Western Conceptualizations 3
Western Conceptualizations of Chinese Culture and their Impact on Cross-cultural
Studies on Chinese Organizations
As globalization pioneers, most American companies have entered the internatinal
arena. The number of international mergers and joint ventures between American firms
and companies of other nations has grown exponentially. As a fast growing economy and
an emerging market, China has attracted a huge amount of investment by American
companies. To have successful operations in China, it appears to be important for
American companies to gain knowledge of Chinese culture. Findings of scholarly
research on intercultural communication constitute an important source of information
about Chinese culture for the American corporate world. However, if the research
findings are biased and questionable, they would be misleading to cross-cultural
practitioners. Therefore, it appears to be important to examine previous research on
intercultural communication especially research on Chinese organizations. More
importantly, attention should be focused on examining and testing theories, because they
generate and guide intercultural communication research on Chinese organizations.
Under the rubric of cross-cultural studies, leadership (Fu, & Yukl, 2000; Hui & Tan,
1999; Smith, Wang, & Leung, 1997), decision making (Smith, Wang, & Leung, 1997),
conflict management (Morris, Williams, Leung, Larrick, Mendoza, Bhatnagar, Li,
Kondo, Luo, & Hu, 1998; Tjosvold, Hui, & Law, 2001), compliance gaining or influence
strategies (Fu & Yukl, 2000; Krone, Chen, & Xia, 1997), managerial performance
(Boisot & Liang, 1991; Neelankavil, Mathur, & Zhang, 2000), and other organizational
communication practices in Chinese organizations have been well explored by
researchers from various disciplines. In these studies, Chinese culture has been mainly
Convention