People in every nation have a core set of national values or behaviors that affect the way they conduct business. The most important, which tend to vary from country to country, are described below for China:
The Importance of Personal RelationshipsHow Chinese Get Work DoneCommunicating With Chinese Who Makes Decisions & How Decisions are MadeImplications of StatusInteractive Value - Belief Profile For China
Click on a Defining Cultural Characteristic to learn how it affects behaviors in China
| Defining Cultural Characteristics in Order of Importance - The most important in business are bold | Characteristic Strength Compared to Other Countries |
|---|---|
| Trust in Relationships | Very Strong Value-Belief |
| Strongly Personal/Relational | Very Strong Value-Belief |
| High Context | Very Strong Value-Belief |
| Power Distance | Very Strong Value-Belief |
| High Reciprocity | Very Strong Value-Belief |
| Indirect Communication (Valuing Relationships and Maintaining Harmony) | Very Strong Value-Belief |
| Humility | Strong Value-Belief |
| Hierarchy | Strong Value-Belief |
| Risk Taking | Strong Value-Belief |
| Pursuit of Career Success | Very Strong Value-Belief | tr>
| In-Group Collectivism | Very Strong Value-Belief |
| Ascription | Very Strong Value-Belief |
| People Most Important | Very Strong Value-Belief |
| Diffuse | Very Strong Value-Belief |
| Continuum | Very Strong Value-Belief |
| Variable Priority | Strong Value-Belief |
| Masculinity | Above Average Value-Belief |
| Respect for Traditional Values | Very Strong Value-Belief |
| Particularist | Very Strong Value-Belief |
| Emotional (Affective) | Strong Value-Belief |
| Circular Thinking | Very Strong Value-Belief |
| Focus Primarily on the Future | Stongly Below Average Value-Belief |
Richard
Richard
In your experience do Chinese have a very strong, strong, or average preference for a cultural dimension not listed above?
This is a Summary, Please click the link for the entire article
This is a Summary, Please click the link for the entire article
China’s Global Reach
Read Time 3 minutes, Explore Time as long as you want
This is a link to a National Public Radio flash page that shows Chinese overseas investment between 2005 and 2010.
China has been steadily increasing its foreign investments outside of bonds in recent years.
Between 2005 and 2010, it made more than $224 billion in overseas investments and also entered into engineering and construction contracts of more than $94 billion, according to data compiled by The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington, D.C. The group tracks China's foreign nonbond investments and contracts worth more than $100 million.
Before 2005, China had relatively few overseas investments outside of bonds, says Heritage's Derek Scissors. But China's investments are still dwarfed by the United States,
This is a Summary, Please click the link for the entire article
This is a Summary, Please click the link for the entire article
Will China’s Cultural Orientations Prevent it From Reaching the Next Stage in Global Development?
Read Time 5 Minutes -- Think Time 15 Minutes
China is becoming outsourcer to the world, yet few Chinese brands have become desirable exports. This NPR story highlights areas of Chinese culture that may need to change if China wishes to make the transition from outsourcer and manufacturer of cheap low quality products to producer of “Chinese” quality products.
Cultural orientations that may need to evolve are: Trust in Relationships, Hierarchy, Power Distance, and In-Group Collectivism; all cultural orientation that are very difficult to change.
This is a Summary, Please click the link for the entire article
This is a Summary, Please click the link for the entire article
Data Theft Case Test US-China Ties
Read time 10 minutes -- Think time 10 minutes
Countries that trust in institutions over relationships think when somebody has broken the law and taken advantage of you, you go to court and get justice. That’s not the way it always works in China where relationships are trusted more than insititutions.
This is a Summary, Please click the link for the entire article
This is a Summary, Please click the link for the entire article
The Meaning of and Importance of Face
Read time: 5 minutes Think time: 20 minutes
In many Asian countries the concept of Face restricts and governs most interpersonal interactions. Understanding how to give and take face, how to lose or save face and the face balance sheet, is essential for successful business and personal success. This article will help you understand this very complex concept.
This is a Summary, Please click the link for the entire article
This is a Summary, Please click the link for the entire article
Social Norms and Business Etiquette For China
This article describes important business practices and living customs for China including:
Chinese Management PreferencesChinese Peer-to-Peer BehaviorsChinese Subordinate PreferencesChinese Negotiating StyleChinese Communication StyleChinese Sales PreferencesChinese Decision Making StyleHow to Use Working Globally's Country Profiles
Dimensions that appear bold indicate there is a large difference between the users ?cultural preference? and those of an average person from the country selected. Italics will indicate a medium difference.
Clicking on a Cultural Dimension will open a right side-bar which describes the observable behaviors and expectations of individuals from the country under consideration.
The "Country Profile" table lists the most strongly held national beliefs (cultural dimensions), usually less than 20, that underlie most of the specific actions/behaviors you will encounter when working in that nation.
Clicking on any listed "cultural dimension" will display a general description of the significance of this cultural dimension and a discussion of specific practices or behaviors resulting from this belief. These are the actions you should look for when you start working with your multi-national colleagues.
Appreciating the underlying national beliefs will keep you from leaping to wrong judgments (see The Ladder of Inference).
Applying this information to step three of the four step "Golden Rule" will help you avoid national belief based conflicts.
People Most Important
General behaviors
People Most Important is a measure of how an individual plans projects. People Most Important cultures believe that the right set of people can complete any project. And that the tasks of a project will change depending on the people selected for the project team. In such cultures selecting the human resources defining what their project roles will be, and what type of support they will need to be successful must precede planning the project tasks.
Such cultures also consider family concerns or concerns of friends or colleagues to take precedence over successful task completion or deadlines.
Examples or Articles
Specific behaviors associated with China
China has one of the smallest lawyer to people ratios of any developed or third world country. This is because the Chinese do not trust their judicial system to be fair or honest. This is one reason why you must build a strong personal relationship with Chinese business partners. Expect initial agreements to take a long time to complete.
An introduction from someone your prospective business partner already trusts is essential.
Examples or Articles
Richard
High Context
General behaviors
High Context cultures are characterized by extensive information networks and strongly shared experiences resulting in significant understanding without speech (in those domains that are very high context, for example certain traditional businesses and activities (banking, agriculture, sales, and hiring), [note:- Keep in mind that even High Context cultures will have many domains that are Low Context, for example basic research and new product development].
Communication in High Context cultures involves the use of many covert and implicit forms of expression. Body language is very important and understood by all within the culture. The use of metaphors, nuanced and indirect expressions, and reading between the lines is done by and understood by all.
Individuals from High Context cultures often interpret the talkativeness of those from Low Context cultures as indications that the person is argumentative, simplistic, or not too smart.
Intuition
Individuals in cultures with a High Context orientation often use Intuition when making decisions within High Context domains such as: buying, hiring, and M&A.
Etiquette in High Context cultures is often important and often consists of complex rules and procedures which everyone within the culture is expected to know and to follow (sometimes leading to stress within the culture where etiquette mistakes can be very serious).
These social patterns are taught within the family at a very young age. Because of the way these patterns are taught, they become part of each individual’s cultural DNA. Consequently, individuals know the proper social manners and behaviors implicitly, without thinking about them. They simply are the social behaviors and patterns that feel right
Some High Context cultures, for example Japan, are forgiving of foreigners, who are not expected to have mastered all the appropriate rituals. Others, such as France, may consider foreigners to be unsophisticated or uncouth.
Individuals with Low Context orientation often feel individuals with High Context orientation are abrupt, cold, or indifferent.
Examples or Articles
Not What was Said but the Way it Was Said
This is a Summary, Please click the link for the entire article
Not What was Said but the Way it Was Said
In comparing American with Japanese responses to television commercials, research has found that Americans paid most attention to the specific message itself, to what was communicated about the product. Japanese viewers were far more interested in the way the presenter spoke and the sincerity of the communication. They were influenced more by the overall feeling they experienced when they saw the commercial, valuing the intuitive feelings based on shared common knowledge that the presenter induced by the way s/he spoke.
Specific behaviors associated with China
In China communication tends to be very efficient because of their information-flow at work and in privacy. They discuss everything in advance and consider meetings as an official ceremony where the already commonly agreed decision will be announced. This is important in the way of giving and keeping face. The Americans and Germans in contrast inform the participating attendants in a meeting about the hard and necessary facts. The decission-making process takes place within the meeting. To French it is similar with their Asian counterparts. They are also well informed before they meet each other. Much explicit and detailed discussions would probably seen as an insult because everything is already clear.
Examples or Articles
Richard
Diffuse
General behaviors
Diffuse is a measure of separation between work and ones private life. In diffuse cultures a manager`s influence extends beyond the business and into a subordinates family and private life,
For example, a teacher would be treated by the student not only as an instructor in the classroom, but also as a participant and influence in the student`s home life. The boss-subordinate relationship usually does not stop when the employee leaves the office; the boss is likely to have a say in other aspects of his/her employee`s personal life. For example, your manager might help you with medical care and with your children`s education. Your employer might provide housing.
Trompenaars, who is considered to be the one who first described this dimension has also said, In a diffuse culture, everything is connected to everything For instance, what people from a mainly specific culture see as not important or as a waste of time can in a diffuse culture be seen as very important.
Further, in a diffuse culture, the relationship with a business partner is connected to the decisions being made about an agreement or a negotiation, whereas it is not important in a specific culture where relationships and business are seen as separate entities.
Examples or Articles
Specific behaviors associated with China
Trompenaars 1993 According to Trompenaars, China has a very strong orientation towards Specific behavior. The rating is 83 out of 100.
Examples or Articles
Richard
Hierarchy
General behaviors
The belief that challenges are better met, that individuals and the group are more secure when there is a clear chain of command; and where roles, departmental as well as individual, are clearly (either implicitly or explicitly) defined and understood and individuals believe that the company will be most effective if everyone ONLY does what they are supposed to do.
Strictly Follow the Chain of Command
In hierarchical cultures requesting assistance from someone in another department or someone senior to an immediate manager or providing updates to anyone other than an immediate manager may be viewed as sneaky or even traitorous by a manager.
Wait to be Told What to Do
Often in cultures with a Hierarchy orientation, subordinates expect to be told what to do and if the culture also has a high power distance orientation, managers will NOT expect to be contradicted they will expect to be obeyed without question or discussion.
Only do those things associated with one’s job title
In cultures with a hierarchical orientation, individuals tend to only do those things that are associated with their job title. If you ask someone to do something outside of the their ’titled’ domain, they are likely to say ’that is not my job!’. And if someone does something that is within someone else’s domain, that other person is likely to question ’What gives you the right to do that?’
Information Is Power
A further attribute of cultures with a Hierarchy orientation is the belief that information is power, which leads to a perceived unwillingness to share what one knows. In cultures with a Hierarchy orientation, information flows are part of the accepted rules of the hierarchy. In the need to know, nice to know, and need not know spectrum of information distribution, managers with a strong hierarchy orientation tend to favor distributing information only to those they believe have a need to know.
Examples or Articles
Communication Challenges When Hierarchy Meets Loosey-Goosey
This is a Summary, Please click the link for the entire article
Communication Challenges When Hierarchy Meets Loosey-Goosey
Managers and Subordinates from Cultures with hierarchical orientations have clear understandings of what can, cannot, and should be said when they speak to each other. Note, what can, cannot, and should be said may differ from one hierarchical culture to another, but in all such cultures if you don't say what you should or do say what you should not, it is almost guaranteed that your attempted communication will be misunderstood and hence will fail to achieve the desired result.
This short example shows the dangerous possible result when a nurse from a culture with a hierarchical orientation is managed by a doctor from a culture with a Loosey-Goosey orientation.
Specific behaviors associated with China
Examples or Articles
Richard
Masculinity
General behaviors
Masculinity is a measure of the extent to which individuals believe life and business run more smoothly and hence more effectively when male and female roles are clearly defined and neither men nor women attempt to undertake the others duties and obligations. Masculine cultures also value assertiveness over empathy.
A traditional set of privileges, duties, and obligations in a masculine culture often include: having coffee in the piazza with other men, being the decision maker at work and in the family, supporting the family, and not being responsible for cooking or cleaning.
Often this also implies limiting the rights of women or defining strictly female rights or privileges.
Examples or Articles
Specific behaviors associated with China
Examples or Articles
Richard
Risk Taking
General behaviors
Risk Taking is a measure of the extent to which individuals are willing to risk failure. Cultures in which individuals tend to be risk takers usually respect and even encourage taking chances. In such cultures Learning from one’s mistakes even if they are pubic mistakes, is seen as a virtue; and the upside potential of success is often considered to outweigh the downside consequences of failure.
When testing for and applying this cultural dimension several concepts need to be kept in mind.
Examples or Articles
Specific behaviors associated with China
Examples or Articles
Richard
Focus Primarily on the Future
General behaviors
Focus Primarily on the Future is a measure of the importance an individual gives to the future. Individuals from cultures with a Future Orientation tend to believe that Business and day-to-day decisions should be based on long term future needs and factors, that preparing for the future is more important than implementing stop-gap measures to deal with current problems or challenges. Individuals in Future oriented cultures will not try to maximize short term benefits or achieve short term success at the possible expense of long term benefits or success.
Examples or Articles
Specific behaviors associated with China
When a culture is described as "focusing on the Future" this does not mean that it takes a "long term perspective" instead this should be interpreted as meaning only the present is considered when planning for the future and the present is only considered as a base line, a starting point, not something that necessarily will in itself shape the possibilities for the future. A culture, like China, almost always takes the long view of things and thinks of the future in terms of generations not years or months, as such it believes that future possiblities are limited by the past and the present situation.
Examples or Articles
Richard
Respect for Traditional Values
General behaviors
Respect for Traditional Values is a measure of how an individual feels towards his/her religion, traditional role in the family, traditional place in society, traditional belief in the emotional value of hard work, etc. An individual from a culture with a Respect for Traditional Values orientation will hold to the same beliefs as his parents generation and believe that such continuity achieves the best possible life.
This often means: respect for elders, a belief in the virtue of following religious principles, especially those that describe duties (things you do for people) and obligations (things you owe people) and your place in the family and society.
At work individuals with this orientation tend not to rock the boat and to expect process to remain unchanged. Change will be seen as disruptive and likely to lead to bad consequences.
In a business context this cultural orientation is often associated with Asian countries, currently this orientation may be even more important to appreciate in terms of Islamic cultures.
Examples or Articles
Specific behaviors associated with China
Examples or Articles
Richard
Continuum
General behaviors
Continuum is a measure of the relationship individuals believe exists between the past, present, and future as often represented in business by a life-cycle model. In a Continuum-orientation culture individuals tend to look at projects holistically as part of a continuum starting in the past running through the present and continuing into the future. For such individuals, stages or phases are artificial constructs that are not helpful, in fact they may believe that phases are unnecessary and perhaps even get in the way of making the best decisions.
In the realm of software development, individuals with a Continuum-orientation may not differentiate planning, design, development, testing, and production. When discussing a product they may make it sound as if the product is completed even if it is just in the planning phase, for in their mind there is no meaningful difference between planning and production ... eventually the product will be in production.
People from cultures with a Continuum Orientation may have difficulty or even not see the importance of setting priorities.
Examples or Articles
Specific behaviors associated with China
The Chinese is one of the cultures that does not attempt to break goals or projects into a series of descrete tasks but rather considers things to be part of a continuum. Generally this cultural preference is said to be a Long Term Orientation where challenges are considered as a whole and the present is viewed as formed by the past and hence is important to consider when planning for the future.
Incultures with this type of perspective, it is often difficult to distinguish what is planned, what is in development, what is being tested, and what is in production, for all will be described as "existing".
When meeting with people from such cultures do not be surprised if a short comment on what to do is prefaced by a longer speech describing how the situation came to be what it presently is.
Examples or Articles
Richard
Pursuit of Career Success
General behaviors
Pursuit of Career Success is a measure of what an individual believes is most important in life. In Pursuit of Career Success cultures, doing well at ones job is valued more than spending time with ones family or friends or attaining personal fulfillment. Individuals from Pursuit of Career Success cultures usually value power, money, things, or status over free time, family time, and self-actualization.
Examples or Articles
Specific behaviors associated with China
Examples or Articles
Richard
In-Group Collectivism
General behaviors
In-group collectivism is ’the degree to which individuals express pride, loyalty, and cohesiveness in their organizations or families’. Organizations in which members hold loyalty more to the organization rather than to personal gain would be an example of high in-group collectivism.
In-Group Collectivism, similar to Individualism, can result in a barrier to social safety net programs and corporate governance mandates associated with cultures with Collectivist or Institutional Collectivism orientations. This results from the preference of the In-Group to care for and protect itself without concern for those outside of the group.
Examples or Articles
Special Challenges Resulting From In-Group Collectivism
This is a Summary, Please click the link for the entire article
Special Challenges Resulting From In-Group Collectivism
A challenge faced by cultures having a strong In-Group Collectivist orientation is optimally distributing decision making authority. The tendency is to keep all decision making within the In-Group.
This creates a situation where two cultures with similar cultural orientations still face serious challenges Two cultures with strong orientations for In-Group Collectivism and Trust in Relationships, such as Brazil and China, will both be hesitant to distribute decision making authority, and not to Trust those outside of their group, yet both will believe that Trust in Relationships are required to form successful business associations.
When China set up businesses in Brazil, Brazilian workers complained that their Chinese employers didn’t understand the country’s culture of developing personal relationships among co-workers, and bristled against a centralized office hierarchy that put little trust in local executives.
Specific behaviors associated with China
This cultural dimension was added primarily to describe the Chinese who within the family group are very collective. The family itself, however, exhibits very individualistic behaviors. If a Chinese individual is acting for their family, the well-being of the family will always come before the good of any other group or larger group within which the family my reside.
In China this means that family members will often be promoted ahead of more competent non-family members. Also social responsibility comes after the well-being of the family.
This cultural behavior often prevents Chinese businesses from growing past the family owned and run phase.
Decision Making
In China communication tends to be very efficient because of their information-flow at work and in privacy. They discuss everything in advance and consider meetings as an official ceremony where the already commonly agreed decision will be announced. This is important in the way of giving and keeping face. The Americans and Germans in contrast inform the participating attendants in a meeting about the hard and necessary facts. The decission-making process takes place within the meeting. To French it is similar with their Asian counterparts. They are also well informed before they meet each other. Much explicit and detailed discussions would probably seen as an insult because everything is already clear.
Examples or Articles
--Share experiences for this country and this UCD -->Richard
Particularist
General behaviors
Individuals from Particularist cultures tend to believe that circumstances and personal relationships dictate how ideas and practices should be applied. An example often cited is ’If you were in a car driven by a friend, the friend was going 40 mph in a 25 mph zone, your friend hit a pedestrian, you were the only witness, and your friend’s lawyer asks you to, under oath, testify that your friend was only driving 25 mph, what would you do?’ Individuals from a culture with a Particularist orientation, such as many South American cultures, would lie for their friend.
A Paraticularist may say of a Universalist, ’You cannot trust them; they would not even help a friend.’
Examples or Articles
Specific behaviors associated with China
Examples or Articles
Richard
Ascription
General behaviors
Ascription is a measure of how status is accorded to people. Ascription means that status is attributed to you by things like birth, kinship, gender, age, interpersonal connections, or educational record.
It is not what you know, it is who you know that is important.
Ascription-oriented societies or organizations, justify their hierarchies by claiming the senior people have the power-to-get-things-done.
In an ascription-oriented culture people will ask where you studied and only if they are not familiar with your university or do not think highly of your university might they ask what you studied.
If you come from a culture with an Achievement-orientation and you are working with subordinates from a culture with an Ascriptive-orientation:
Examples or Articles
Specific behaviors associated with China
Examples or Articles
Richard
Emotional (Affective)
General behaviors
Communication
Emotional is a measure of how comfortable individuals are sharing their feelings with others, often relative strangers. Sharing feelings is usually done through physical actions: smiling, touching, being animated (or not), and verbally: through excited speech, or taciturn speech, loudness or quietness. In Emotional-oriented cultures, emotions are open and naturally expressed, such as laughing, smiling, grimacing, scowling, and gesturing. Statements may be made in a dramatic way using touch, gestures, and facial expressions to underline the words. People tend to talk loudly and excitedly.
Decision Making and Negotiation
Decisions may be made based on emotion and intuition.
Examples or Articles
Specific behaviors associated with China
Trompenaar’s
Examples or Articles
Richard
Trust in Relationships
General behaviors
Relationships are the basis of trust. They are more important than truth/honesty, ability, performance, or contracts.
In such cultures individuals must get to know one another before entering into any type of business arrangement. This may take a long time. Often the first and sometimes even the second meeting, will start with a great deal of getting-to-know-you talk, and will never involve discussing business.
Once a business partnership is established, in Trust in Relationship cultures, they tend to be exceedingly long-lasting and resilient. In fact, such relationships are often a barrier to foreign businesses attempting to enter the market.
History
Countries with a Trust in Relationships orientation often have a history of a corrupt judicial system. Because one could not depend on the judicial system to fairly enforce contracts reliance on relationships became important.
Keeping track of favors and obligations
Individuals from countries with a strong Trust in Relationship orientation tend to keep a mental tally of whom they have done favors for and who have done them favors. Favors MUST be repaid. Failure to repay a favor when requested can seriously damage a relationship, even destroy a relationship forever. At times, the inability to repay a favor, or debt, in a timely manor can cause extreme loss of face.
It is not what you know, it is who you know that is important.
When starting projects, individuals from cultures that hold relationships to be very important may insist on identifying project team members before identifying tasks.
Trust in relationship cultures tend to form fewer friendships but these last a lifetime.
In countries with Trust in Relationships orientation it is usually best if you can get a business introduction through a third party that is know and trusted by the party you wish to do business with.
Everything is Negotiable
In countries with Trust in Relationships orientation all things can be negotiated at all times. Business partners are expected to be sensitive to the needs of each other. If family matters require it, a little extra time is negotiable, unless it has been made ultra clear that in this limited instance time is of the essence.
Examples or Articles
Specific behaviors associated with China
Until you have developed a trust relationship with Chinese peers, subordinates, and especially those of higher status, do not attempt to negotiate the applicability of culture based behaviors.
Once you have won the trust of your Chinese staff, peers, and (approaching them very carefully) those of higher status, you can explain to them your views regarding their culture-based sensitivities. Explain that even though you very much appreciate their way of communicating, and working, they still have to keep in mind that the corporate goal is important to you and this means that all of you will have to find a healthy balance between meeting culture-based needs and business goals.
Evidence of China’s strong Trust in Relationships Orientation is the number of lawyers per capita. In 2009, China had 190,000 lawyers out of a population of 1.3 billion; that is 1 lawyer for every 6,842 Chinese or .00015 lawyers per capita, while in 2009 there was 1 lawyer for every 306 Americans or .033 lawyers per capita.
Examples or Articles
China’s Legal System Fosters Trust in Relationships at the possible expense of innovation
This is a Summary, Please click the link for the entire article
China’s Legal System Fosters Trust in Relationships at the possible expense of innovation
One consequence of China’s strong Trust in Relationships Orientation and accompanying lack of trust in institutions may be its seeming lack of corporate innovation.
A strong Trust in Relationship orientation is often accompanied by an ineffective legal system, which is the case in China, and some China consultants believe, a key problem for Chinese businesses is a comparative lack of legal protection.
Chinese Apparent Disregard for Intellectual Property Protection
This is a Summary, Please click the link for the entire article
Chinese Apparent Disregard for Intellectual Property Protection
Read 5 min - Think 20 min
Companies doing business in China need to take special precautions when it comes to protecting trade secrets. For the past decade, China has been the top source of intellectual property rights violations, according to a report by US customs, immigration, and border protection.
To some extent, this is due to the big bad world of industry where competition is fierce. Chinese companies, once they acquire the needed technology, will often abandon their Western partners on the pretext the technology or product failed to meet Chinese governmental regulations.
William P. Alford, director of East Asian legal studies at Harvard Law School, said American Superconductor may have a strong case, but enforcement of China’s intellectual property laws can be uneven.America is a law-oriented culture, we think when somebody has broken the law you go to court and get justice, that’s not the way it always works in China.
Richard
Power Distance
General behaviors
Power Distance is the belief that some people, by birth, age, education, or some other factor have the right to exercise power over others and that recognizing this right enables society to operate optimally with minimum chaos and maximum good for all.
Power Distance is also a measure of the extent to which less powerful members of institutions and organizations accept that power is distributed unequally. At the extreme a person completely accepts that those with higher status have the authority to make decisions that control their lives. In such cultures, the less powerful believe that those in power have their best interests at heart, and have more experience and access to better information than they do.
Power Distance is a concept first put forward by Hofstede. Hofstede’s Power Distance is used to explain, and hence includes the affects of other cultural dimensions; these are: hierarchy, ascription, a bit of trust in relationships. At Working-Globally, we believe there is sufficient independence between these additional cultural dimensions to make it useful to separate them. However, because Hofstede is the only one to attempt to quantify Power Distance, the published Power Distance values for countries includes the affect of these other cultural dimensions.
Managers Look Out For The Future of Subordinates
If you do good work you expect your boss to reward you. Your boss will take care of you. You would not go to your boss and ask when is my next promotion, what do I need to do to get to the next level, how should I develop myself, you would not have these conversations, your boss would say do this it is good for you and when the time is right he will promote you and usually it would fit a particular pattern that will fit with your expectation.
Educational practices are also affected by a culture’s PDI orientation. Teachers in cultures with a high PDI orientation are figures of authority, they are not to be questioned, they are to be listened too. Learning often does not come from discussion or personal exploration, instead learning comes from memorizing what the teacher and the text book says. In addition, learning to listen, to accept, and not to doubt authority, in school means this particular cultural orientation will change very slowly if at all even when contending with forces for change such as the internet.
Importance of Titles
Much is made of age, advanced degrees, and job titles, since these clarify hierarchical
relationships. This difference between the High PDI cultures and Low PDI cultures is reflected in the language each uses to address friends and colleagues. Americans, for example, who are Low PDI, move immediately to the use of first names in the vast majority of situations. In some areas of the United States children may call their teachers and principals by their first names. Colleagues in an office very rarely refer to each other by title or as “Mr.” or “Ms.” Koreans, however, who are High PDI, are frequently called by their titles: teacher, professor, manager, boss, and so on.
Dealing With Conflicting Status Indicators
In cultures with a high Power Distance orientation, special considerations must be made by someone in a high position who interacts with someone who is older or who may have strong fa
Examples or Articles
Airplane Crash Attibuted to High Power Distance Index
This is a Summary, Please click the link for the entire article
Airplane Crash Attibuted to High Power Distance Index
In a culture with a high Power Distance Index, it is inappropriate for a subordinate to directly confront their superior. In the case of Korean Airlines, plane crashes have been attributed to the captain making a mistake and the first officer or flight engineer not directly confronting the captain, leading to the crash. (This has also happened in cultures with a high Equality / Egality orientation, for example the crash of the Air Florida flight in Washington DC in 1982 can in part be attribute to this same reluctance of a subordinate to directly confront a superior, even though both members of the flight crew were Americans.)
As for Korean Air, they did change their culture. This was done in part by making English the official language of flight crews. This change in language, along with other training, enabled the crews to be more direct with their captains, significantly improving their safety record.
Requirement For and Content Of Business Cards
This is a Summary, Please click the link for the entire article
Requirement For and Content Of Business Cards
Read Time: 2 minutes Think Time: 3 minutes
Most cultures with a strong Power Distance orientation use business cards, not just to remember a name and telephone number, but more importantly to identify relative status positions.
In some strong Power Distance cultures, relative status affects language. In most, the relative status affects respect. As a consequence, giving one a business card, respecting the card, and putting the right information on the card is extremely important.
Specific behaviors associated with China
At 80 in Hofesteed’s research, China sits in the higher rankings of PDI - i.e. a society that believes that inequalities amongst people are acceptable. The subordinate-superior relationship tends to be polarized and there is no defense against power abuse by superiors. Individuals are influenced by formal authority and sanctions and are in general optimistic about people’s capacity for leadership and initiative. People should not have aspirations beyond their rank.
Examples or Articles
Richard
Indirect Communication (Valuing Relationships and Maintaining Harmony)
General behaviors
Indirect Communication (Relationship and Harmony) is a measure of how far individuals will go to prevent others from feeling bad or to avoid/prevent conflict.
In cultures where maintaining good relationships, maintaining the harmony of the group, and saving the ’face’ of all concerned, is important, communication patterns have evolved that convey potentially conflict raising information in a non-confrontational manner. This approach often makes outsiders who value straightforward truth irrespective of the ’truths’ affect on the feelings of others or the harmony of the group, feel they are being lied to or at least the truth is being hidden and withheld. This is not the case for members of the group or culture, because everyone within the culture will understand the situation and the real meaning of what is said; ambiguity or outright mis-statement is really only for affect.
Individuals from a Direct culture, because they misinterpret the nuance, body-language, or situational modifiers, may feel individuals from Indirect cultures lack honesty and/or truthfulness.
It is only possible for High Context cultures to be Indirect, because only in High Context cultures will everyone be expected to properly interpret what is being said.
Criticizing the Individual or the Idea
Individuals with an Indirect Communication orientation tend not to differentiate between criticizing an idea and criticizing the Individual who put forth the idea. So in a group, if you tell someone that his/her idea is no good, s/he automatically takes it personally and assumes that you are criticizing him/her.
Examples or Articles
Specific behaviors associated with China
People with different cultural backgrounds often go out of their way to communicate with others in a civil and kind manner. Nevertheless, the difference in Westerners and Chinese communication styles are so considerable that miscommunication is the rule, not the exception.
By veiling their intentions, Chinese often avoid putting someone else in a difficult position which might result in lose of face and loss of harmony. When Chinese intend to ask a favor, or must confront someone about a mistake, a discrete and indirect approach is used; the more sensitive the topic, the more cautious the approach. To openly express complaints or raise sensitive topics, which might put someone else in a poor light, is seen as very injurious by the Chinese, not just injurious for the moment but potentially injurious for all time.
This indirect approach is seldom appreciated by Westerners. Western culture favors a tell me how it is strategy. Often Westerners react to the Chinese indirect manner of approaching sensitive topics by saying things like "Stop beating around the bush, and get on with it". If a Western manager doesn’t say this, s/he nevertheless may be thinking it when dealing with Chinese who are indirectly asking for a favor or expressing a complaint.
Chinese do appreciate well made comparisons and analogies that help make a point without being blunt. A Western negotiator figured out a way to tell his Chinese counterpart that he wanted to take bigger steps forward by using as an analogy, a pair of new wooden clogs still tied together. If he and his business partner reached an impasse, he would take the business partner out to dinner, attempting to enhance their relationship, and during dinner he would pull out the Dutch clogs that were tied together and say ’to this point we, like this pair of clogs, have done business with the rope still attached and have taken tiny steps forward as the rope restrained us from making bigger ones. I believe it is time to cut the rope today towards a brighter future. You are in the one clog and I am in the other and we need to learn how to take bigger steps together.’ Chinese very much appreciate this kind of humor and subtlety.
Examples or Articles
Richard
Circular Thinking
General behaviors
Individuals from a culture with a Circular/Random thinking orientation use indirection when speaking or writing. When discussing a topic, individuals tend to describe the topic from many points of view and perspectives, often described as turning and turning in a circular or spiral movement or path. These circles or spirals turn around the subject and show it from a variety of tangential views, but the subject is never looked at directly. Things are developed in terms of what they are not, rather than in terms of what they are.
What Linear Thinkers Tend to Think of Circular Thinkers
Such an approach strikes an individual from a culture with a Linear Thinking orientation as awkward and unnecessarily indirect, unnecessarily long, and is often found to be difficult to follow and confusing
Examples or Articles
Specific behaviors associated with China
Examples or Articles
Richard
Variable Priority
General behaviors
Individuals with a Variable Priority orientation believe that conditions are constantly changing and as a result, the most effective way to get things done is to constantly reassess priorities and change them, on the fly, without notifying anyone, as conditions appear to warrant.
Culture with Variable Priority orientations tend to be Relationship oriented, and Work Hard oriented.
Another behavior noted in cultures with a Variable Priority orientation is that the work day often extends beyond the normal 9-5 hours.
Examples or Articles
Specific behaviors associated with China
Chinese are not accustomed to prioritizing tasks and activities in the larger picture and so you must foster this new approach in order to achieve the results you want. You can start by giving them specific tasks, explain how the result fits with the general goal and after each task is competed, check the final result. Then you can move on to the next task, check the results and so on. According to many Chinese, Westerners explain things inadequately and rarely use a follow-up system, which means after the short explanation, the Chinese worker is on his own without any support or back-up from his superiors. This situation will not enable him to learn from his mistakes in a positive manner, which is what everyone concerned should be aiming for.
Note:- The Chinese orientation for Circular Thinking and Speaking means they are used to more holistic explanation than many westerners whose orientation is for Linear Thinking and Speaking. Also the Chinese Continuum orientation means they tend not to think in terms of short discrete tasks.
Examples or Articles
Richard
High Reciprocity
General behaviors
Individuals with a High Reciprocity Orientation believe it is very important to maintain relationships and also believe that one of the best ways to maintain a relationship is to repay or be willing to repay any favor done by the other party. In such cultures, not only does the recipient of a favor feel they must repay favors, the one doing the favor expects that the favor will be repaid. To some extent, individuals from High Reciprocity cultures, keep a mental tally of all favors given (debts owed them), and all favors accepted (debts that they owe). Over time this give and take of favors, usually taking part in a culture that is Strongly Personal/Relational, often results in business partnership that have substantial resiliency.
Long-Term Implications of Conflict
Individuals with a High Reciprocity Orientation are more likely to see conflicts as a loss of harmony with long-term implications for the relationship. They do not see arguments, especially public disagreements, as part of a normal decision making or conflict resolution process necessary for healthy relationships. They see the argument as undermining the relationship, and because Strong Reciprocity requires long-term memory, the long-term memory of an argument has long term consequences for the relationship.
Examples or Articles
Specific behaviors associated with China
Examples or Articles
Richard
Strongly Personal/Relational
General behaviors
Individuals with a Strongly Personal/Relational orientation believe that people are happiest and get the most done when they support one another. They believe that most good things come from individuals helping one another, not simply relying on their own ability. They tend to value friends, family, and colleagues over everything else, consequently they consider time and actions spent maintaining relationships to be extremely important. Individuals with a Strongly Personal/Relational orientation often consider forming, nurturing, and maintaining relationships to be more important than other factors such as: contracts, schedules, rules, laws, expertise, and achievement.
Relationships Should Come Before Business
In countries with a Strongly Personal/Relational Orientation, personal relationships have an overwhelming importance within the business cycle. In particular, such cultures believe that relationships should come before business, rather than business being more important than personal considerations. In such cultures, in order to achieve success, it is important to put the maximum amount of time and resource into the early stages of relationship building -- even when eventual results may seem a long way off.
Relationship Maintenance Takes Time
In strongly Relational cultures, your time is not always your own. Invitations from co-workers and group activities can only be turned down at the risk of damaging your relationship with individuals and the group. As a result people in cultures that are strongly Relational tend to have significantly less private time than do people from impersonal cultures.
The Consequences of Conflict
In cultures with a strong Relational orientation, conflicts and excessively strong arguments, can have long-lasting consequences and for this reason are avoided as much as possible. In contrast, individuals from Impersonal cultures may consider arguments to ’clear the air’ and be generally beneficial in resolving conflict. In Impersonal cultures, arguments are usually quickly forgotten and have no long term consequences.
Examples or Articles
Specific behaviors associated with China
Examples or Articles
Richard
Humility
General behaviors
Humility is used as a measure of how Individuals describe themselves, their successes, their competencies, and their experience. An Individual with a Humility orientation believes that one should show modesty when discussing successes or not discuss them at all. Humility, also considered as self-deprecation is often seen as a characteristic of extremely relationship-based cultures where it is more a manifestation of not wanting to stick out than it is true humility. Note:- Like collectivism, humility has an individual and institutional dimension.
Examples or Articles/b>
Specific behaviors associated with China
Self-promotion (bragging) is generally frowned upon in China.
Examples or Articles
Richard
Advertising Across Market Segment
Description
In China, where [high context, collectivism, and strong respect for tradition] converge, a good quality product is one that can be enjoyed by a large number-preferably all consumers. This is especially evident in advertisements for food and beverages. A very common set phrase in food advertisements is that the product is enjoyed by "men and women, old and young alike." TV commercials will substantiate that message by showing a typical extended family, consisting of three generations, all indulging in the food or drink that is being promoted.
Richard
Soft Selling
Description
Chinese marketing is often highly context-dependent and holistic. Turn the television on, and if you are not from China you may not know what is being advertised even if you understand the words. As in most high-context cultures, advertising in China often involves a context that is meant to trigger associations among Chinese viewers.
When we call cultures “high context”, we are really saying that many of life’s or business’ interactions involve things that are commonly known; and many actions or words induce common feelings. When we call cultures “low context” we are really saying there is very little of life’s or business’ interactions that are commonly known and very few actions or words (though there may be specific cases that do) induce common feelings.
High-context cultures like Japan, with a great amount of shared information, tend to practice the "soft sell." However, Americans and Europeans in Japan frequently complain that they do not know what commercials are actually selling; the appeal relies to such a great extent on information or feelings already shared by most Japanese that only a fully informed member of the culture understands the connotation.
In America, a joke based on an advertising slogan that lasted for more than a decade, and hence is know to almost all Americans illustrates what is going on in a High Context culture like Japan. The joke is as follows:
One day a king was returning to his palace with his hunting party when he saw a huge pair of yellow hands extended on either side of the narrow pass. If he rode between them, would they suddenly close? So he tapped a page boy on the shoulder. "Go between those hands," he said. The boy passed safely, as did the whole hunting party, and the moral of the story is: "Let your pages do the walking through the Yellow Fingers." To understand the joke you must already be aware of the original slogan : "Let your fingers do the walking through the Yellow Pages."
This joke not only illustrates "High Context", it also illustrates the extent to which humor often relies on information or feelings shared by most people within a culture, ie. is "high context".
Richard
Activities Bond Group Membership
Description
In China it is very common for University departments to organize weekend activities such as hiking trips. Everyone usually goes on such trips. These trips encourage a “family” sense among the students which tends to remain throughout their life.
To some extent this is also true for work groups, where after work drinking is often the group event that encourages a “family” sense.
These activities enable group participants to get to know one another’s lives, not just what they do at work, but everything about them. This in turn increases the shared “context” of all group members.
These networks are often used to meet business requirements.
Richard
Family connections and loyalty carry over into business
Description
Senior managers will trust their family over others or simply feel obligated to keep as much business control as possible within the family. Nepotism, which in nations with an Individualistic orientation is thought to be bad, is considered to be right and proper who can be trusted to be loyal as much as a member of the family and why would you want wealth to pass away from the family when you can keep it within the family? are statements you may hear in a nation with an In-Group Collectivism orientation, where the family is the In-Group.
Richard
Introductions and Initial contacts are usually made through trusted third parties
Description
It is important to have connections to someone who can introduce you before attempting to do business on your own. People from nations with a trust in relationship orientation prefer to do business with those they know, so having someone to introduce you will be of immense benefit to your business relationship.
Richard
Business First Requires a Personal Relationship
Description
In China, individuals will not enter into a business relationship, or in some cases even consider discussing business, until they feel they can trust their counter-party. This may take a long time. Often the first and sometimes even the second meeting, will start with a great deal of getting-to-know-you talk, and will never involve discussing business.
Arriving at a feeling of trust requires getting a sense of the counter-party: is s/he a family person, does s/he have children, what hobbies and interests might the individual and counter-party share.
Only after a personal relationship has been established will a business relationship be considered. AND it often takes several meetings to establish a sufficient personal relationship.
Richard
Customer more loyal to salesperson than to product
Description
In China salespeople have to develop a relationship with potential customers before they can sell them anything. In China, for example, because the salesperson’s relationship with the customer is personalized, that customer is more loyal to the salesperson than to the product. Consequently if the salesperson were to leave and to work for another company, customers would follow.
Richard
The Meaning Of Contracts
Description
Misunderstandings often arise over the issue of contracts. While most of the large international Chinese companies have learnt the meaning of contracts, companies less accustomed to international business may not have. The problem is that Chinese and individuals with a Trust in Institutions and Contracts orientation, view contracts differently. To some Chinese, a contract is merely a general guide for conducting business. It is assumed that after agreements are signed, concessions will be made. A change in conditions, some Chinese assume, may invalidate the details of a particular contract and, for them, a contract is not as important as the interpersonal relationship between the two parties. In China a contract made between two people who do not trust each other has little value. Fortunately, an increasing number of Chinese now recognize that contracts are legally binding but it is still necessary to be aware of the other view.
Those working in China would be wise not only to check the contract they are signing very carefully, but to find out as much as they can about the company and/or individual making the contract. Do not hesitate to insist that certain things be put in or taken out of the agreement, even if they seem minor. For example, though you are told that appliances will be included in the furnished flat, ask for those appliances to be clearly written in the contract. When executing an employment contract, whenever possible, make contact with others who have worked for the same organization to find out about their experiences.
RFPs (Request For Proposals)
Another area of confusion that often arises between Trust in Relationship vs Trust in Institutions and Contracts cultures is that of the RFP. RFPs are often used to initiate a bidding process for a service contract.
In Trust in Institution cultures, RFPs are made as precise and unambiguous as possible. When a company enters a bid for the work described in the RFP a company is expected to submit a fixed price and is expected to perform the precise work defined in the RFP.
In China, the RFP is often made as general and ambiguous as possible. A company entering a bid, may also be required to submit a fixed price, but in this case the bidder really doesn’t know the details of the work they will be expected to perform. Because of this uncertainty, the submitted prices tend to be significantly higher than in Trust in Institution cultures. In China, the purchaser of the service Trusts that whatever they request will be done as part of the agreement. However, the service provider also Trusts that if the request is for something neither side originally envisioned, the purchaser will properly compensate the provider.
Richard
No Direct Questioning of a Superior
Description
In China, subordinates believe it is their role NOT to question the statements or decisions of someone with higher status, even if they believe the statements or decisions to be wrong.
Those in power are expected to use their power wisely, for the good of all. Along with higher status is an expectation of greater knowledge and better understanding.
In China, NOT criticizing, contradicting, or questioning, a supervisor is considered proper and appropriate behavior. Criticizing is considered to be disrespectful and can result in punishment.
If one calls the clarity of a manager’s instructions into question, this may be considered a form of criticism. As a result, in China, subordinates seldom ask for clarification. So a manager must be very careful to determine whether or not an instruction or an "agreement" has been correctly understood.
Richard
Subordinates Do Not Have The Authority To Make Decisions
Description
In China, subordinates to not believe that it is their responsibility or even within their job description, to make decisions. This includes promising to meet schedules, making agreements, or guessing what the right requirement is when requirements are ambiguous.
Richard
Subordinates Expect To Be Told What To Do
Description
In China, when a question arises, especially due to an ambiguous requirement, a subordinate, rather than take a guess will often do nothing. They will wait until their manager or someone else of higher rank tells them exactly what should be done. Because of this, requirements must be precisely defined. Progress also must be continuously monitored to quickly detect when work has been halted awaiting a decision or clarification.
Richard
Do Not Expect Subordinates To Take Initiatives that incur risks
Description
In this culture, this is a corollary of Subordinates expect to be told what to do. This culture believes that if subordinates start making their own decisions, chaos will ensue.
In some nations with a hierarchical orientation, initiative may be taken so long as the initiative conforms to a well defined process or set of rules. This tends to be true more for European nations than for Asian nations. The key is to understand what actions or initiatives are considered to be risky by the nationality.
Richard
Work stops! Awaiting decisions from above
Description
You may hear statements such as "I can’t start working on this report until I have all the information, I just can’t start when I only have half the information."
Richard
Managers expected to make decisions without asking staff for recommendations
Description
In China, a manager who asks his/her subordinates, for example, a project team leader who asks team members, in a meeting, for recommendations may bewilder the project team and lose the respect of the project team.
Managers may ask subordinates, one-on-one to evaluate or study options and get back to the manager with information, but a subordinate would consider a manager who asked the subordinate to make a decision or give a recommendation to be unfit to be a manager.
Managers will usually have colleagues, friends, or family that they will go to to get recommendations ... NOT subordinates.
Richard
Difficulty asking a manager for help
Description
In cultures with a Power Distance orientation subordinates feel very uncomfortable about asking a manager, that is someone of higher status, for help. Asking for help feels like acting disrespectfully because there is an implicit accusation that the manager has not adequately prepared the subordinate or adequately explained what is to be done. Asking for help also incurs a loss of face for the subordinate for they are admitting in a way that they have failed. To avoid these negative feelings, a subordinate may attempt to indirectly ask his/her manager for help. Some of the phrases that might be used are:
If you detect that a subordinate needs help, keep in mind that as his/her manager you have a responsibility to provide the help without causing your subordinate to lose face.
Richard
Managers do not empower subordinates
Description
In China bosses do not empower subordinates. Subordinates are expected to check-in constantly to get the boss’s OK. Subbordinates should never act empowered.
Richard
The Purpose of Meetings
Description
In China, meetings are usually not held for the purpose of open discussion and there is no expectation of reaching a decision. Traditionally, meetings are held for the purpose of communicating direct instructions from the boss to subordinates, or for disseminating information.
Meetings between peers, where no one of higher status is present, may be used for open discussion and exchange of ideas, but again there is almost never an expectation that a decision will be made at such a meeting.
Richard
Only Negotiate With Someone Of Equal Status
Description
If you are negotiating with a Chinese company and your counterpart within the Chinese company is not at the same status as you, and especially if progress is slow or nonexistent, the chances are they are trying to send you a message and the message is "they are not interested".
Richard
Peers do not use the word NO when answering peers
Description
In societies with an Indirect orientation individuals find it very difficult to say NO to requests; both requests for information (even if they do not know) and requests for favors. However, this does not mean that NO is not communicated. The NO is communicated without saying the word NO. It may be communicated by using ambiguous expressions such as ’that may be difficult’ or it may be communicated by saying ’no problem’ but with body language that implies there may be a problem. Other individuals from the same society will usually understand that NO has been implied. Individuals from other societies, however, will have difficulty understanding that NO has been implied.
Individuals from less direct societies or simply different societies may need to ask questions that do not have a yes or no for an answer. Often it is helpful in such instances to plead ignorance and ask for a more direct answer.
Richard
A lack of an emphatic "yes" usually means "no"
Description
Chinese often have great difficulty saying no. Subconsciously, saying NO just doesn't feel right. Consciously it may feel disrespectful, might be thought to make the one asking lose face, or even make the one saying NO lose face. Often the "no" is conveyed as body language understood within the culture, or as ambiguity commonly understood within the culture. In either case the way "no" is communicated will not be understood by someone from a different culture. As a consequence, when working with Chinese one must never accept the absence of "no" to mean yes. Instead, in the absence of an emphatic yes one must seek an answer using different words and a different approach.
Richard
10+ Ways one can lose face through direct communication
Description
The following are ways you can cause someone to lose face by using direct communication:
When ever you put someone with Indirect Communication orientation in a face losing situation, expect that person to answer in a face saving manner. This means expect the answer to be ambiguous. If the answer is ambiguous assume the worst because that is what others from an Indirect Communication culture would do.
Richard
Ways to Say "NO" without ever saying no
Description
The following are ways that Chinese say "NO" without using the word NO
Richard
Making requests without risking rejection
Description
When Chinese have a request to make, and are not sure if the other person can agree to it (that the other person might need to say no) - they never actually make the request. Instead they make it clear through comments and observations that they could use some help if the other person was so inclined, then wait to see how the other person responds. If the person is willing to help, they will offer it. If they are unable or not willing, they will say nothing. This avoids the awkward position of having to turn down the "request" because no request was ever made.
Richard
Responding negatively to a new idea or proposal
Description
Managers who have an Indirect Orientation will try to respond negatively in a face-saving manner. This means they will not say bluntly "this is a bad idea", instead they may do one of the following (or something similar):
Richard
Tips for Direct Communication Managers working in Indirect Communication countries
Description
If you want Indirect Communicators to be more direct, you have to tell them several times, and give them time to get used to being what they regard as impolite. Give strong positive feedback as soon as you see them communicating in a more direct manner.
Don't telegraph the answer you want. They will say what they think you want to hear. Don't say, "That won't take long, will it?" or "Can you get it done by Friday?" If you really want to know what they think, don't begin by telling them what you think.
Richard
Correcting and also Explaining Things That Should Be Known
Description
It is very seldom in China that someone will correct you or explain things to you. [This is especially true if the knowledge is part of one of China's many High Context domains. You are supposed to know, and they get quite upset when you don't. Hall BEYOND CULTURE chap 7
This is due to the strongly reciprocal orientation and importance of harmony orientation. Correcting someone breaks the harmony of the group and may cause someone to lose face, which is a negative for reciprocity, that means that person corrected now has a good reason to do something negative back, or the person making the correction must perform some associated positive favor. Explaining something may also cause a person to lose face or may cause the person receiving the explanation to incur a debt. It is not so much that the Chinese get upset because you don’t know something, Chinese get upset because you place them in a difficult position no matter what they do, hence you cause them significant stress!
Richard
Keeping track of favors and obligations
Description
Chinese tend to keep a mental tally of whom they have done favors for and who have done them favors. Favors MUST be repaid. Failure to repay a favor when requested can seriously damage a relationship, even destroy a relationship forever. At times, the inability to repay a favor, or debt, in a timely manor can cause extreme loss of face.
Richard
Business Partnerships Are Built on Reciprocal Favors and Sacrifice
Description
Competitors in Japan, Southeast Asia and other cultures with a High Reciprocity Orientation are so formidable because they tend to develop relationships rather than simply develop themselves. While American suppliers (with Low Reciprocity Orientation) will rarely behave so as to lose money on a specific contract, Japanese suppliers, for example, will sacrifice several contracts to build up a relationship with a customer they believe to be important. As an example, given norms of reciprocity and obligation in Japan, a supplier who overfulfills his contract-or in other words, does more than what is specified in it-can expect to see next month's order doubled or quadrupled, in an attempt to repay his kindness. In cultures with a High Reciprocity orientation, you are not expected to meet specifications, you are expected to surpass them; the more you do for your customer the more he will do for you, in a system of escalating reciprocity on both sides. Westerners, who usually have a Low Reciprocity Orientation, wonder why it is so hard to break into the Japanese market... It is hard to break into any relationship where A and B have "sacrificed" themselves to each other many times over.
Richard
The Meaning of Service - Not Charging for Extras
Description
China, with its strong orientation for High Reciprocity defines service different from that of cultures with a Low Reciprocity orientation. Chinese believe that a supplier should not profit from service. Even after the sale is completed, the needs of the customer should still be met. Trying to profit from service may damage a company's relationship with its customers. In China, the customer always expects to get something extra, in the form of discounts , free gifts, or free help in the event of problems. A supplier who charges for every service rendered is not appreciated. If fees for specific services are not explicitly mentioned in the contract, a Chinese customer could well expect to get them for free. This is especially true in cultures that also have a very strong orientation to Strong Personal/Relational.
Richard
Business and Pleasure - Selling a Product and Yourself/Your Company
Description
"Business before pleasure" is a proverb that is at odds with (that is, contradicts) the way Chinese actually conduct business.
Business can never be successful without a certain amount of pleasure. Business seminars are a good example of this. Seminars are a convenient way to introduce products in China, where traveling can be cumbersome and time consuming. However, Chinese expect a seminar to be a combination of business and a holiday. Seminars are usually held at resort-type places, and the organizers pay special attention to the quality of the meals. The social interaction during breakfast , lunch , and dinner is at least as important as that during the formal seminar sessions and the last day is usually kept open for social activities like sightseeing. For that reason, if a product is to be introduced in a seminar that would normally take two days, this should be extended to three days in China.
Another affect of the Strongly Personal/Relation orientation of Chinese seminars is that after dinner, business and casual chatting are often intermingled. A good tip for companies that think of organizing seminars in China is to reserve a conference room for the evening as well.
Richard
Relationship Building vs “High Pressure” Salesmanship
Description
The American "high pressure" salesmanship, which is a common behavior in cultures with a very strong Impersonal orientation, is the direct antithesis to the Chinese. The result, of course, is that if there is an established market in China, Americans and individuals from other cultures with an Impersonal orientation, will encounter more resistance than they are used to. One does not move in and win the Chinese overnight
Richard
Ways to Build and Maintain Collegial Business Relationships
Description
One of the best ways to begin a relationship is to look for things you have in common, such as hobbies, travel experiences, past residences and current social activities. The more fun people have together, the more connected and comfortable they feel.
During these early social activities, your Chinese work associates will be watching you carefully, trying to determine if you are of good character, flexible, sensitive to other people and willing to share yourself with them. They will observe your attitude about China and Chinese and will ask about your impressions of their country. Note that your answers should include only things you like about China . Once you have known someone for a long time and have a close and open relationship you might mention things you don’t like, but be prepared for a negative response to such openness. In addition, you will likely be asked personal questions that may seem intrusive but the purpose is to get to know you better and to find out areas of mutual interest. While you do not have to answer questions you are uncomfortable answering, keeping all your thoughts and experiences to yourself will not be in your best interest.
Richard
The Importance of Introductions and Affect of Status
Description
Introductions are not taken lightly in China. In many Western countries, if two people happen to be at the same place at the same time with a mutual friend, the latter will casually introduce them. In China, an introduction (called So gae in Korea) permanently changes the way two people relate to each other in the future. Introducing a person of relatively little status to someone of higher status is uncommon.
Before two people meet for the first time, their mutual friend will probably give both some background information on the person they are about to meet. When they actually meet, there is a ritual which is invariably followed. If one person is sitting when another (standing) is to be introduced, the former will stand up. This is true of women and of men.
In China, which has both a Strongly Relational orientation and a high PDI (considers status to be very important), the exchange of business cards is mandatory. This is because knowling a person’s status is critical.
Knowing a person’s status is critical, since the proper language level to be used depends on the two people’s positions. Until they know, they will both use very formal, respectful language.
Once introduced, they can talk. Much of the early conversation will consist of personal questions, seeking some connection that will make them feel closer. Some common factors sought are previous schools attended, home town and hobbies. If one person is obviously older than the other, he will begin addressing the younger in more intimate language.
Rarely do Chinese introduce themselves to someone with whom they have no connection. It does sometimes happen that two people strike up a conversation, perhaps sitting next to each other on a long bus ride, or when a query leads to a longer conversation. Before they part, one will say ’I guess we don’t know one another’s names’ They will then say their names, bow and exchange cards. A future relationship will have been established.
Richard
Managers are Responsible For Setting and Meeting Deadlines
Description
In China, supervisors are accountable for meeting deadlines and for the results of decisions. For this reason, subordinates will seldom make decisions or commit to schedules on their own, for this would be considered an improper overstepping of their authority.
Richard
Information is Power
Description
In China, subordinates provide information to their managers NOT anyone who might need the information to do their job. Subordinates believe it is their responsibility to support their manager and expect in return that their manager will honor his duty to protect the promote them. Keeping information and sharing it only with their manager helps keep their manager in a position of power.
Richard
Always greet the most senior person first and work your way to the least senior
Description
In China, when first meeting a group of people, it is important that you shake hands and greet
the most senior person first. Usually the oldest person in the room has the most
seniority, but you might find there is another person who has stepped in to make the decisions.
In China, always try to find out titles and status of the people you are meeting
beforehand so you can show the right amount of respect.
Richard
Moving Along The Hierarchy Often Slows Decisions
Description
Often what seem like relatively simple decisions can take Chinese managers hours or even days to make. And during the wait one has little idea of when one might get a decision or what the decision is likely to be.
Chinese have a very strong hierarchy orientation: titles, positions and age determine one’s status and authority which should be recognized and respected by those of lower rank. There are many more layers of management and often more complex decisions go through a layered approval system which takes time.
If you try to speed up the process, by attempting to help the Chinese managers make their decision, Chinese with their hierarchical culture, which requires them to pass decisions up the chain of command, are likely to become uncomfortable and resistant, though their need to maintain harmony may prevent them from explaining why they are resistant. This often results in Westerners saying that Chinese are passive resistant.
Another possible cause for these delays is sometimes the result of Chinese managers feeling disrespected which can happen inadvertently if westerners fail to follow the Chinese rules associated with hierarchy and status. If violating these rules results in loss of face, delaying a decision, especially for minor decisions, may be a form of payback.
Richard
The Structure of Meetings
Description
In China, meeting structure tends to be fluid. Agendas may or may not be created, but even if they exist, they are not likely to be followed. Topics come and go while points are raised and dropped accordingly. Tangents and red herrings are frequent. Individuals with fixed priority orientations may bring along their own agenda and use it to tick off points as and when they are covered. However, trying to bend the whole meetings to a rigid agenda will be futile - the best that can be hoped for is to steer the conversation in a desired direction.
Richard
Richard, Based on Your Answers to the "Know Yourself Questionnaire For China", Your Cultural Preferences Compared to China Are:
Click each tab to see all the information. Expand headings for details.
The second tab contains a research-based description of Chinese business and social culture. Click on each cultural characteristic for detailed information.
Working Globally provides information and business guidance for more than 100 countries.
Join Working Globally to access all the features of the Working Globally website
IT’s FREE!!