WHAT DOES PATIENCE MEAN IN CHINESE BUSINESS ?

       Chinese negotiators seem to have no deadline to get things done, they take their time, ask many questions meticulously and clarify every detail, they look to establish a friendly long-term relationship before moving ahead to agreeing terms (Woo, Prud’homme, 1999). However, foreign negotiators should not show any sign of annoyance because of the length of the process, on the contrary, they should be patient.


     Expatriate managers declare that it is important to have a great deal of patience and refrain from becoming irritated when negotiating with the Chinese. Sometimes, the source of irritation for multinational companies is mainly due to the fact that on the one hand, even the Chinese counterparts are often very flexible and can solve issues rapidly (issues that would have taken much longer time to solve in the West), on the other hand, a very simple issue, from a Western perspective, could take ages to get solved.

      Occasionally, the Chinese want to give the appearance that something is in a terrible hurry and that matters, have to be dealt with quickly. This is mainly done to make their counterparts give concessions easily. Generally speaking, when it comes to deadlines, the Chinese are very flexible, they even are used sometimes as a tactic in negotiations. 

     According to Woo and Prud’homme, negotiating with the Chinese can be a very lengthy and time-consuming process, which explains why foreign customers/investors usually multiply the trips to China or their duration of stay in China is mostly prolonged. To the Chinese, deadlines are flexible and they are not supposed to be met strictly, because patience is a virtue.

WHAT DOES HOLISTIC THINKING MEAN IN CHINESE BUSINESS ?

        As Confucianism is the philosophical foundation of the social code of conduct shaping the Chinese culture, there are some other values originating from this ancient ideology deeply rooted in the Chinese society, like the holistic thinking, because the Chinese way of thinking is in terms of the whole, in a sense that the Chinese are willing to discuss all issues haphazardly and simultaneously, while westerners think sequentially, separating the different tasks of the negotiation one by one( J.K Sebenius, C.Qian, 2008). 

        Things are usually discussed in the order they are outlined in the contract. The Chinese have a preference for the quite well-known technique, where the buyer wants to discuss and decide on every clause separately since you can then negotiate a low price in every issue, which is something that MNCs try to avoid. They do not mind discussing item by item, but when it comes to deciding on the different issues, western companies prefer to do that in conjunction with the other issues in order to form a package deal. For example, foreigners will tell their Chinese counterpart that they are willing to give them X but then they want Y in return, hence they prefer a certain reciprocity. If you decide on each issue separately, it is easy to get into a situation where you feel forced to cave in on every issue. Consequently, it seems like western companies prefer also a holistic thinking in this type, not only the Chinese.

      Empirical data does not comply with the literature, which rather states the opposite. J. Sebanius and C.Qian (2008) declare that the Chinese think in terms of the whole and not sequentially. However, breaking up complex negotiations into a series of smaller issues is essentially avoided by many international companies as well, this is mainly due to the amount of concessions that one could give in this type of approach. In the end, while exerting cross-cultural negotiations, the holistic thinking is rather an advantageous typical Chinese cultural trait which seems to gain more influence within Western companies.

WHAT DOES AMBIGUITY AND INDIRECTNESS IN DISAGREEMENTS MEAN IN CHINESE BUSINESS ?

      The cultural trait of ambiguity deals with the indirectness of Chinese people in expressing disagreements; as they avoid saying “no”, or rejecting a request. Actually, they do not want to embarrass western negotiators, especially with the presence of other people. It is somehow linked to the concept of face (H.S. Woo, C. Prud’homme, 1999). Yet the Chinese business negotiator is considered by T.Fang (2006) to be paradoxical in his behaviour, as a sincere and deceptive negotiator, because he masters the art of negotiating, perfected in the Chinese culture and tradition during centuries, particularly mixed with Confucius ideologies, therefore, the deception is when a foreign negotiator does not understand the Chinese negotiation style. 

       When a Chinese says “yes” in a negotiation, it does not necessarily have to mean “yes”, however it does not mean “no”. “Yes” often means “it seems reasonable, let’s see what we can do”, but a “yes” probably means just “yes”. The word “no” is rarely used. Instead of saying “no” in a direct manner, you have to show that you are attentive and understand their situation, their demands and why they want to do things in a certain way. An example of conveying a “no” in an appropriate manner is to say that it is very hard for us to do so, but let me see what I can do to solve this, and then I will get back to you on this issue. By expressing yourself in this way, the Chinese understand more or less that you do mean “no”. In other words, it is more about showing that you want to consider their demands that you are unable to respond to. An expatriate manager thinks that this kind of approach is good to employ in all types of negotiations, because it is much easier to continue the discussion if you do not suddenly put someone off with a distinct “no”.

       Correspondingly, the theory declares that this cultural feature perfectly defines Chinese behavior in a negotiation. The only dissimilarity between practice and theory could be found among Woo and Prud’homme (1999). It is essentially the fact that their findings state that the Chinese never say “yes” when they mean “no”, due to the concept of face. Eventually, this prevalent ambiguity in the expression of disagreements could be explained by the indirectness that Confucian principles perfected throughout the history of the Chinese civilization.

WHAT DOES TRUST AND FRIENDSHIP MEAN IN CHINESE BUSINESS ?

           Many authors included the notion of trust in the feature of Guanxi as mutual trust is a must in building relationships, however, Woo and Prud’homme (1999) considered trust as another cultural trait, because the character of a trustworthy negotiator should be direct, honest, and no hidden agendas must appear in the negotiation process. Nevertheless, J. Sebanius and C.Qian (2008) proposed three images to transform a preliminary business relationship into a warm, cooperative, and fruitful one, the first image is that of a polite, respectful, face-giving individual, the second one is that of a trustworthy negotiator, the third one is that of a caring-friend. Trust building is a difficult process and consumes too much time, but the Chinese will not do business with strangers or untrustworthy people (P. Herbig, D.Martin, 1998).

          Trust is very important when doing business in China because the Chinese do not conduct business with someone they are not familiar with. You want to understand each other on a personal level and that is crucial if an agreement is to be reached. The fact that you want to trust your business counterpart is, most likely, very common in every major business deal around the world. A basic trust between two companies is a good foundation, but these activities, Chinese partners say, are more common in the Northern provinces of China, while the south is more business-oriented. When it comes to MNCs, an expatriate manager explains that one has to remember that he have worked with his customers for about ten years, thus, they know them and the customers know the company. If a new company wants to establish business in China, it will probably take a while before any negotiations can start. A major part of the trust and friendship building activities take place long before the actual negotiation begins. 

        It is very important to MNCs to have a long-term vision and to be “a good corporate citizen”, meaning that the company gives something back to the community. For example: treating its Chinese personnel well and giving them possibilities of improving their competence to be promoted for management positions. Other ways for companies to be socially responsible are by: sponsoring different events in China, donating money to schools and even building schools, donations to support environmental projects. Therefore, showing that the company cares about China and that it wants to be part of the development of the country is a very good and important way of generating trust. In return, the Chinese understand that the company is not here to trick them, or to do things they will regret. Moreover, if you give the impression that you are in China to make fast money and do not show any interest in operating in China for years to come, then you will not gain the trust that is necessary when negotiating.

WHAT DOES RESPECT OF HIERARCHY AND SOCIAL STATUS MEAN IN CHINESE BUSINESS ?

       

      Many scholars wrote about social status and respect of hierarchy as another cultural characteristic of the Chinese business, it is given a strong visibility in Chinese business meetings, the status means the role and the position of a person in the company, the Chinese will agree to work only with a person from the same hierarchical level or a higher one (Woo, Prud’homme, 1999). However, Graham and Lam (2003) emphasized the importance of rank and status by showing its repercussions, it can ruin a business meeting with the Chinese, in a way that high-level negotiations will involve directly executives of both companies, and it has nothing to do with sales representatives. A negotiation usually requires the meeting of equals, so that more cooperation is visible. Some of the reflections of hierarchy would be how Chinese people greet themselves and address each other, who speaks during business meetings and who makes decisions (J. Sebanius,C.Qian, 2008). A social status implies directly a mutual trust between a business negotiator and his counterparts.

    The Chinese feel that hierarchy is something very important and thus the manager makes all decisions. Usually, a diminutive amount of authority and decision-making power is delegated down in the organisation since hierarchy is extremely important.

     It is very important for the Chinese to know that the persons they are negotiating with have authority to make relevant decisions. More often than not, western negotiators have the authority to make decisions and answer the customer’s questions while the chinese negotiating counterpart perhaps has to confer with a superior before a decision can be made.

    Another important thing to consider is the way people are seated around a meeting table. The highest manager sits in the centre and the rest of the group is placed in hierarchical order alongside him. The expatriate team has to position itself in the same manner in order to facilitate the understanding of who is in charge.

WHAT DOES GUANXI MEAN IN CHINESE BUSINESS ?

         Guanxi or the expectation of reciprocity is also a widely written-about cultural feature of doing business in China, as its importance has proven to be radical in business negotiations with the Chinese, it actually means relationship or connection in Chinese, but the concept of Guanxi is not only about relationships, it is also about maintaining them, through the exchange of favors rather than through expressions of friendship and sympathy. It implies reciprocity in a way that business negotiations are influenced by these favors to be yielded anytime and anywhere it is requested by a connection. And if it is refused, the relationship will be jeopardised as the other party will lose face and the whole guanxi network might collapse (Woo, Prud’homme, 1999). These favours are almost always remembered and reciprocated even during a long time, it is believed to endure personal relationships for long-term (Graham and Lam, 2003). The Chinese usually acknowledge two types of relationships: warm friendship, and impersonal relationships which are short-time, whereas warm friendship constitutes the Guanxi which is a long-term reciprocal social investment with stakeholders (J. Sebanius, C.Qian, 2008). As long as a business negotiator is building relationships, he is also gaining a higher social status.

           Having mutual acquaintances facilitates matters greatly due to the fact that it is a shortcut for creating trust. Expatriate managers illustrated that if one’s previous boss knows one’s client’s brother or a high-level politician in the province since many years, then it immediately creates a sense of trust. Hence, Guanxi is very important, it does not mean that it is impossible to contact the client directly and create the contact on one's own, though it takes longer time.

         What the connection is depends entirely on the context between the company and the client; sometimes the connection can be on a completely private level, for example a colleague who knows someone in the province where the client lives, this colleague might have done military service with the client in question. There is no simple answer to what the connections looks like. You need skills like relational ease, in order to find, create and then utilise these connections in a positive way.

          Chinese negotiators state that the need for a Guanxi-network varies depending on where in China you negotiate, however, they believe that the further to the south of China you get, the less important Guanxi becomes. This is due to the fact that there are heavy influences from Hong Kong and the cantonese business culture that is more based on a judicial system. Although, Guanxi is still substantial in Hong Kong, but not to the same degree as in the Northern parts of China.

            Eventually, it is not admitted that the side that can assemble more Guanxi will be more formidable than the other, this implies that it is possible to succeed in China without an intermediary; however, it will take longer time before an agreement can be settled with a new counterpart.

WHAT DOES MIANZI/ FACE MEAN IN CHINESE BUSINESS ?

    The concept of face or “mianzi” is probably the most written-about cultural characteristic within the Chinese culture literature, face means dignity, respect, status, prestige and credibility, it can be saved, protected, lost or given by social behaviour, etiquette events like the organisation of banquets, giving gifts in a social area, to create a congenial atmosphere, which will be giving face to the counterparts and consequently opens the negotiation process (Beamer,1993). The easiest way to make a Chinese lose face is to criticise him in public, intentionally or unintentionally (J. Sebanius,C.Qian, 2008) that’s why respect, loyalty and politeness are major qualities to earn face from the Chinese. Graham and Lam (2003) called it social capital, it is mainly based on reputation and social standing, if Westerners cause the Chinese to lose it, it can be fatal for business negotiations. One of the sources of earning face is to have a good network of relationships, or what is commonly called in the literature “Guanxi”.

      Expatriate business managers admit that face is always enormously important in China. What makes a Chinese lose face is for example if you say “no” straight out to a suggestion he made, basically, that is enough to make the Chinese lose face. Of course, there are other matters that can make them lose face, generally speaking, that is everything that makes them feel that they are in an inferior position. The phenomenon of face is not only applicable to the Chinese but also to Westerners in a lesser extent.

       A situation where a Chinese person loses face can be aggravated if his/her colleagues or managers are present. If such a situation occurs then it can take a while before you are back on speaking terms with that person and in a worst-case scenario the persons involved might have to be replaced, situations like this are very rare but still they occur. Moreover, the reason why face is a more sensitive cultural trait in China than it is in western countries might be derived from the fact that if ones loses face in China, then that person’s Guanxi is negatively affected. If “X” loses face or gets an unfavourable reputation, then this can have a negative effect on the persons who know or have a connection to this person “X”. On the one hand, there is a Guanxi network behind every higher ranked individual and a change in that person’s face has a contagious effect, positive or negative, on the entire network. On the other hand, a person’s face can be significantly enhanced if you praise that person in front of his/her personnel or colleagues.

UNDERSTANDING CHINESE CULTURAL DIMENSIONS WITHIN BUSINESS

        The relationship between China and the rest of the world has expanded considerably since the implementation of the open-door policy after the “program of four modernizations”. Chinese growth continues at a rate often close to 10% per year, and the country attracts more foreign investments than any other country in the world. Transfer of technology, creation of joint ventures, foreign subsidiaries, facilities on the Chinese territory, equity in business and Chinese industry groups are the main events. All these transactions involve negotiations, that is to say, the implementation of an adjustment process is often long, complex, and punctuated with the unexpected. Negotiating with the Chinese gives rise to a very special mix of uncertainties and misunderstandings which become excessive sometimes. This is because the Chinese negotiator sits on his set of assumptions that are radically different from those underlying the approach of his Western interlocutors. This disjunction leads to reactions tinged with doubt and mistrust putting the foreign negotiator in the situation of a fisherman trying to catch the reflection of the moon in a pond.

          From one country to another, from one continent to another, a negotiation requires a prior knowledge in different registers. Out of respect for a climate of trust, to know the attitudes held during negotiations to adapt to different communication styles, to minimize the differences of meaning of terms such as design planning, commitment, to minimize risk errors, loss of time, it is crucial to discover, to know the culture of others. In this present article, we are more interested in the interaction between Western countries and China in terms of business negotiations, we do mean by Western countries: Northern America, Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

         During the second half of the 20th century, several scholars and practitioners had created substantive knowledge in the area of Western-Chinese business negotiations, especially since the implementation of the economic reform in China after the 1980’s. Many authors described cultural difference to be the most influential antecedent in Western-Chinese business negotiations (Boyacigiller et al. 1996, Pye 1982, Hofstede/Usunier 1996, Redding 1980, Shenkar/Ronen 1987). Hofstede (1980), who identifies five cultural dimensions which are : high long-term orientation, high collectivism, high masculinity, high power distance, and high uncertainty avoidance; he did use Hong Kong and Taiwan samples in his research to determine the rankings of China within these five dimensions, which  made the findings of his research questioned by Shenkar (1994) and Tung (1988). In contrast, the Chinese Cultural Connection (1987), an international scholars' network, outlined four Chinese cultural dimensions derived from Chinese cultural values which are: Integration, Confucian work dynamism, Human-heartedness, and Moral Discipline; but these dimensions remain general, because they are not tailored to a business paradigm for measuring Chinese culture (Shi, Xinping, 2001). Another point is that within the literature and the negotiation practice, it has been found that political, economical and institutional factors are the basic influences behind the Western-Chinese business negotiations (Tung, 1988), while Weiss (1993) highlighted in his analysis that relationship behaviours, and environmental conditions influence Chinese negotiations.

          Furthermore, Xiaohua Lin and Stephen J. Miller (2003) examined direct and indirect effects of national cultures from a West-East negotiation approach, they characterised two dimensions of Hofstede(1980) as direct effects of national culture, firstly, individualism-collectivism assuming that in China, group goals and needs are emphasized under the shadow of maintaining relational harmony (Hsu, 1985), this is why they are always seeking the middle or a moderated position in conflicts; and secondly, high-low contexts in communication assuming that the Chinese do not express their opinions directly and openly, they rely more on non-verbal communication, in addition to this, the tolerance of ambiguity is highly emphasized in Chinese culture as ambiguous expressions and thoughts serve social purposes, such as uncertainty of the future and believing in more than one truth(Leung, 1988). Concerning the indirect effects of national cultures, two other dimensions are characterised, firstly, ingroup-outgroup consciousness meaning that the Chinese are more likely to take different approaches while interacting with foreigners, to seek the relational harmony, even if Chinese negotiators do exchange information indirectly using influence in an intra-cultural negotiation, they do adapt their behaviour in an inter-cultural negotiation, while Western negotiators remain consistent in both settings. And secondly, the mode of exercising authority differs in China, where power is considered as a tool used to facilitate a collective process, rather than adopting top-down decisions, so that important problems should be coped with by consensus and not by majority of vote (Wang, 1992). 

PRIOR KNOWLEDGE TO CROSS-CULTURAL NEGOTIATIONS

      In a cross-cultural environment, if we look at the vast literature written on negotiations, we find that many different fields had been proven to be enriching to the topic, such as marketing and sales, communication and organisational behaviour and even social psychology. Negotiation is one of the highest challenges in business due to the need of communications skills, Gilsdorf (1997), while McCall and Warrington (1989) found that any negotiation is a mutual involvement from both parties to achieve an outcome, hope needs to be retained to achieve an acceptable one, a varying degree of power belongs to each party, as they have different interests and objectives. Banas and Parks (2002) do agree when they say that a business negotiation is trying to reach a mutually beneficial outcome meeting individual goals. Although, negotiating is considered to be a problem-solving exercise in the West, as Fisher (1980) stated that almost the whole literature on negotiation, dealing with tactics and strategies is emanating from Western scholars, while D. Whetten et al.(2000) distinguishes two predominant types of negotiation structure perception, the distributive approach where the negotiators are opponents, which leads to a win-lose result, and the integrative approach where negotiators are collaborating, which leads to a win-win result. 

       Furthermore, an interesting negotiation perception which is BATNA (Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement) is seen as the best outcome a negotiator can have if the negotiation process had led to an impasse (Fisher and Ury, 1981; Jaeger et al., 1999), so that the availability of better outside alternatives places the negotiator in a position of power (Lewicki and Litterer, 1985; Pinkley et al., 1994; Raiffa, 1982). As a result, these two perceptions of negotiation behavior will inevitably affect the negotiation process.

      In a mono-cultural environment, the obstacles of language and cultural differences does not exist, thus, negotiators can predict and understand easily the negotiation process using individual perceptions on negotiation behavior. Whereas in a cross-cultural environment, the impact of ethnic heritage (Hawrysh and Zaichkowsky, 1989), customs and attitudes (Shenkar and Ronen, 1987) determines individuals’ behavior and their way of thinking, reacting and feeling within their cultural background (Simintiras and Thomas, 1998). Therefore, an international business negotiator should, in addition to his basic skills, understand the cultural differences, and adapt his negotiation style accordingly. Carl Rodrigues (1996) observed that the idea of “what works in the home country is good enough for the rest of the world” is simply misconceived, far from the truth, and will result into failure. Actually, the main obstacles to overcome in an international business negotiation are:

1.  Learning the language or select an effective translator at least, 
2. Learning the local culture, its business practices and ethics or select an effective translator which is quite hard to do,
3. And having a thorough knowledge of the business matter being negotiated.

         It is not easy to learn the foreign culture, due to the multifaceted structures of any culture that are much too complex to understand. In this perspective, Usunier (2003) sees three facets of cultural differences affecting international negotiations, with binary oppositions for each element:

1. Behavioural predispositions of the parties:  whether the interpersonal orientation is either in harmony or in self-interest, the power orientation is formal or informal, and the willingness to take risks whether it relates to delegated decision-making or uncertainty.
2. Underlying concept of negotiation: whether negotiation strategies are based on trust or mistrust, and where the strategic time-frame is logical or an ongoing dialogue.
3. Negotiation process: whether the styles of negotiation follow concrete goals, or principles and concepts, and whether the outcome orientations are iron-cast deals or less explicit agreements.

      Eventually, we should be aware of these cultural facets in order to not fail in cross-cultural business negotiations.

HOW DOES CULTURE INFLUENCE INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS NEGOTIATIONS ?

        Culture miscommunication is a very big issue for business that we should certainly be aware of. There is today a greater recognition among specialists that cultural differences are affecting all facets of international business. Some cultural mistakes were made by big companies such as Coca-Cola in the 20’s, when the Chinese characters that sounded like Coke stood for a completely vulgar meaning in Chinese.

      Furthermore, the effect of culture when negotiating in an international business context is very relevant. The language of negotiation, the need to study the culture of the parties involved, building trust, personal relationships and appropriate training for international managers should all be based on culture awareness.

        Many authors presented culture as a key issue for big success in international business such as (Hofstede, Trompenaars, etc.), they created business etiquettes for each country according to important cultural differences and attractive conditions of investment. China and India are the two most attractive emerging economies nowadays in terms of investment; however, it is not easy to invest in eastern countries where cultural differences are extreme. An international business should cope with political policies and legal practices, economic forces, geographical influences and cultural factors. However, could the influence of national culture be substantial enough on the operations of international companies to outweigh their global convergence?

        Culture, as Geert Hofstede (one relevant author for business and culture) defined it, is "the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from another" (Hofstede, 1991). Besides, a company's culture is related essentially to long-standing employees, company’s regulation and aims. Although, it is impossible to circumvent the dimensions of business culture developed by Hofstede, they actually determine the differences between countries and nations.

• Power distance : means how the power is distributed in the hierarchy of the company. 
• Uncertainty avoidance : is related to how social rules influence decisions during unexpected events. 
• Institutional collectivism : the degree to which leaders encourage collectivism in the company. 
• In-group collectivism : the degree to which employees feel integration in the society. 
• Assertiveness : is related to the domination of individuals in their relationships with others. 
• Gender egalitarianism : means how the two genders are in less inequality. 
• Future Orientation : is related to whether people plan for their future, in professional matters. 
• Performance orientation : how individuals are encouraged, rewarded for their performance and excellence.

         Hofstede focused his research mostly on culture dimensions and found later on that it could be reduced to five as follows:

• Power distance (high/low). 
• Uncertainty avoidance (high/low). 
• Individualism versus collectivism. 
• Masculine versus feminine. 
• Short-term versus long-term orientation.

    
       In theory, we can observe that these five culture dimensions must determine the differences in national culture, and thus the business must be adapted to this culture. To prove that culture is a key element in doing business, we will have to refer to a case study, and for this, we will choose China as a country reputed to be a civilisation-state country with a totally different culture from that of the West, which relates more to a nation-state type of countries.

      In the 1980’s, China’s business started to become internationalised after a long period of protectionism. Being given the opportunities of expansion enabled henceforth by the largeness of the Chinese market, therefore, western companies needed to understand the Chinese culture in order to deal with Chinese suppliers or to penetrate the market. Some of them failed because the differences in culture were very large which caused intercultural miscommunication.

     One should know that relationships in China are very important to succeed in business. The moral relationship in business is due to trust and confidence between the two parts, even if the contract is made, the “Guanxi” which means the network of relationships that can make transactions very easy to happen, is privileged in Chinese business culture, indeed, these relationships can turn on to be very close and very long, so that favours can be granted from both sides.

         Consequently, we can see that the importance of maintaining good relationships has its roots in Chinese society and therefore in business, the Guanxi can relate to more than customers only, it reaches also suppliers, local authorities, banks and tax offices. Due to this, a whole department of sales will have to be responsible to manage all these relationships and to update the links within ,the network continually, so that they will never be lost, whereas some other business relationships can be created. In other words, the network has to become bigger not smaller. Western companies should thus be aware of developing these special relationships to meet the expectations of Chinese firms.

        The notion of "Mianzi" is also very important, it copes with the dignity of individuals and not losing face, this is a very important characteristic of the Chinese culture as well, because direct criticism will create a conflict to the Chinese, and it is very harmful psychologically for them, so when once face is lost in any type of relationship in China, it means that this one is terminated. The need of harmony, commitment and a good understanding of each other is very praised in China. This comes all from Confucian principles in the old tradition of the Chinese society.

         If we look at the example of a Taiwanese company, developed by Helena Chiu and Gerhard A.Wuhrer, which wants to create a partnership with a Chinese company, it would be much more easier, as the channel structure would be direct and shorter, composed from the main company and the end-user, the transaction will be carried out between those two parts, because the language barrier is inexistent, the closeness of the countries and the similar culture that gathers them makes the company in a very good position to manage the business properly. However, when this same company deals with a European country, in a context of embracing globalisation, the distribution will involve one or two middlemen, it could be an agent, a distributor or even an interpreter, so the production doesn’t reach the end-user directly, it has to be intermediated because those people have better communication skills and the Taiwanese company will have to use them to create a partnership with Western countries. We can register an organisational change due to culture. Schein (2004) listed some mechanisms for shaping and reinforcing the culture :

1. The design and structure of the organisation. 
2. The systems and procedures used. 
3. The rites and rituals. 
4. The design and lay-out of the organisation physical space. 
5. Stories of important events and people. 
6. Formal statements of the organisational philosophy.

       Furthermore, cultural dimensions affect also the company as a whole; it has to be adapted to the national culture criteria. In a level of managers, Nancy Adler (2002) stated by her research that cultural differences among managers working for a multinational company are significantly greater than cultural differences among managers working in their own native country. The degree of adaptation to the national culture is determined by the strength of the company’s culture and its effects on the market, whether it is strong and exportable enough or not.

         On the one hand, in the study of Van Oudenhoven and De Boer (1995), one sees that when the corporate culture and the national culture of two companies are similar, the cooperation would be easier, because it is obviously a positive relationship and the chances to fail in keeping this relationship are very small. On the other hand, the chances to fail when two partners are from different cultures are bigger. In fact, we need to have a larger understanding of cross-cultural behaviour.

      One concludes that the influence is greater than expected and we could never neglect its effects at every level of a particular business in an international environment. Cultural miscommunication is very costly; one can imagine it in a context of negotiations and all the consequences that may face the company in the future due to it. So, many multinational companies (MNCs) do understand the importance of cross-cultural diversity, in a sense that doing business must adapt to these very crucial variables related to culture. Eventually, every international business establishing itself in a country with cultural differences must be aware and adapt its operation to the national culture in order to succeed.