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.