Cross Culture Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Cross Culture Management - Essay Example Initially as a student I tried co-operating with my fellows so as to achieve mutual goals but the approach of collectivism started to negatively impact my progress since I wasn’t recognized as an individual with higher self esteem and confidence. In order to adjust into the new environment I started focusing only on myself but then I recognized another cultural issue i.e. the different nature of social relationships. In China people prefer to have hierarchies while maintaining their assigned positions in a formal manner. On the other hand Americans have egalitarian approach towards social relations which are comparatively informal in nature. Moreover, least value is given to the social standards in America which is actually beneficial for the social development but this cultural aspect is difficult to adopt by the Chinese. Hence at first it was very hard for me to move with people who were having lower social status than me. Friendship plays a very important role when it comes to education and career development. Chinese usually have few lifetime friends with greater sense of obligation towards one another but Americans emphasize on maintaining a large circle of friends who change over the time and do not have long time mutual obligations. This is further related to the idea of avoiding interdependence as Americans have an individualistic approach towards life. Being Chinese I did not know this fact before and for that reason I tried to have reciprocal obligations with my friends in USA. This actually caused me much trouble as I always had too many expectations from my immediate acquaintances. Furthermore, Americans give preference to the accomplishment of tasks over the relationships whereas Chinese are considerably relationship oriented. For instance, if I have an argument with my friend while working on a project then in order to complete work he would rather join another group or submit an individua l project without giving importance to our