Abstract
When Taiwanese companies globalize their businesses, they need a framework to facilitate employees’ intercultural competence. Such a framework serves to ensure that everyone, no matter which country of origin, is able to work together to achieve high cohesion and efficiency in communication. A series of qualitative research conducted by the researchers shows that although language barriers often cause communication problems regardless of venue, cross-cultural misunderstandings are even more prominent in Taiwan’s international offices. This thus leads to foreign business professionals’ needs to learning about Taiwanese business culture. Recommendations and suggestions are made for the curriculum design of business Chinese study programs. Through a study of business Chinese and Taiwan business culture in a well-designed program, foreign business professionals will enjoy more support and resources to fit into the local business culture so that they can expect to be successful in the parts of their careers that take place in Taiwan.
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Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the Ministry of Science and Technology (Taiwan) for the research project (MOST104-2410-H-003-048-).
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Appendix
Appendix
Cultural content items listed on the questionnaire
Code | Cultural content |
|---|---|
01 | The history of the nation, people, and local society |
02 | The customs, rituals, and traditions of Chinese festivals and local holidays |
03 | Knowledge of Chinese cultural heritage (i.e., traditional architecture, monuments, landscape, etc.) |
04 | Study of Chinese literature (i.e., poetry, drama, fiction, proverbs, and idioms) |
05 | Knowledge or study of Classical Chinese arts (e.g., calligraphy, martial arts, painting …) |
06 | Knowledge about political systems, laws, and local and state organizations |
07 | Knowledge about economic systems, corporate organizations, and labor regulations |
08 | Information about local people’s work lifestyles, general market, trends, and societal fashion |
09 | Chinese people’s cultural values and life philosophy |
10 | Chinese business people’s perceptions about hierarchy, social relations, and interpersonal/business relationships |
11 | Chinese business people’s attitudes toward time, gender roles, and risk management |
12 | Chinese business people’s preferred communication, negotiation, and decision-making style |
13 | Chinese business people’s behavior codes (i.e., “do’s and don’ts in business contexts) |
14 | The regional characteristics of Chinese business people |
15 | General descriptions of Chinese people’s personalities and characteristics |
16 | Introductions to local beliefs or religion related activities |
17 | Intercultural skills for adapting to Chinese (business/working) culture |
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Lee, HH.C., Chen, LY. (2019). Learning Culture in Business Chinese Curriculum: Business Professionals’ Perspectives. In: Tao, H., Chen, HJ. (eds) Chinese for Specific and Professional Purposes. Chinese Language Learning Sciences. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-9505-5_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-9505-5_7
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