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 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.