Editorial
Article Type: Editorial From: Cross Cultural Management: An International Journal, Volume 17, Issue 3.
Cultural diversity refers to the manifold ways in which the cultures of groups and societies find expression. These expressions are passed on within and among groups and societies (UNESCO, 2005). According to the Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity, cultural diversity is embodied in the uniqueness and plurality of the identities of the groups and societies making up humankind. Therefore, it exists even if they are not mentioned. On the one hand,it creates a climate in which different cultures interrogate, challenge and probe each other, borrow and experiment with each other's idea, and often throw up wholly new ideas and sensibilities that none of them could have generated on their own (Bhikhu, 2000). On the other hand, it creates conflicts and simply complicates every decision-makings (Powell, 2006). Salk and Brannen (2000)pointed out that cultural diversity does not cause problems; what really causes problems is the approach applied to manage the diversity.
The growth of international trade with China, the growth of inflow and outflow Chinese foreign direct investments and the deterritorialization of economic spaces have been the main reasons for the growing importance of managing and research in cultural diversity. In reality, China's position as the largest recipient among developing countries has continued since the early 1990s. Until recently, China has been known as a destination of global investment. On the other hand, since 2003, the size of investment abroad by Chinese firms has increased substantially. In 2008, outward foreign direct investment from China surged to USD 52 billion, an increase of 132 percent from 2007, making it the 13th largest source of capital in the world and third largest among developing countries (UNCTAD, 2009). The growths of these economic activities are leading us to a business environment where we have a lot of chances of working for/with the Chinese. While considerable attention has been paid in the recent past to the related research issues, they have been emerging only very slowing and in a more scattered way. In the view of this, we set up this special issue. I am delighted to present a selection of seven articles which provide strong insights into methods for managing cultural diversity that involves Chinese members. The selection has been made using a variety of criteria: I tried to find key trailblazers in the field; I tried to select topics that are still largely unknown and uninvestigated; I tried to pair different studies that arrived at the same/contradicting conclusion; I had an intention to create a special issue that stimulates creativity and encourage researchers to adopt a variety of perspectives in approaching the subject matters. Moreover, the selected articles also reflect the regular output of the international journal of cross cultural management: promoting an understanding of the role of culture which is able to guide both theory and practice.
The first article by Dong and Liu provides a very detailed summary on cross-cultural management research involving Chinese. Most importantly, their survey has established the research priorities for future research and has identified what should not be replicated.
Lin and Wang's research, along with that of Ramasamy, Au and Yeung,complement each other well, reminding us the Chinese culture system can be both heterogeneous and homogeneous. Lin and Wang use the dual structure theory to explain the love-hate relationship between Chinese and foreign goods, suggesting there is heterogeneity within a homogeneous group. Ramasamy et al.suggest that individuals from the same Chinese city can have relatively narrower/wider diversity of opinions, beliefs, and behaviors.
When there were studies showing that Thais have low tolerance for conflicts(Roongrensuke and Chansuthus, 1998, for instance), the study by Bunchapattanasakda and Wong shows us that there was no cultural shock from mixing Thais and Chinese together in one working group. They studied how Thai employees conceive Chinese values and management practice. They showed that,even cultural differences exist, the samples of Thai employees were generally happy with the Chinese management style.
The fifth article by Pan, Song, Goldschmidt and French, surveys what values are important to the Chinese managers and to the American managers. The study revealed the difficulties in employing standard scales to differentiate the two groups because the metropolitan Chinese executives of today are not very different from their US counterparts. They proposed an alternative scale to detect the differences in values between the two groups.
The final two articles of the special issues provide many insights into conflict management. Their findings go against each other. While the second to last article by Yuan suggests that Chinese are weak in conflict management, in contrast, the last article by Chow and Yau shows that Chinese cultural values have helped Chinese to resolve conflicts and thus have led to strong business performance.
I hope you enjoy the selections of the reviewers and mine.
Simon L. Dolan
Further reading
Parekh, B.C. (2000), Rethinking Multiculturalism: Cultural Diversity and Political Theory, Macmillan Press.
