Culture
Topic
"Write an essay on the following topic: "Discuss cultural differences as they exist in American and Vietnamese culture and suggest some ways to overcome them."
CONTENT American and Vietnam are different not only in geography but also in culture. The culture of Vietnam varies from that of America in every single aspect of culture: ethnictity, people, religion, individualism, politics, food and ect. Although these factors seem to be abundant and difficult to compare. But according to Hofstede ‘s cultural dimensions, he described national culture with five dimensions of basic cultural values: Power distance, Individualism, Masculinity, Uncertainty avoidance and long-term orientation. When comparing the America with Vietnam, the three dimensions of Power distance, Individualism and long-term orientation differ most importantly (as chart 1).
Chart 1: Comparison of value orientations: American vs Vietnam (ITIM International, 2003).
PDI: Power distance
IDV: Individualism
MAS: Masculinity
UAI: Uncertainty avoidance
LTO: Long-term orientation The first of these is Power distance (PDI). PDI is the distance that a person feels or keeps between themselves and a person in a position of power. Vietnamese culture is high power distance. It means that organization use management systems and processes that reflect a strong concern with hierarchy (Strategic International Management, K. Praveen Parboteeah, John B. Cullen). Subordinates always maintain a distance from their superiors with a sense of respect, sometimes they even awe their boss and the children are expected to be obedient to parents and elders. So that when the children are mature, they are controlled of parents and teacher because they don’t speak as much with authority and is taught obedience. Thus management in high power distance culture is more parternalistic as “the benevolent autocrat” or “good father” and the employees view their organizations as families and the bosses are expected to take care
"Write an essay on the following topic: "Discuss cultural differences as they exist in American and Vietnamese culture and suggest some ways to overcome them."
CONTENT American and Vietnam are different not only in geography but also in culture. The culture of Vietnam varies from that of America in every single aspect of culture: ethnictity, people, religion, individualism, politics, food and ect. Although these factors seem to be abundant and difficult to compare. But according to Hofstede ‘s cultural dimensions, he described national culture with five dimensions of basic cultural values: Power distance, Individualism, Masculinity, Uncertainty avoidance and long-term orientation. When comparing the America with Vietnam, the three dimensions of Power distance, Individualism and long-term orientation differ most importantly (as chart 1).
Chart 1: Comparison of value orientations: American vs Vietnam (ITIM International, 2003).
PDI: Power distance
IDV: Individualism
MAS: Masculinity
UAI: Uncertainty avoidance
LTO: Long-term orientation The first of these is Power distance (PDI). PDI is the distance that a person feels or keeps between themselves and a person in a position of power. Vietnamese culture is high power distance. It means that organization use management systems and processes that reflect a strong concern with hierarchy (Strategic International Management, K. Praveen Parboteeah, John B. Cullen). Subordinates always maintain a distance from their superiors with a sense of respect, sometimes they even awe their boss and the children are expected to be obedient to parents and elders. So that when the children are mature, they are controlled of parents and teacher because they don’t speak as much with authority and is taught obedience. Thus management in high power distance culture is more parternalistic as “the benevolent autocrat” or “good father” and the employees view their organizations as families and the bosses are expected to take care