International Intercultural Management

Introduction

In the World, we have various countries. The World, in short, is a combination of several countries. In each of these countries, we have a different culture and religion which is different from each other. For instance, we have some countries which are still stuck in their traditional cultures while others have embraced the modern culture. In other countries, we have both cultures in existence. In such a country the traditional culture bonds very well with modern culture. An example of such countries are those located in the Caribbean or the Middle East region of the World. For instance, in the Middle East Muslims have embraced a modern culture in some ways but they are still stuck to their traditional mode of dressing (Smith 2008). For our study purposes, we are going to consider two countries which share a somehow related culture in some ways. We are going to consider China and the US. One of the main factors which have led us to consider these two countries is the fact that they share an economy which is almost similar. Also, they have a population which is almost similar. The major difference between them is mainly found in the cultures of the two countries. In the US we have a population which has fully embraced the modern culture. Though we have a few citizens, who are stuck to their traditional culture mainly immigrants. When it comes to the Chinese culture, we have a blend of both modern culture and tradition culture since the country is located in the Caribbean region.

The Importance of Culture in the Overall Management

Culture is very important to the country and the people's country at large. Culture goes a long way in determining the number of things. We are going to determine the major areas where culture is largely involved.

Determining the Nature of Interactions

Culture determines how people in a certain country are going to interact with each other. For instance, you may find people who share the modernized way of dressing choosing to live together in a village and work amongst themselves. On the other side, you find people who have a common traditional background choosing to work and live amongst themselves. A good example can be found in China, where those who have a traditional background choose not to interact with those who have a modern way of dressing. In most cases they consider their dressing code to be spiritual hence it connects them with their ancestors and their spirits. A good example is a Kimono which is worn among most women in the Caribbean regions of the World and Asia.

Determining of the Management Style

The culture goes a long way in determining the mode and style of management to be employed in the workforce. Take an example of the Chinese style of management, where they have an overall head who delegates all the duties to the other executives and their juniors. This makes service delivery and decision making among the Chinese a bit slow. Secondly, in negotiations, the Chinese people choose not to talk first in tabling down their arguments, unlike the Americans who will always talk first. When it comes to the American style of management, they have a mode where the duties are divided amongst the executives. Hence each executive can give orders.

Economic Comparison

In the economic comparison America and China rank top in the World. The U.S is the leading trader in the World when it comes to exports and imports while China closely follows it. U.S also boasts of the largest GDP in the World. It is not clear whether Germany or China comes second regarding GDP since their GDP is almost similar. As for me, I will conclude that China boasts of the second largest GDP in the World after the US. Let's consider two base years in our GDP comparison that is 2015 and 2016. In 2016 the GDP of the US was 57436, while in the previous year the GDP was 56175. This represents a growth of about 8% in the GDP. Secondly, in China, the GDP in 2015 was 55218 while in the following year the GDP was 56857. Also, this represents a growth of about 8.5%. This means that the economy of China is growing at a higher rate compared to that of US.

Unemployment

In 2015, the unemployment in the US was 5.30% while in 2016 the unemployment rates reduced to 4.90%. This means that the economy of US was growing thus creating more employment opportunities in the economy. In 2015 the unemployment in China was 4.5%. In the following year that is 2016, the unemployment rate drastically reduced to 3.96%. This paints a picture where the economy of China is performing better compared to the economy of US. On the contrary, the economy of US is ranked among the best in the World ahead of that of China (Hiroshi 2016).

Exports and Imports

In 2015, the US exported 0.10 % while it imported 4.60%. This means that the US imported more than it exported. In the following year imported 1.10% while it exported 0.40%. Also, this is in line with the previous year where the country exported more than it imported. Comparing this to the Chinese economy, in 2015 the country exported 5.40% while it imported 3.28%. This shows that the country exports more than it imports. In 2016, China exported 5.21% and imported 4.67%. This show that in 2016 China imported more than it exported. This might be one of the reasons why the economy of US is said to be performing better compared to that of China due to its stability (World Bank 2017).

Levels of Public Debt

The US is one of the top lenders in the World. China is also a top lender in the World. Most of their landings are given to developing countries of the World. Though these countries can fully fund their national budgets, they must borrow from the citizens and other financial institutions, eg, the World Bank. This is with an aim to keep their economies afloat even at hard times and to maintain the economy at equilibrium in times of recession or economic booms. In 2015, the US had a public debt of about 105% while in 2016 this amount rose to 108%. This shows that the U.S government is borrowing more and more. Comparing this to the government of China, in 2015 the country had a public debt of approximately 110%. In the year 2016, this amount rose to about 115%. This means that the government of China owes more debts to its citizens and international financial institutions compared to U.S. Factoring in the level of debt this might be another reason to show why the economy of U.S is performing better compared to that of China. Finally, in terms of the economy, the services sector contributes the highest percentage towards the GDP of the countries. In China, the industries sector contributes a higher percentage to the GDP compared to the US. In the agricultural sector, the contribution in the US is greater than that in China. However, the wideness of the services sector in the US makes its economy perform better than China (W.TO 2017).

Population of the US

U.S is one of the most populous countries in the World. This is the case since most of the country is urbanized. This means that the greatest percentage of the population lives in urban areas. There is little or no population at all living in the US rural areas. This is why the U.S largely depends on imports for most of its food supplies since there are no farmers in the rural areas to cultivate the fields. In the past four years, the population of the US has been on an upward trend. In 2013 the population was 317 million. In the following year 2014, the population grew to 319 million. In 2015 the population further grew to 321 million, and finally, in 2016 it reached its peak of 323 million inhabitants. In the US the growth has been attributed mainly to increasing rate of teenage pregnancies. Another factor which has led to the growth in population is the fact that the number of immigrants who are acquiring American citizenship is on the increase. In China, the population is 1.4 billion approximately. This is the largest population in any country of the World. Compared to the US, the population of China has stagnated over the past few years. The estimated growth rate is 0.58% per year. This means that some countries such as India will soon catch up with China regarding population. The minimal growth rate is experienced in China since the government wants to limit the population.

Religion

In the US we have a very diverse base regarding the religion. We have the existence of almost all the major religions of the World. This is the case since 74% are Christians, 10% are Jewish while we have 35 as being Muslim. We also have 1% as Buddhists while other religions such as Hindu account for 1%. Finally, we have a nonreligious population estimated to be 17% of the total population. Comparing this to the prevalent religion in China, over 80% of the population has its allegiance to traditional methods of worship. These traditional forms of worship are accounting for over 80% range from Buddhism, Taoism, and a Folk religion. From the data available around 8% of the population practice a religion which is closely related to Taoism and the Chinese Folk Religion Cultures. Following a distance, second is the Buddhism religion which accounts for about 16% of the total population. In China Christians are estimated to be between 2-4 % of the population while Muslims do not exceed 2% 0n the higher level. We also have a percentage of around 1% whose religion can't be categorized in any of the groups since it is the original tradition religion of China (Van Hermet 2008).

Language and Ethnicity

In the US most of the inhabitants speak fluent English. This makes English the national language of the country. Over 85% of the total population can communicate in both spoken and written English. Following a distance second is Spanish since we have a large percentage of Hispanic migrants especially from Mexico. Out of the total population, those who speak Spanish are 14%. Chinese speakers in the US are roughly over 2% of the population. Other languages such as Polish, French, Italian, and German are spoken by less than 1% of the total population (United Nations 2017). Further narrowing down to ethnicity, from the 85% who can speak fluent English over 55% of them are Whites. Around 30% are Black Whites, often referred to as Black Americans. We also have Chinese Americans, Spanish Americans, and Italian Americans who account for the remaining 15%. This means that most of the English speakers are Native Americans and a few migrants. This makes US one of the most diverse countries of the World regarding population and language plus ethnicity. In China, the government recognizes over 50 different ethnic groups. Out of these ethnic groups, the Han constitute of 0ver 90% of the total population of the country. The minority groups in China constitute about 10% of the population. Imagine the remaining 49 ethnic groups sharing only 10% of the population? This makes the groups so minor in the ethnic composition of China. Due to this, we are not going to consider the minority ethnic communities in China. From this, we can get the official language of the Country of China. The official language is the Chinese Mandarin. This makes it the official language since over 80% of the Hans ethnic group can speak the language. Secondly, all other tribes in China speak a language which is closely related to Chinese Mandarin, though we have seven different categories of Mandarin Chinese. Pronunciation is almost the same what differs are just a few words. Hence the language is taught as the first language in almost all the schools and children learn it as the first language (National Bureau of Statistics of China 2017).

Political Structure of US

In the US we have a democratic system of government. This is where the citizens are given the powers to elect their leaders democratically through a national election. This means that we have major political parties in the US which field candidates during elections. This is not a case in China since we have a communist government. A single party only controls the government thus there is no multi-party politics in China. The single party in China is the Communist Party of China. They produce every member who is elected to the various houses of representation found in China. In short, this means that we have no opposition party in China (Yang 2004).

Major Diets and their Comparison

In the US we have a very modern population which has no limits when it comes to culture and lifestyle. This means that the citizens are at liberty to eat whatever suits their menu and taste. With this, it is not accurate enough to tell the stable food of most of the US citizens. In the US we have a uniformly spread appetite for junk foods. This can be told from the presence of many junk foods outlets in the country such as Subway, MacDonald's. Pizza in etc. From this one can effectively conclude that the staple food for most Americans is junk food which consists of fried foods and beef. This is not a case in China since we have a somehow conservative population. The population is still embedded deeply in its cultures. One can tell this from the foods and drinks which have a Chinese name tag added to them. For instance, you hear people talking about Chinese black tea. This means that most of the population in China has high regards to their traditional foods. This explains why, though we have a modern diet in China, it is also largely traditional. Having the traditional background of the diet in China leads us to the staple food of most Chinese. China among the World's largest producers of rice. This rice can be manufactured to take different forms which include spaghetti, noodles, pascha, etc. All these have their origin in rice. Further in China rice is eaten using two sticks commonly referred to as chopsticks. Hence chopsticks and rice are synonymous with China. This means that rice is the staple food in China (World Fact Book 2016).

Comparing one of the Aspects of Management

As we all know, management is a huge topic which has a lot of subtopics. This means that one can't talk of management as a whole since at some point you will deviate from the general purpose of the study. Hence one has to choose a certain sub-topic on management and fully concentrate on it. In our case, I will choose the subtopic on employment legislation in US and China.

Comparison between Legislation in US and China

In the US we have unique laws and regulations when it comes to employment. These laws and legislation are meant to safeguard the wellbeing of the employees. The government was very much aware that some employers would manipulate their workers. To avoid this, a harmonized guideline on the rights of the workers is contained in the constitution. The workers have gone a step further and formed trade unions to ensure that employers are fully compliant with the legislation. In cases where the employers violate the legislation, they can be sued in a court of law. In the US we have a specific court which deals with labor disputes (Thomas 2008). In China, the legislation on employment is not well outlined in the constitution. This means that no clear guidelines exist on how workers should be treated in the country. This gives room for manipulation of employees. This is the reason why we have very poor working conditions for employees in China since they have no clear basis from where they can sue their employers. In China cases of employees being molested or harassed by their seniors are common. Employees are also subjected to long working hours.

Conclusion

From the above discussion and research, we have seen various cultures relating to the US and China. Some of these cultures are common or closely related while are other far apart. This is what leads to the uniqueness of every country. For instance, if you see a person behaving in a certain way or speaking a certain language one can differentiate whether they come from China or the US. However, people should not be discriminated according to their cultures, but we should embrace different cultures (Smith 2008).

Work Cited

Alon, I. Chinese Economic Transition. Westport: Prager Press (2003). Hiroshi, S. Unemployment, and Inequality in China. Routledge Press (2016). World Bank Report (2017). Overview of Chinese Economy. Retrieved November 2017. World Trade Organization (2017). Trade Position of China. Retrieved November 2017. World Bank Report (2017). Economic Overview of US. Retrieved November 2017. World Trade Organization (2017). The American Market. Retrieved November 2017. National Bureau of Statistics of China (2017). Statistical Yearbook 2017. Retrieved November 2017. United Nations, (2017). The Population of the World and Its Prospects. Retrieved November 2017. The World Factbook, (2016). China. Retrieved November 2017. Elizabeth, C. Worlds Apart, China and USA. New York: Norton Press. (2011). Yang, D. Retracing Governance in China. Stanford University Press. (2004) Thomas, D. Handbook on Cultural Management. London: Sage Publishers. (2008). Van Hermet, D. Individuals and Cultural Analysis. Lawrence Associates Press. (2008). Smith, P. Nations and their Cultures. Sage Publications. (2008).

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