对新加坡跨国公司跨文化管理的研究方法论综述

摘 要：本文主要针对新加坡跨国公司中所存在的跨文化管理要素进行分析，并利用跨文化管理中研究跨文化要素的相关方法论对其进行具体的定性分析评论。基于以上的研究，对这些文化要素所带来的管理问题提出可能性战略方案以尽可能规避战略环境中的多样性文化风险。

关键词：跨文化要素；跨文化管理；跨国公司

Abstract： This article mainly focuses on the cross-cultural issues in the multinational companies and the methodology studying the cross-cultural issues existing in the cross-cultural management. Based on the research， the analysis can focus on the probably strategy to deal with these issues and minimize the multi-cultural risks in business environment.

Key words： cross-cultural isssues； cross-cultural management； multinational company

The Methodology on Studying the Cross-cultural Management in Singapore's Multinationals

I. Introduction

A review of the literature and the data previous presents a clear need for further research on what are the cross-cultural issues of the employees and how to deal with them. Therefore， the main aim of this research is to find appropriate methodology to analyze the data collected by test samples， to find the cross-cultural issues， to find the relationship among these issues， to answer the research question "what are the cross-cultural issues and how to deal with them？" This study required a distinction to be made between two research methodologies， one is the quantitative method， and the other is qualitative method. The quantitative method emphasizes the data collection and processing， while the qualitative data stresses the subjective thinking and the data from the previous literature. This comparison is also based on the several typical articles which represent these contrasting views. Ultimately， this study aimed to introduce the basic methods in the quantitative method in which several examples are given to prove its own usage and confines.

II.Methodology

Based on a critical analysis of the existing literature regarding the cross-cultural issues and Hofstede's cultural dimensions， the aim of this part is to compare the different perspectives of how Hofstede's cultural dimensions should be implemented in the cross-cultural management especially in the multinationals. This part is to provide the reader with an understanding of the methodology and relevant research philosophy， approaches and strategies， and why the methodology has been adopted， at the same time， the constraints associated with data collections and the limitations to the work will also be discussed.

The research aim for this paper is to investigate the cross-cultural adaption of Chinese people in Singapore's companies and identify the cultural issues that mentioned by Hofstede and cultural dimensions for Singapore. This aim of the study is achieved through quantitative analysis method to explore the relationships between the various variables in the communication management and cultural values， or the difference of these two types of variables existing among members of different cultural groups.

A.Measures

Cross-cultural research methods can be divided into quantitative and qualitative categories. The scholars putting qualitative methods as the main research methods believe that many quantitative studies cannot mention important research problems and are doing repeating work， while the qualitative studies can allow researchers to obtain first-hand information and then penetrate into the depth to explore the nature of the object （David Starr-Glass， 2011）. However， the scholars adopting quantitative method believe that qualitative study cannot obtain the research findings with universal significance and the research findings are influenced by individual factors largely （Ching-Hsiang Liu， Hung-Wen Lee， 2008）.

The study uses a set of criteria in data analysis. The method and criteria is the quantitative method.This research mainly adopts the quantitative method. Quantitative method mainly adopts a variety of statistical tools to analyze the collecting data. This is the empirical research method what we call in the usual sense. In fact， scientific study is all empirical. The study with no research questions， no data analysis and no interpretation to the analysis result cannot be counted as scientific research.

Quantitative research is the most commonly used method in the research used by the international mainstream scholars and among which the divergence comparison and relationship determination are the two most important research purposes. The so-called divergence comparison is that the researchers find the similarities and difference in their behavior through comparison of the staff between two or more different cultural groups （Edward Godfrey Ochieng， Andrew David Price， 2009）. This type of study takes a very high proportion of international mainstream research literature. In this divergence comparison study， scholars mainly adopt the following data analysis methods： T-Test， One-way ANOVA and MANOVA. In a nutshell， divergence comparison is to explore and explain the influence to communicative act by cultural difference according to the difference of research object in variable average （Hughes， P. C. & Baldwin， J.R， 2002）. The main aim of relationship determination is to search for the relationship between communicative behavior and cultural variables. The data analysis methods mostly used in this kind of study are Pearson correlation， factor analysis， confirmatory factor analysis and multiple regression. Among these methods， factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis are the mostly used by researchers in developing various kinds of measurement scales.

B.Data-analysis Procedures

There are several steps for the data-analysis procedures.

Firstly， collect all cross-cultural management articles from international journals from 2005-2011 which mainly focus on the management and cross-cultural management， besides Hofstede's cultural dimensions analysis.

Secondly， analyze each article from the aspect of research contents and methods. From the aspect of research contents， divide the articles into different categories such management， cross-cultural fields and Hofstede's cultural dimensions， and then distinguish and compare them. From the aspect of research methods， first， divide the articles into two major categories of empirical and non-empirical research. Second， divide empirical research articles into three categories of qualitative， quantitative or mixed quantitative and qualitative.

Finally， after the analysis of the research contents and methods of each article， to classify the research contents and methods into different categories， quantify them， calculate the percentage， and compare to draw a conclusion about international trend in cross-cultural communication research and make an analysis.

III.Conclusion

The "cross" in the Cross-culture management has significant meaning， that is the meaning of belonging to or involving two or more different societies， countries. This can show that the management in the context of cross-culture involves two or more different cultural backgrounds. Culture is the psychological procedure formed in large numbers of people with the same education background and living experience. Each kind of culture displays its specific mode of thinking and way of act. Although economic globalization make people from different areas face basic similar circumstances， people can present great otherness. By looking into the underlying reasons， culture is the typical characteristics that one group presents in value beliefs， rules of conduct and social customs and habits etc. which are different from the other group （G. Hofstede， 1991）. While the difference in culture is the outward manifestation of inner different features， this is represented as follows： language communication and non-language communication， different trends in political culture， difference in thinking mode and behavior pattern. It can be said that cultural difference is the underlying reason leading to the cultural conflict， and the difference can be manifested as personal conflict externally. Cultural conflict has different impacts on multinationals， for example， cultural conflicts influence the harmonious relationship between multinational managers and employees from different nations in Singapore， and then generate irrational reaction， this reaction results in the loss of the multinational market opportunities and low efficiency of the organization and then makes the implementation of the multinational global strategy in trouble.

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作者简介：许晓霞（1988-），女，河南济源人，浙江财经学院2011级工商管理学院企业管理专业硕士研究生，从事房地产企业及项目管理研究。