Abstract: The comparative research to social norms of Chinese, Japanese and Americans was carried through. The subjects in Beijing were 1434, in Osaka 608 and in Los Angeles 1409. Sixty-seven items were included in the survey questionnaire, which was made by the three sides through discussion. The SPSS10.0 was used in the statistics. The results showed: (1)The basic two types of social norms of the Chinese, the Japanese and the Americans were the same, including the ethic and moral, value orientation, the law and the rules, and the social custom. The ethic and moral and value orientation builtup the internal control norm, the law and the rules and the social custom builtup the external control norm. (2)The basic structures of the social norms in China and in Japan were the same: the internal control norms played a main role and the external control norm was auxiliary. On one hand, within the internal norm of Chinese, the moral principle was the main force while the value orientation was the supplementary; within the external norm, the law and the rules was the main force while the social culture custom was supplementary. On the other hand, the relationship between the external and the internal dimensions of the Japanese turned out to be contrary to those of the Chinese.(3)For the Americans, the external control norm played a main role while the internal control norm assisted in the structure of the social norms. Furthermore, the law and the rule was the major aspect while the social costumes was the second in the external control dimension. The value orientation led the performance style of the Americans, while the moral principle played the second role in the internal control structure. Although there were the same dimensions among the three countries, the contents of these dimensions had both the common norms surpassing the specific culture and the particular norms depending on the specific culture. The culture differences of the social norms were the fundamental reason of the management conflict.

Key words: the social norms, the ethic and moral, value orientation, the law and the rules, the social custom