distance, individualism, and relative high collectivist culture. Since China is classified as a short-term orientation culture, the USA companies may have achieve a more effective and efficient working style compared with the Chinese subsidiary. Communicating with foreign employees had revealed the most concerned questions by the questionnaires. When facing the misunderstandings of communication, the managers with the USA national cultures are likely to be keen on finding the reasons and solutions even they felt frustrated, proving that a high significant influence of national culture helps to shape the managing and communicating practices in the USA organizations. Table 10 shows the national culture variables that influence the most (questionnaire question 4).
Finally, a social organisation presenting the importance level of family as well as the level of spirituality is revealed as comparatively different in China and the USA. Participants from the USA appear to have indulgence characteristics, and the national variables are revealed in question 8 of the questionnaires. According to the OECD Better Life Index, the United States ranked 28th in work-life balance and it is higher than China, which is not disclosed in the top 40 of the list in this category. Governments in the USA are likely to provide welfare state and listen to the opinions of the society, resulting in a better work-life balance compared with China. This will further affect the organisational management culture since the directors in the companies may care on the pressure of employees and prevent them from over working hours. This is a healthy working condition, and China should adopt this culture from the USA. Table 11 shows to what extent you concern about work-life balance (question 8).
3. Conclusion
This research uses the data collection methods of non-governmental organizations, including the invitation of participants or volunteers via social media, working emails, and invitation letters, involving the issues such as designing human rights and privacy. The survey conducted by this research project has been conducted ethically, keeping in mind privacy, consent, and appropriate reporting of those involved in this study. All data are saved anonymously and will be erased from the database after the analysation completed. After completing the entire study, it was found that the result has established that high mobilization of culture differences in the USA had a notable positive consequence on companies’ organisational management culture. In addition, after the study, it was also found that raising up for cross-cultural and transnational management will be a huge challenge for organizations to take, especially if countries wish to establish bilateral or trilateral business relations and partnerships. For a large part, China is geographically far away from the United States. However, the data size may be too small to represent each of the characteristics of the national cultures. The survey focuses on the company’s case in the United States of America and China, representing that the results drawn from the questionnaires and analysis are only applicable to China and its similar cities. Not all participants taken part in the survey are working in a multinational companies, resulting in the challenges and solutions to multinational companies that may face the differences in data. The questionnaire results and recommendations may be suitable for the future development and management strategies in China and the USA due to the cultural and geographical differences.
Data Availability
The dataset can be accessed upon request.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.