Nanzi Flores - Post 6 - Assignment from 2/20/10

1. Which type of culture has a stronger impact on workplace behavior: societal culture or organizational culture? Why?

I believe organization culture has a stronger impact on workplace behavior because it involves attitudes, assumptions and expectations. Most people understand that there are certain things you don’t do in the workplace regardless of your customs and only tend to practice these customs in the privacy of their homes. Respecting others religions and political viewpoints are among some things that one knows not to discuss in the workplace as well as the type of behavior that is just not acceptable to society. However, Attitudes, assumptions and expectation are all part of what makes a person who they are, so trying to masquerade this is just not realistic. While people learn to adapt to working with other people of different cultures some things are just a given such as that we all speak the same language in the workplace.

2. Provide an example of a behavior in high context culture and low context culture.

The example that I can think of in the high context culture vs. low context culture is the way Asian people tend to be more private when it comes to discussing work related issues. Americans tend to provide more information if asked, while Asian people tend to be more cautious about responding. When Danelle and I contacted our contact person at C-trip, she was very hesitant to respond to our questions and mentioned that some information was confidential while Danelle and I thought they were very standard questions.

3. Contact a person who is in the US from China. Seek their input on any instance of ethnocentric bias they experienced while in the US.

I asked my co-worker to assist me with this question and he stated that his experience with ethnocentric bias has always been positive because people always tend to think that because he is Chinese he is good in math or that he knows everything related to technology.

4. Is China’s culture polychronic or monochronic? Justify your answer.

I believe China’s culture is polychromic because they tend to take their time and commitments seriously. For example, they make time to take their naps during the day, were as Americans are always on the run. Hence, Dunking Donut’s saying “America runs on Dunkin”. We need coffee to keep us awake and running from one meeting to another. Another example that I could think of is how American restaurants have drive- thru while in China as George mentioned during class that there are hardly any McDonalds with drive- thru in China.

5. What is Guanxi? Explain with an example from your workplace.

After researching this term which I was not familiar with, I realized that it means basically that if I do you a favor today, in the future if need be you will do me a favor. For example, in the video “brits get rich” one of the business men hires a Chinese woman who helps him with his business in avoiding risks, barriers, and conflicts that he could’ve had encounter in China and in return he hired her uncle to manage the job. So they both got something out of it.