Intercultural Communication: Differences Between Australia And China

Background

The aim of the report is to present the concept of the intercultural communication and the differences in the cultures of the China and Australia. The report is based on the case scenario in which Australian Alpaca Clothing Pty. Ltd. has decided to post the representative of the company in the china for the operations of the company in China market. The report presents the cultural differences between China and Australia and how they affect business. The barriers to effective intercultural communication that might be faced by Jonathan Jones in China are discussed in the report. The report includes the programme that is required to develop the cultural competence that will support Jonathan to work effectively with the Chinese suppliers.

Australian Alpaca clothing Pty. Ltd is one of the small processors of the Australian grown Alpaca fleece in the market of the high fashion garments for the sales through the boutique retail outlets in Australia. Jennifer Sng, a managing director of the company took the stop to permanently send the representative of the company in China to liaise the processor during the manufacture of the products of the company. Jonathan Jones is Australian born and educated marketing professional in Australia due to which he will face the cultural issues in China due to the cultural differences between the Australia and China. This intercultural difference leads to the misunderstanding in the signing of the contract which will affect the dealing of the company.

The objective of the report is to identify the intercultural communication and its effect on the business of Australian company. The details are based on the research which is conducted on secondary sources which include internet, company website, and many others. Though, the research is generally done with the help of the primary research and the secondary research.

It refers to the communication between the individual and the groups of the different cultural origins and linguistics (Communication Majors, 2018). Issues in the cross-communication exist on the two level in which one is inter-business communications and the other is business-to-business communications. Jonathan Jones who is the representative of the business might face the same issues while communicating in China for conducting the dealing. The culture difference affects the business (Martin and Nakayama, 2013).

The businesses that operate the business in different countries face issues because of the change in the culture of the countries. Every country different culture and according to that their business activities change. The culture of China affects the business of Alpaca Clothing because it is different from the culture of Australia (Leung, et al 2011). The china has the model of the centrally planned economy and the market economy with the socialist characteristics which are not easy to understand the people who are living in Australia. The culture of China is trying to make their systems transparent.

Cultural Differences and Effects on Business

The model of both the countries is similar to both the company believes in forming the plans for the 5 and 15 years. Though, the changes in the policy are one of the factors due to which the companies from Australia face difficulty (Chung, 2011). The role of eating and drinking plays a vital role in the business in China. Business dining is one of the ways through which the Chinese decide that the other business from a different country is able to understand the culture of the country. The identification of the culture of the country is very important for the business before getting involved in the business deal (Samovar, et al 2014). Though, this culture is not available in Australia. Therefore, the culture difference between Australia and China affects the working of Alpaca clothing. The culture differences affect the business with China to the Australian Company are discussed below with the help of the table.

Doing Business	In  China	In Australia
Status and Hierarchy	The management of business operations in China is done hierarchically. The information is passed down to the other managers on the basis of the needs of the company. This shows that culture of a country in which the importance of Top level is reflected (Scollon, Scollon and Jones, 2011).	The management of the business in Australia is flat. This means that the information in the company can be flow from the sideways and upwards within an organization. The culture of Australia is totally different from China.
Business style	A culture of China is indirect due to which the business people often indirect and unwilling to provide the details of their interest or the final desires.	The Culture of Australia is very direct due to which the business people in the country don’t hesitate to discuss the upfront with the employees or other members (Hinze, 2015).
Relationships	The culture of the china states that there is very less number of individuals who form the groups due to lack of trust of the business on other foreign businesses.	The culture of people is very open due to which the individuals of the people trust the outsiders and easily form the relationships.
Contracts	In China, the culture believes in forming the strong relationships instead of the contracts. This means that they give preference to the relationship than contracts.	The culture of Australia states that contracts of the business matter a lot than forming the relationship which means they don’t value the relationships.

This table reflects the culture that can impact the working of the Australian Alpaca Clothing Pty. Ltd in the market of China. The representative of the company needs to ensure that they are aware bof the culture of China because this will help them in forming the agreement. Along with this, this culture will affect the stay of Jonathan because he is not aware of the culture and their values which might make them ignore the same which is not accepted in China. This might affect their trust relationship which is essential for the business meeting.

The culture leads to the barriers for the company who are looking to expand their business in different countries. Australian Alpaca Clothing Company will also face some of the issues which will affect them and their business operations in the China market. These barriers which affect the Jonathan Jones working and agreement of company with the china include: –

• Language barrier: – This is one of the most common and important barriers which leads to the huddle for the company who is expanding their business in Chinese market. In China, the people and businesses follow the Chinese language as this is their regional language. This is different from Australia because over there the language which is commonly used is English (Farnen, 2017). Along with this, the China business and people address the people with their title and last name. Though, the businesses in China are adopting the English language for performing the deals. In addition, there are numerous businesses that make use of Chinese and this leads to the issues for the Alpaca Clothing Company. The company should make their representative learn few words in Chinese which will helps them in achieving the deal which is required by the company. Few words in Chinese help them in starting the conversation which will make the Chinese businessmen feel that we are aware of the culture and respect the culture (Fiza, 2015).
• Values: – Different cultures in different countries have some different values, business ethics, and the accepted behavior. It is very essential for the companies to understand the difference between the values. In China gift giving is forbidden because they believe that this is considered as bribery (Shaw, 2015). This might affect the company while forming the deal or agreement with them. Moreover, the Chinese people are more of the family or relationship oriented due to which they believe in forming a relationship first then getting involved in the contract. Therefore, the representative of the company needs to be focused towards the forming the relationship by winning the trust of the other party to come to the agreement of the business (Jackson, 2014).
• Business etiquettes: – Different countries have different business etiquettes which show their way of dealing the business deals and meetings. Chinese business people are punctual towards the business meetings and their first meeting appears to be unproductive as they treat it as a formality (Liu, Volcic, and Gallois, 2014). In addition, China businessman generally spends a lot of time in getting the goals to be achieved and also they are very patient due to which their first meeting appears to be unproductive because they consider it a formality. Therefore, the company representative should know about business meeting etiquettes which will help the company.

The above given are the major barriers that might affect the company majorly while making the decisions. The resolution has been provided which will help the company in making the deal with China (Orazbayeva, Baaken, and Meerman, 2016). Along with this, it is recommended to the company to develop a programme about the cultural competence so that they work effectively with the Chinese suppliers.

It is suggested to the Jonathan, a representative of the company to form the plan that helps the company while conducting the meeting. The below given are the steps which are required to be followed by the company and their representatives: –

Barriers to Effective Intercultural Communication

• Learning about the culture of China which will support them in learning about the values, beliefs, attributes of the country which is essential for the conducting the meeting with the Chinese companies.
• Learning about the language will help the executive in creating the trust which is the only way through which they can form the relationship and convert it into a deal (Neuliep, 2017).
• Understanding their way of conducting business meetings as this is the only way through which they can give respect to the culture of Chinese companies. This will help in keeping in mind that they can’t make quick decisions so it is essential to give them additional time.
• This is the fact that in the western gift giving is a good signal but in chins, this gift giving system is considered as giving and taking the bribe. Therefore, they should not give any gift and should expect that they will not get any gift in return (Jackson, 2014).
• The executive of the company should be focused towards forming a good relationship with Chinese instead of contract because good relationship leads to the contract automatically.

Conclusion

In the end, it can be concluded that the Australian Alpaca Clothing Pty. Ltd will face the intercultural communication challenges and issues while dealing with the other countries. This is the fact that each and every country has their own culture which is reflected in their business. Therefore, the Australian company will face the culture difference between both Australia and China which might lead to miscommunication and can affect the working of the business. Moreover, the cultural difference will lead to the difficulties in staying in China because it is difficult to communicate and to understand the likes and dislikes of Chinese. Some of the barriers are discussed which might affect the effective intercultural communication. Along with this, the resolutions are discussed which will help them to overcome the challenges faced by them for communicating. In the end, one program has been suggested to the Jonathan with the help of which they can meet the business needs and will be able to achieve the deal in which they are conducting.

References

Chung, M. (2011) Doing business with China is a necessity, not a choice [Online]. Available from: https://theconversation.com/doing-business-with-china-is-a-necessity-not-a-choice-3930 [Accessed on 8^th June 2018]

Communication Majors (2018) Intercultural Communications | Cross-Cultural Communication  [Online]. Available from: https://www.communications-major.com/intercultural-communication/ [Accessed on 8^th June 2018]

Farnen, K. (2017) Six Barriers to Intercultural Communication [Online]. Available from: https://oureverydaylife.com/six-barriers-to-intercultural-communication-12080535.html [Accessed on 8^th June 2018]

Fiza, L. (2015) Barriers to Cross-Cultural Business Communication [Online]. Available from: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/barriers-cross-cultural-business-communication-lydia-fiza [Accessed on 8^th June 2018]

Hinze, C. (2015) Australia: Worlds apart: The importance of understanding culture in doing business successfully in and with China [Online]. Available from: https://www.mondaq.com/australia/x/384760/international+trade+investment/Worlds+apart+The+importance+of+understanding+culture+in+doing+business+successfully+in+and+with+China [Accessed on 8^th June 2018]

Jackson, J. (2014) Introducing language and intercultural communication. New York: Routledge.

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