The influence of Chinese American cultural values on workplace communication, innovation, and teamwork

Summary

Most intercultural research examines the impacts of cultural differences on interactions between organizations nurtured in different cultures (e.g. between a British firm and a Japanese firm) or of expatriate situations (e.g. a US manager in a French subsidiary). Our focus is instead on the impacts of mingling people from different (national) cultures within a given organization. The Chinese diaspora provides a significant population interacting to various degrees with diverse host communities. Chinese Americans represent a major multi generational concentration of overseas Chinese, offering researchers a range of potential degrees of adaptation. To what degree, and in what way, do American values alter traditional Chinese behavior patterns, particularly in trust building, communication, teamwork, and innovation? Conversely, how do indigenous Chinese values affect Chinese American perceptions, attitudes, and actions in these situations? Finally, how can these dynamics contribute to innovative climates and organizational advantage for firms employing Chinese Americans, or (by extension) members of other intercultural groups? Our paper examines prior research into cultural values among various populations of Chinese people. We draw five propositions about the nature of Chinese American culture using Holitede’s original dimensions and the Chinese Value Survey, and examine their managerial implications.

Key Words:

• cultural differences
• communication
• innovation
• competitive advantage
• Chinese Americans
• cross-cultural management