Cross Cultural Differences between Western and Eastern

Running head: CROSS CULTURAL DIFFERENCES Cross Cultural Differences between Western and Eastern Name University Course Tutor Date Introduction Generally, the cultural orientation among the people of western world differs from that of the people from the East. These differences emerge from different aspects such as values, region, business behavior, gender and communication among other issues. These differences in culture result in different socio-politico-economic systems and paradigms (Chang, n.d.). These aspects tend to be culture bound and this makes it essential to understand the differences in culture among different groups. Therefore, this paper examines some of the cultural variation among the people from the West and those from the East in order to know how communicate to and relate with them. Differences in Business Behavior There are several aspects of divergence between the business behaviors in the Western such the people from the United States and Britain, and that of people from the East such as China and Japan. The western culture embraces individualism while the Eastern people embrace collectivism. For instance, Americans believe that individuals are more important while the Asian such as Chinese value the groups such as families, companies and communities, and consider individuals to be part of a group (Chang, n.d.). Americans tend to pursue individual goals and individuals are accorded natural rights and conventional freedom. The belief in strong individualism is what has generated a self governing free market economy which where individual investors and consumers are engaged in trade to generate profits (Lu, Gilmour & Kao, 2001). The competition among the individuals in America is what is believed to be the force that drives socio-economic progress. This encourages stiff competition among the corporations in America and only the companies with adequate resources are able to sustain competition and succeed. On the other hand, Eastern countries such as China use Confucianism based ethics which tends to condemn pursuit for individual goals and agendas. They tend to pursue communal goals and share things together and collectively. Individual are always willing to submit to the group loyalty, solidarity and conformity. This enables them to establish consensus when making decision and have collective responsibility (Akgunes, 2012). Therefore, the interest of the business is considered as a whole rather than that of the individual shareholders. It is believed that it is this strong collectivism that exists in the countries like Korea that have propelled large companies such as Samsung and LG to be successful in across the globe. Difference in Communication Communication among the people of western culture tends to differ from that of the people from the East in many ways. One of the way in which the communication differ is the way they use non-verbal communication. Americans tend to make a lot of eye contact as it is considered to be one way in which an individual can show interest and goodwill when in communication with others (Qingxue, 2003). On the other hand, people from the East such as Chinese tend to avoid eye contact when communicating with others. They consider this as a way of showing respect and too much eye contact is considered to be staring at the other party in the communication process (Qingxue, 2003). Maintaining eye contact during communication among the Chinese may have negative implications especially during negotiation as may lead to loss of trust. The other key aspect in communication that brings about differences is negotiation. The Westerners are considered to be in a low context culture where attention is not paid to non-verbal behavior and personal relationships. On the other hand, Easterners have a high context culture which is characterized with social context, establishment of personal relations and non-verbal behavior (Akgunes, 2012). Whe...