Internet Shopping and the Merging of Cultures The booming phenomena of internet shopping has had a huge and somewhat unexpected effect on the global retail and manufacturing industry. The ability to satisfy the ever expanding demands of products from anywhere in the world to be delivered in an efficient and cost effective manner has forced certain mega retail giants to globalize their operations, and in turn has had a huge impact on the cultures of many nations and groups of people throughout the world. To ensure that there is a smooth transition into new markets these companies must educate themselves and their employees, about the cultural differences and similarities that each group will face. As stated by, Becton, B. (2009) “China will be an important player in the world economy, this has important implications for organizational research as more and more companies expand operations into China.” Amazon as a leader in internet sale and retail has embraced china as the most important new market in the world and has made many adjustments within the company to not only understand the cultural differences but to understand them. The understanding gained will help maximize the workforce and realize a better understanding of the Chinese peoples as a customer. The workforce in China is almost a polar opposite to the US workforce in that the Chinese culture causes them to think of themselves collectively, or to be more to the point they feel that they work for each other instead of themselves. The US workers on the other hand are individualistic; they do work toward the good of the company, but seek personal gain and at times glory at the expense of the group. Hofstede found that individualism versus collectivism accounted for the greatest difference in work-goal priorities in 40 countries. The United States has been characterized as more individualistic and China as more collectivist (Tata, 2005)

Within the business model that Amazon has created there is a strong presence of power to the individual employee. This is extremely important to the Chinese worker due to the sense that all workers need to have certain powers to maintain a level of dignity. “An individual qualifies as fully human only when he or she takes proper account of others and acts toward them appropriately”. (Koehn, 2008) This is not to say that dignity is derived from the power but that they derive the dignity from being allowed to work toward the collective goal. By empowering the worker to be a part of the process they are providing not only for themselves but also to the community and the region, of which they are associated with. They use the Confucian style of business ethics whereas the focus is on the collective, meaning that everything is geared toward the good of everyone involved. The US worker is also empowered and derives dignity from being part of the processes, but the American worker for the most part looks for individual accomplishments and self-worth as a testament of their success and is dignified by the recognition of these. This is due largely to the business ethics that are in practice in most of the western world. It is a top down style that is consistent with the teachings of Aristotle among others, in this style the premise is that it is only through the goodwill of corporate executives that there is impact in employee compensation, finance, regulation, government procurement, and taxpayer subsidies. As a strategic move to better equip the company in its expansion into China, I recommend that the receiving site management and a sampling of the workers be inserted into an existing Fulfillment Center within the company while their site is under construction. This not only enables the new leaders and workers to learn the business side of Amazonian culture, but it also places them into a role of ambassador from their culture to ours. There is also the opportunity to learn some of the non-verbal communications that are a part of each culture, specifically the proper ways to greet each other based on the authority level. Through the course of business we interact with all fulfillment centers on a daily basis and by having the early interaction with the ambassadors many of the pitfalls in etiquette and propriety can be avoided. Additionally I would suggest that upon opening of the new site, sending a contingent of management and skilled worker from other sites to help with the initial startup, along with the previously listed advantages of ambassadorship, it will also set the new leaders and worker on a successful path. This is very important to the dignity and pride of the Chinese people.
There are many setting specific variations within the cultures of China and the United States, such as the use of first name as a form of address. While this is common in the business culture of the United States it is a breach of etiquette in China, where age, generation and seniority are regarded as far more important than in the United States. Helen Oatey (1987, p22) suggests that “it is important to consider how addressing is conveyed in English and Chinese, and to what extent there are differences between the two cultures in this respect. Based on their Confucian ethics, titles are a must when addressing anyone with authority or rank. Authority does not necessarily have boundaries within Chinese families, if a person is a doctor it is very likely that the mother and father will address a son as doctor, while at the same time the father retains his authority as the head of the family. In the United States a child that has attained the education of doctor will still be addressed within the family by their first name.
The Chinese culture uses both High and low context communication in that there are many rules that everyone knows and follows without being of overtly communicated, the rule are followed by a sense of responsibility and respect to the authorities that have made the rules. There are many non-verbal attributes to this communication such as bowing lower to a senior person or the way eye contact is considered to be challenging if from a lower rank. This is primarily a result of the socialist society that is the backbone of their everyday life. Americans on the other hand tend primarily toward low context communication in a business setting, they have rules and seem to be lost without them, the rules are followed because of oversight by authority figures such as the police, or other government agencies. They also have many non-verbal cues such as shaking hands when greeting and to make eye contact when speaking. Another example of this is the fact that Americans as most westerners, place instructions on everything, from signs on the street to instructions on a bottle of shampoo. Most of the street signs in China were installed in preparation of the Beijing Olympics to help westerners find their way. Also many simple products in China do not have instructions, it is understood the purpose and that is sufficient.
By employing these different strategies, the intercultural communication between the separate groups will be greatly enhanced. The misunderstanding of verbal and non-verbal cues in the business setting can cause major pitfalls for any internet based retailer, but more profoundly with a retailer that also employs a great number of employees within different cultures. By integrating the social and cultural norms of each region and education within the company infrastructure, these misunderstandings can be reduced and in some cases eliminated. The goal of any company is to not only gain customers, but to keep them. By giving a group of people the products that they want is the way to gain them, by understanding them and giving them customer satisfaction is the way to keep them. We must understand the cultural ideas, so we can communicate with them. One of the more difficult things to accomplish in China is to advertise effectively. The vast difference in local, regional and national culture makes it imperative that Amazon gear its business model in China differently than that of the United States where technology has mostly erased the cultural differences in all but a few locations. As China continues on its path to globalization many of their cultural patterns will change. This is not a deterrent to a 4000 year old society that has been in a constant state of change.

Reference

Becton, B. (2009). Cultural differences in organizational citizenship behavior: a comparison between Chinese and American employees. International Journal of Human Resource Management 20(8), 651-669. DOI: 10.1080/09585190902770646
Koehn, D. (2008). Dignity in Western versus in Chinese Cultures: Theoretical Overview and Practical Illustrations. Business and Society Review 113(5), 447-504. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8594.2008.00329.x
Oatey, H. (1987). The Customs and Language of Social Interaction English. Shanghai: The Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.
Tata, J. (2005). The influence of national culture on the perceived fairness of grading procedures: a comparison of the United States and China. Journal of Phycology, 139(5), 401-412.