Each society has its own culture, which is superimposed on all elements of human life; however, the interaction between them can be problematic. The purpose of this essay is to study the provided text “Case Study 2: Culture Clash in the Boardroom” to identify possible scenarios and fundamental approaches to intercultural communications.
The described text gives examples from the life of businesspeople in a large Chinese corporation. The central problem of the narrative is the clash of interests of two top-ranking employees. One of them, Liu, is a progressive leader who is trying to eradicate bribery from the Chinese business. However, his opponent, Chen, clearly indicates a decline in company income and loss of profit due to the adoption of western standards.
From this plot, Chen proposes to violate Western laws by conducting business according to the usual bribery schemes. However, precisely because it is not just following traditions, but a direct violation of international legislation, the matter takes an entirely different turn. Many regulations governing global corruption can be applied to this situation, such as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, introduced in America in 1977 (Cuervo-Cazurra, 2016). Given that the company in this text also focuses on the west, actions related to bribery can be considered just under this law.
Chen’s point of view is also evident because he tries to organize the company’s work as efficiently as possible. However, his concept of efficiency includes only a net profit, just numbers. At the same time, he does not take into account the potential risks in the workplace, as he opposes various protective measures. Therefore, the decision to be made in this case will affect the entire organization. If the company returns to old practices and abandons Western innovations, it will benefit from this decision and receive a much higher income. However, in this case, many employees can be hurt since the risk of injury will increase. On the other hand, following the instructions, the corporation will earn less, and this may result in reductions and losses for the corporation itself, but workers will benefit from these innovations.
Thus, when adopting a practice that is common in another culture, it is necessary to be guided by the legality of its application. If the method is not connected with the legislation, then the adoption of such a tradition depends entirely on the person. In this case, it may be useful to follow the traditions of other countries, because they may improve the efficiency of work or life in general.
Reference
Cuervo-Cazurra, A. (2016). Corruption in international business. Journal of World Business, 51(1), 35-49.