题目要求大致方向是1.英语语言国家跨国公司(中外合资企业)企业文化建设
2.英语语言国家的市场营销的战略与技巧
3.英语语言国家的品牌的建立与推广
4.英语语言国家的跨国公司本土化经营中的文化冲突
以上4个任选一个就行.
我急需啊,麻烦大家帮忙

Thriving on Corporate Culture
How a Locally-specified Reference Framework Can Provide a Competitive Edge
by Ulf Bosch

Corporate culture is one of the most fundamental challenges multinational companies face when setting up shop abroad. In China, this topic initially surfaced when the first Sino-foreign joint venture companies were established in the mid-1980s. For both the local and foreign partner it was clearly necessary to find a common cultural denominator in order to make the collaboration work. More recently, cultural issues have become important factors in the context of mergers and acquisitions in China. Foreign firms increasingly seek to buy leading Chinese companies in order to leapfrog into favourable market positions, realise synergies, or optimise their value chains. However, the success of these transactions largely depends on the ability of the parties to bridge the cultural divide between their organisations.

Attraction and Retention Context
While the issue arguably plays a crucial role when combining different businesses, there are clear signs that corporate culture has become of paramount importance in the ‘battle for human capital’. Due to China’s booming economy, a mismatch between university education and company requirements, as well as demographic factors, the demand for qualified personnel exceeds supply. As a consequence, salaries are spiralling and ‘job hopping’ has become the norm. In such a red-hot labour market a distinctive company culture may be one of the few non-monetary reward elements, if not the only one, that can attract and retain talent despite the fact that other companies might offer higher salaries.

Lack of Differentiation
However, multinational firms in China often lack a distinctive corporate culture that could differentiate them from the competition. In many cases, high staff turnover rates in combination with aggressive recruiting have resulted in a dilution of corporate culture. As the newly hired people come from widely different backgrounds, they often have little alignment with a shared reference framework. Consequently, they cannot live and represent a certain corporate culture.

Foreign companies are often unaware of this situation as their perception is dominated by that of headquarters. They trust that their company’s strong central culture automatically translates into a compelling local culture. However, research amongst graduates indicates that they attribute very high importance to the culture of the company but can hardly distinguish any culture amongst foreign companies. Culturally speaking, it makes no difference to them for which employer they work. For the employers this means that they have become interchangeable.

Corporate Culture Defined
In order to understand corporate culture, one needs to define it. However, doing so is far from an easy task. As it is a multifaceted open system, it can mean different things to different people. Some intuitively link the term to aspects such as leadership culture, performance culture or feedback culture. While these reference points are not wrong in themselves, they merely represent building blocks of corporate culture but do not provide an all-encompassing specification of the term.

Others find it hard to differentiate between corporate culture and country culture. This is particularly true in China. When asked to describe differences in corporate culture between, for example, an American and a German company, local employees tend to refer to rather stereotypical attributes associated with the respective country cultures.

In search of a comprehensive definition, literature suggests that corporate culture is a pattern of shared assumptions, values, norms and behaviours that are believed to lead to success. It has worked well enough in the past to be considered valid in the future and it is taught and reinforced both formally and informally. Some aspects are explicit and open; some aspects are implicit and covert.

Performance Catalyst and Leadership Guideline
It is important to note that corporate culture is defined as an integral aspect of the modus operandi of a company and a function of its business success. Corporate culture reinforces a certain pattern of values that lead to success, making it serve as a catalyst for performance. Another role is that of ethically guiding leadership and corporate governance. It is not only since high-profile accounting scandals have sent shockwaves through the international business community that organisations have recognised the importance of sound corporate citizenship. While business results in terms of “what has been achieved” are important, the associated management behaviour in the sense of “how has it been achieved” is equally relevant.

Cultural Dimensions
A common way to classify corporate culture is to assess it according to dimensions such as power distance, interaction, group orientation, time orientation, or attitude towards change. For multinational companies in China, these cultural dimensions are largely influenced by their demographics, most notably the company size and development stage. Recent research revealed that 60 per cent of German companies have less than 500 employees in China. Furthermore, 42 per cent have entered the market within the last five years. In terms of their company development cycle, 90 per cent of firms are either in the start-up or growth phase. Consequently, their organisational set-up resembles that of a small-sized company.

Against this background, multinational companies tend to have a low power distance, flat hierarchies and a participative, informal and contribution-based interaction. In addition, due to their relatively young age, the time focus might be rather short-term oriented, as the survival of the company depends on quick wins and a viable cash flow. Furthermore, the dynamic Chinese environment requires multinational companies to manoeuvre in a highly flexible way and adopt an embracing attitude towards change.

In contrast, Chinese companies, due to their larger size and history in a planned economy, tend to be more directive, formal, seniority-focused and long-term oriented with a strong group focus and an attitude which avoids change.

Locally-specified Corporate Culture
Following the classical continuum of “how global – how local?” there are basically three options in developing a corporate culture:

Roll out the global culture
Adapt the global culture to local requirements
Define a completely new local culture
However, local articulation of a global reference framework is the most powerful option which is in line with findings that most foreign companies want their China operations to be decentralised.3 Local entities have profit and loss responsibility; therefore, it makes sense that local managers have the freedom to organise local operations in a way that they can be successful. This includes a locally-specified corporate culture which supports growth and business performance.

Cultural Road-map
In order to achieve this end, multinational companies often find it useful to follow a cultural integration road-map which allows a systematic assessment of the current situation and the development of the desired culture. This is typically done by exploring leader and employee perceptions of the current organisational assumptions, values, norms and behaviours according to selected cultural components. In addition, while assessing the current situation, it is just as important to assess employee expectations of and aspirations towards the desired outcome. Based on a gap analysis the new company culture can be articulated in the form of a cultural chart.

In this context it is important to focus on building a locally meaningful framework of fundamental attitudes, practices and customs that helps the entity to succeed in the Chinese business context and allows itself to differentiate in the labour market. To bring about the required change and to support implementation, a change program based on cultural drivers including management principles, rules and policies, training, ceremonies and events, or physical environment may be initiated according to local requirements. To promote acceptance and accountability, extensive communication combined with incentives linked to the desired behaviours may be deployed. In the spirit of a continuous organisational development process, the progress in achieving the desired culture needs to be regularly measured. Furthermore, hiring as well as promotion decisions can be based on cultural fit.

Conclusion
In China, corporate culture is emerging as one of the few effective weapons in the war for talent. As pay-related rewards are rendered ineffective, companies need to find more long-term alternatives to attract, develop and retain exceptional people. In an environment where all other reward elements tend to be equal, companies ultimately set themselves apart by their culture. If properly operationalised and promoted, a locally-specified corporate culture can prove to be a quantum leap towards greater performance and employer attractiveness. However, establishing a distinctive reference framework cannot be achieved overnight. It requires continuous investment and persistent dedication over time thereby making it even more representative of a competitive advantage, since it cannot be easily changed or copied.







参考文献：http://www.bfchina.de/index.php?option=com_content&task=view