The impact of cultural differences on an Austrlian firm doing business in China

In the global business environment today, it is inevitable that activities are increasingly across cultures. As a major emerging market, China offers many MNCs great potential in their future growth. This paper explores issues in cross-cultural management area in the setting of joint ventures in China. It investigates expatriates' cross-cultural abilities in adjusting to working and living in China and its impact on their performance. It further discusses the management style appropriateness and cultural differences in leadership styles and the impact of these issues on effective management in China for Western MNCs. Using the method of a case study, this paper provides some insights from the point of view of the local Chinese staff working in Australia-China joint ventures. This is valuable for senior management since cross-cultural perspective is needed to be balanced rather than narrowly viewed. It is argued that the qualitative method is most appropriate since the cross-cultural studies are complex and cases are generally large. Therefore, the qualitative method, in this paper a case study is considered most appropriate