Differences Between Management Philosophies Among American and Chinese Hotel Managers: A Cultural Comparison Between Las Vegas and Shanghai

The purpose of this study was to measure the cultural differences between Chinese and U.S. hospitality managers’ management philosophies, using a survey adopted from Hofstede (2001) and Baird, Lyles, and Wharton (1990). Fourteen individual items related to management philosophies showed significant differences between American and Chinese managers. Exploratory factor analysis confirmed that the three factors (personal management philosophies, behavior of ideal supervisor, and ideal management philosophies) developed by Baird et al. (1990) are indeed valid for this sample. Discriminant function analysis showed that these three factors are statistically significant in differentiating between the Chinese and U.S. managers. These findings underscore the importance of proper development of effective training programs