Analyzing the Chinese and American Corporate Cultures through national perspectiveAnalyzing the Chinese and American Corporate Cultures through national perspective.doc

Comparative study of Chinese and American Corporate Cultures through national culture perspective 1. General review of corporate culture 1.1 The definition of corporate culture Generally speaking corporate culture is the collective behavior of humans who are part of an organization and the meanings that the people attach to their actions. Culture includes the organization values, visions, norms, working language, systems, symbols, beliefs and habits. (CA magazine, January-February 2008) It is also the pattern of such collective behaviors and assumptions that are taught to new corporate members as a way of perceiving, and even thinking and feeling .Organizational culture affects the way people and groups interact with each other, with clients, and with stakeholders.( Strategic Management. Houghton Mifflin).While unlike most other concepts in the field of organizational theory, the corporate culture concept has no single unanimously accepted definition. The first discussion of corporate culture emerged and boomed in the 1980s, when there appeared “corporate culturism”，with many scholars probing into this . Kroeber and Kluchhohn (1963) had earlier found 164 different notions of culture from their research of literature. However, since culture is a concept, different definitions of culture may brings different perceptions of corporate culture . Organizational culture has been defined as shared meanings (Louis, 1985)，central values (Barney, 1986; Broms Gahmberg，1983)，assumptions (Dyer, 1984; Schein, 1996)，and beliefs (Davis, 1984; Lorsch, 1987). Some of the recognized definitions include: “a set of symbols, ceremonies, and myths that communicate the underlying values and beliefs of that organization to its employees” (Ouchi, 1981); “the way we do things around here. It is the integration of values, myths, heroes and symbols，，(Deal and Kennedy, 1982); “the collective progr