Outline
This paper looks at the emerging Issues in Cross Cultural Psychology. It examines and discusses some emerging business related issues in cross cultural psychology. The business issues discussed are the new economic order and business ethics.
Introduction
Cross cultural psychology is an area of psychology that encompasses cultural factors and their influence on human behavior. Psychology in this area involve in the study of cross-culture, dwell on how human behavior differs depending on the different cultures in the world. Culture refers to the characteristics exhibited by a certain group. These characteristics are attitudes, behavior, customs, symbols and value and are passed on from one generation to the other through ritual rites or ceremonies or general practice in the daily activities. Various cultures in the world have some similarities and differences. One similarity is the feeling of happiness; it is felt in every culture but the mode of deriving it differs in many cultures (Shiraev and Levy 2007).
Cross cultural psychology has brought up some issues in business developments. The different cultures have influenced the world’s economic order. The new economic order has been due to the fact that different cultures have enabled their people to utilize the cultural competitive advantage to achieve it. The different cultures have some implications on business ethics. Business ethics should be understood along the different cultural variations instead of focusing or emphasizing on western ideologies of business ethics. One very common ethical issue is corruption which is considered to have negative effect on the progress of a business cultural system.
The new economic order has greatly been contributed by utilizing cultural competitive advantage. New treads of business practices have emerged. Outsourcing is one of such issues that have been propelled by different cultures developing competence in different sectors of the economy. Outsourcing has taken over as a means of doing business because of the cost savings involved through utilizing the practice. Cultural variations have enabled only a few countries to become economic power houses. The others who have not made any economic progress have remained to be good sources for cheap labor.
Japan has become the new powerhouse associated with the best quality. Continuous improvement has contributed to Japanese quality products reputation. Japanese culture is characterized by collaboration of the people and working as groups. The focus on group results rather than individual achievement has ensured long-term success in achieving high quality of Japanese products. Recognizing everyone’s contribution has enabled working groups to maintain harmony and unity. A culture of superior management in all the business operations has played a big role in Japanese success. India has become the new information technology guru. Indian culture has played an enormous role in influencing the developments. India’s religious culture surrounding secularism and pantheism which advocate for no need to maintain and manipulate nature has influenced its people inner discipline. Inner discipline makes one control his/her mind rather than the environment. It has also contributed to intellectual discipline while taking academic competition to a new level. The control of the mind has created a new orderly world of software development rather than focusing on external developments (Silverthorne 2005).
Korea has become a new manufacturing powerhouse. Industrial giant families built good relations with the government. This propelled Korea to come up with big corporations from the strong cultural relations established between government leaders and industrialist. Korean culture is characterized by hierarchical groups that are highly disciplined. A culture of royalty to the boss has brought about strong national solidarity promoted by people being organized by age. China has become an economic powerhouse from its entrepreneurship. Chinese culture is characterized by strong connection to acquisition of wealth and status. Entrepreneurship is facilitated by foreign business relationships unlike the western style based on transparency. A Chinese business partnership with the developing and middle level economies has provided its market for its businesses making it a large economic country.
The new economic order has been propelled by cross cultural differences among the various countries. Cross cultural psychology analysis has made business ethics issues to emerge. These successful countries have been seen to put more emphasis on the cultural traits that have ensured their success. New and different ethical norms have been developed as a result. Communication being a business facilitator factor has been improved by technology and has reinforced cultural divergence. The new ethical norms are rule based cultures in business, which are strongly tied to the western countries. Relationship based business cultures have been promoted by cultures of strong families and great value of communism. Corruption is an ethical issue that is linked with rule based culture. It is due to conflict of interest and individualism concept exhibited in western cultures. Bribery is linked to relationship culture. It undermines the process of relationship formation as it is a shortcut to relationship building (Silverthorne 2005).
Conclusion
Finally, cultural factors have played a big role in influencing human behavior that has been evidenced in new business developments. The new business economic order has enabled the emergence of new economic powerhouses based on their competence and specialties. The different cultures exhibited by the people in these regions have made these countries to develop a competitive advantage while deriving new business ethics that are geared towards enhancing the embraced culture.
Reference list
Shiraev, E. B. & Levy, D. A. (2007). Cross-Cultural Psychology: Critical Thinking and Contemporary Applications. Vancouver: Pearson Education.
Silverthorne Colin (2005). Organizational psychology in cross-cultural perspective. New York: New York University Press.