A Review on Western and Chinese Organization Culture: Similarities and Differences

Abstract

The paper provides a literature review on organizational culture by analyzing the
different dimensions between Western and Chinese organizational culture to ascertain
whether there are similarities or differences. The purpose of selecting a comparative
review of Western and Chinese organization culture is due to the rise of China as an
economic power house whereby more and more companies are beginning to query
whether a Western or Chinese organization culture would better serve the organization
given today’s global landscape. This study focuses on Trompenaar’s cultural
dimensions as a representation of the Western organization culture as the cultural model
is considered to be the most comprehensive as compared to other Western organization
culture and China’s Zhangde’s dimensions of organizational culture since the latter’s
organization cultural dimensions are distinctly Chinese in nature. Applied emic-etic
research method to combine the specific cultural items of organizational culture
between Western and China are adopted as the research methodology which is
qualitative in nature to determine whether a revised form of organizational culture
model which is suitable for both the Western world and China’s company can be
explored as the global economic power continues to shift to China.