Old myths co-exist with new realities, and unravelling the two presents a major challenge to Westerners.
Erin Meyer and Elisabeth Shen 6 May 2009
China may be the world’s focal point of business, but the country remains an impenetrable mystery to most Western executives. It goes without saying that the culture there is different. The real problem is that Chinese culture isn’t different in the way outsiders have assumed. Try as they might, when it comes to China, Westerners just don’t get it.
This issue is pretty close to our own hearts. One of us teaches cross-cultural management at INSEAD, the leading international business school. The other is a consultant advising Western companies on China. Between us, we have shelf-loads of books on the subject and decades of experience in trying to capture and to convey the essence of Chinese business culture. Even so, we have to confess that we don’t quite get it either.
Over the years, however, we have both reached the conclusion that some of the lessons we’ve learned - and perpetuated - about Chinese culture are, in fact, myths. ‘A rumour goes in one ear and out of many mouths,’ as the old Chinese proverb goes. Or, in its more picturesque form, ‘it only takes three men to make a tiger’. But if our hunch is right, what’s the reality? We recently undertook a research project to put this question to the real experts: the executives who have actually crossed the cultural divide.
Over a period of 12 months we interviewed dozens of business people in depth. Our findings reveal three myths in particular, as well as valuable advice for coping with the realities. Let’s start with the first advice that nearly all expats are given, namely, to remember that the Chinese are convinced collectivists.
Myth 1 - collectivism
‘Before being expatriated to China,’ says one Canadian national and pharmaceuticals executive, whom we’ll call Bill Canon ‘I’d heard it was a great collectivism and everyone worked together.’ This commonly held belief is certainly reinforced by the cross-cultural literature, not to mention the training that Mr. Canon and so many others have received. But Mr. Canon also took the sensible step of consulting people with recent experience.
He recalls: ‘Right before my move I went to visit a friend who had lived in China for five years and really loved the culture. One of the questions I asked him was, ‘what do the Chinese people really care about?’ He thought a moment and then said, ‘Well three things: first, himself (or herself); second, himself; and third himself.’
‘Of course, I refused to believe him,’ adds Mr. Canon. But, on arriving and working in China, he realised that his friend’s comment had some truth to it. He explains, ‘There is an intense self-interest - more important than company, community or nation. During the cultural revolution, when family members and neighbours turned against each other, the Chinese learned that in the end you only have yourself.’ Mr. Canon also believes that the one-child policy has had a major effect on the younger generation, who are accustomed to being treated like ‘little emperors’. And these two triggers of excessive individualism are exacerbated by a third: mass migration to big cities, which has unravelled family and community ties over several decades.
Wei Chen, a Chinese manager now living in Paris and working in the luxury goods sector, has a different explanation for her country’s new-found individualism: namely, its suppression for many generations. She explains: ‘Traditional Chinese culture is deeply rooted in in-group harmony. As a child I was punished for stepping out of the box and told to ‘be average’. But we have left this mentality with a passion. In China, we are so eager to move ahead. Westerners often feel our style is pushy and aggressive.’
The explanations may be many and various, but the practical implications are the same. Western executives with Chinese colleagues and business associates have to moderate their expectations, sometimes to the point of vigilance. As Mr. Canon puts it, ‘To take a hypothetical example from my business, someone who is looking out for their immediate self-interest might approve sub-standard drugs for short-term profit. One day, when people get sick, they know there could be ramifications, but they’re not thinking about the future any more than about anyone else.’ This brings us to our second myth - that the Chinese are long-term thinkers.
Myth 2 - long-termism
‘In the West, we spend time trying to predict the future and getting it wrong. In China no one thinks about the future,’ observes Frederic Maury, a French business leader in the technical services industry. This is certainly not the story that cross-cultural theoreticians tell. Yet the practitioners we interviewed were unanimous that the Chinese speed of execution is extraordinary.
Michael Drake, a British logistics executive says: ‘My diary is full of appointments for a month ahead. But for many local business people everything is ad hoc and on the fly.’ One European interviewee, who has worked for the World Bank in China for over 10 years concludes: ‘They are amazing at ad hoc logistics. I’ve attended dozens if not hundreds of workshops in China, and not one has gone according to plan. Things change the night before: speakers, topics, even venues. But it always ends up working out fine. They are extremely flexible, and you just do the same.’
Isn’t there an old Western proverb that when in Rome, do as the Romans? Marco Gentili, an Italian executive from the industrial machinery business who has lived in Shanghai for over a decade, gives exactly this advice to fellow-Romans coming to China: ‘The Chinese will often pop in to see you with no appointment. This used to make me angry, as I felt they didn’t respect my time. But now I’ve learned I can do this too. If I have 30 minutes to spare, I just make a quick call from a taxi and visit someone working in the area.’
Sometimes only a small adjustment in behaviour is required to get the most out of the prevailing short-termism. Take responding to e-mails, for example. In the US, the generally accepted delay in answering a client e-mail is 24 hours. In Europe, two or three days may be considered speedy. But in China, the appropriate window seems to be much shorter. As Pieter de Waart, a Dutch manager for an industrial manufacturing company explains: ‘Speed is king. If you send an e-mail, expect a response that same day, if not the same morning. Conversely, the Chinese are often very frustrated when a European takes several days to respond.’ You don’t necessarily have to supply a full response here and now. An e-mail simply stating that further information will follow in the next day or so is usually enough - and little trouble, even to the most stressed expat exec.
Another tip applies particularly to Westerners managing Chinese employees. Over to Pieter de Waart again. ‘If you ask someone to do something, you’d better be careful!’ he warns. ‘They won’t say, ‘OK, if I do that, I can’t finish this.’ Instead, they’ll just drop what they’re doing for the new task. So, if you want them to do something by Friday, don’t tell them now. Put it in your own diary to tell them on Thursday.’ In other words, you have to adopt a ‘just-in-time’ management style to match the culture you’re working in.
Of course, short-term thinking and lack of planning can be a high-risk strategy. But this doesn’t seem to bother the Chinese, most of whom haven’t read the mass of academic literature insisting that theirs is a low-risk culture. This, then, is our third and final myth to dispel.
Myth 3 - risk aversion
As Michael Drake puts it: ‘In the West we like to debate something, print it out, debate it again, do some analysis. But in China it’s, ‘Right, we’ve decided, boom, off we go!’ The behaviour he describes is obviously risky, but it’s a recurring theme of our research.
Mr. Canon sums it up: ‘In China, there are fewer opportunities than in the US, so when an opportunity does arise, you have to seize it. Life has been so hard so long that the Chinese can’t afford not to take a risk. It’s probably this attitude that has helped them to shake off 30 years of communism so quickly.’ And Mr. Wei confirms it: ‘We don’t want to lose a single minute! We have a lot of confidence and we are very comfortable with risk.’
So, once again, if you can’t beat them, should you join them? In fact, none of the executives we spoke to advocates giving up planning and embarking on a spree of extravagant risk-taking. Far from it. Instead, this is one area where Western know-how can potentially plug a skills gap. ‘I think the Chinese have difficulty anticipating problems,’ claims Feriel Karoui, a French business development manager. If she’s correct, the duty of foresight is one that falls to the Western colleagues of Chinese executives.
Yet, at the same time, expats have to handle their contribution with cultural sensitivity. As another French national, Edith Coron, intercultural consultant and coach, explains: ‘In an environment where GDP is growing at over 10 per cent a year, it’s understandable that the level of entrepreneurship and risk-taking should be so high.’ And as we’ve seen before, perhaps it’s important for Westerners to shift their own mindset and accentuate the positives of the situation. As our World Bank executive puts it: ‘The Chinese have a culture of trying, which makes them dare a lot. And in some ways trying is more important than planning: the more you try, the more you learn - and the better your chances of winning.’
Perhaps, in the end, the global economic crisis will be a moderating influence on Chinese risk-taking. Culture, after all, is a complex and multi-layered phenomenon. And sometimes, despite what specialists like us would have the world believe, universal human nature triumphs over culture. This, then, is our final - and most important - point: there may be some truth in those old myths. Maybe those three men really did see a tiger after all.
In reality, anyone working with the Chinese will probably find a subtle blend of old myth and new aspirations. This may be particularly true when working with the Chinese government (known for its long-term approach) or older generations. The good news is that we have identified trends illustrating when the Chinese most often behave one way rather than the other. For example, while decisions may be short term, relationships most certainly aren’t. It takes a very long time indeed to build business bonds in China. And those bonds are likely to be the key to success. It’s well worth Western managers knowing that their star salesperson, who has established good relationships with important clients over several years, is likely to whisk them away to a new employer, regardless of the product, price or service they’re leaving behind.
Likewise, while many Chinese business people may appear aggressively individualistic in most circumstances, they will revert to collectivism at specific times. Decisions are often made in groups. And members of those groups may be hesitant to express individual opinions, without having consulted colleagues about their ideas off-line. The upshot for Westerners is that they should not only expect to conduct negotiations with sizeable delegations, but also to spend a lot of time in informal pre-meeting discussions with individuals. The official meeting may simply be a forum for delivering decisions that are already signed and sealed.
In the end, there’s a good reason why so many cross-cultural theorists have failed to capture China. That’s because it’s a multi-faceted, many-layered, fast-changing construct of cultural factors. Old myths co-exist with new realities - and unravelling the two presents a major challenge to Westerners. But then the truth about culture is rarely simple. And if that isn’t an old Chinese proverb, it ought to be.
Erin Meyer is an adjunct professor in the organisational behaviour department at the business school, INSEAD. Elisabeth Shen is a consultant to Western companies operating in China
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Debunking China myths
Old myths co-exist with new realities, and unravelling the two presents a major challenge to Westerners.
Erin Meyer and Elisabeth Shen
6 May 2009
China may be the world’s focal point of business, but the country remains an impenetrable mystery to most Western executives. It goes without saying that the culture there is different. The real problem is that Chinese culture isn’t different in the way outsiders have assumed. Try as they might, when it comes to China, Westerners just don’t get it.
This issue is pretty close to our own hearts. One of us teaches cross-cultural management at INSEAD, the leading international business school. The other is a consultant advising Western companies on China. Between us, we have shelf-loads of books on the subject and decades of experience in trying to capture and to convey the essence of Chinese business culture. Even so, we have to confess that we don’t quite get it either.
Over the years, however, we have both reached the conclusion that some of the lessons we’ve learned - and perpetuated - about Chinese culture are, in fact, myths. ‘A rumour goes in one ear and out of many mouths,’ as the old Chinese proverb goes. Or, in its more picturesque form, ‘it only takes three men to make a tiger’. But if our hunch is right, what’s the reality? We recently undertook a research project to put this question to the real experts: the executives who have actually crossed the cultural divide.
Over a period of 12 months we interviewed dozens of business people in depth. Our findings reveal three myths in particular, as well as valuable advice for coping with the realities. Let’s start with the first advice that nearly all expats are given, namely, to remember that the Chinese are convinced collectivists.
Myth 1 - collectivism
‘Before being expatriated to China,’ says one Canadian national and pharmaceuticals executive, whom we’ll call Bill Canon ‘I’d heard it was a great collectivism and everyone worked together.’ This commonly held belief is certainly reinforced by the cross-cultural literature, not to mention the training that Mr. Canon and so many others have received. But Mr. Canon also took the sensible step of consulting people with recent experience.
He recalls: ‘Right before my move I went to visit a friend who had lived in China for five years and really loved the culture. One of the questions I asked him was, ‘what do the Chinese people really care about?’ He thought a moment and then said, ‘Well three things: first, himself (or herself); second, himself; and third himself.’
‘Of course, I refused to believe him,’ adds Mr. Canon. But, on arriving and working in China, he realised that his friend’s comment had some truth to it. He explains, ‘There is an intense self-interest - more important than company, community or nation. During the cultural revolution, when family members and neighbours turned against each other, the Chinese learned that in the end you only have yourself.’ Mr. Canon also believes that the one-child policy has had a major effect on the younger generation, who are accustomed to being treated like ‘little emperors’. And these two triggers of excessive individualism are exacerbated by a third: mass migration to big cities, which has unravelled family and community ties over several decades.
Wei Chen, a Chinese manager now living in Paris and working in the luxury goods sector, has a different explanation for her country’s new-found individualism: namely, its suppression for many generations. She explains: ‘Traditional Chinese culture is deeply rooted in in-group harmony. As a child I was punished for stepping out of the box and told to ‘be average’. But we have left this mentality with a passion. In China, we are so eager to move ahead. Westerners often feel our style is pushy and aggressive.’
The explanations may be many and various, but the practical implications are the same. Western executives with Chinese colleagues and business associates have to moderate their expectations, sometimes to the point of vigilance. As Mr. Canon puts it, ‘To take a hypothetical example from my business, someone who is looking out for their immediate self-interest might approve sub-standard drugs for short-term profit. One day, when people get sick, they know there could be ramifications, but they’re not thinking about the future any more than about anyone else.’ This brings us to our second myth - that the Chinese are long-term thinkers.
Myth 2 - long-termism
‘In the West, we spend time trying to predict the future and getting it wrong. In China no one thinks about the future,’ observes Frederic Maury, a French business leader in the technical services industry. This is certainly not the story that cross-cultural theoreticians tell. Yet the practitioners we interviewed were unanimous that the Chinese speed of execution is extraordinary.
Michael Drake, a British logistics executive says: ‘My diary is full of appointments for a month ahead. But for many local business people everything is ad hoc and on the fly.’ One European interviewee, who has worked for the World Bank in China for over 10 years concludes: ‘They are amazing at ad hoc logistics. I’ve attended dozens if not hundreds of workshops in China, and not one has gone according to plan. Things change the night before: speakers, topics, even venues. But it always ends up working out fine. They are extremely flexible, and you just do the same.’
Isn’t there an old Western proverb that when in Rome, do as the Romans? Marco Gentili, an Italian executive from the industrial machinery business who has lived in Shanghai for over a decade, gives exactly this advice to fellow-Romans coming to China: ‘The Chinese will often pop in to see you with no appointment. This used to make me angry, as I felt they didn’t respect my time. But now I’ve learned I can do this too. If I have 30 minutes to spare, I just make a quick call from a taxi and visit someone working in the area.’
Sometimes only a small adjustment in behaviour is required to get the most out of the prevailing short-termism. Take responding to e-mails, for example. In the US, the generally accepted delay in answering a client e-mail is 24 hours. In Europe, two or three days may be considered speedy. But in China, the appropriate window seems to be much shorter. As Pieter de Waart, a Dutch manager for an industrial manufacturing company explains: ‘Speed is king. If you send an e-mail, expect a response that same day, if not the same morning. Conversely, the Chinese are often very frustrated when a European takes several days to respond.’ You don’t necessarily have to supply a full response here and now. An e-mail simply stating that further information will follow in the next day or so is usually enough - and little trouble, even to the most stressed expat exec.
Another tip applies particularly to Westerners managing Chinese employees. Over to Pieter de Waart again. ‘If you ask someone to do something, you’d better be careful!’ he warns. ‘They won’t say, ‘OK, if I do that, I can’t finish this.’ Instead, they’ll just drop what they’re doing for the new task. So, if you want them to do something by Friday, don’t tell them now. Put it in your own diary to tell them on Thursday.’ In other words, you have to adopt a ‘just-in-time’ management style to match the culture you’re working in.
Of course, short-term thinking and lack of planning can be a high-risk strategy. But this doesn’t seem to bother the Chinese, most of whom haven’t read the mass of academic literature insisting that theirs is a low-risk culture. This, then, is our third and final myth to dispel.
Myth 3 - risk aversion
As Michael Drake puts it: ‘In the West we like to debate something, print it out, debate it again, do some analysis. But in China it’s, ‘Right, we’ve decided, boom, off we go!’ The behaviour he describes is obviously risky, but it’s a recurring theme of our research.
Mr. Canon sums it up: ‘In China, there are fewer opportunities than in the US, so when an opportunity does arise, you have to seize it. Life has been so hard so long that the Chinese can’t afford not to take a risk. It’s probably this attitude that has helped them to shake off 30 years of communism so quickly.’ And Mr. Wei confirms it: ‘We don’t want to lose a single minute! We have a lot of confidence and we are very comfortable with risk.’
So, once again, if you can’t beat them, should you join them? In fact, none of the executives we spoke to advocates giving up planning and embarking on a spree of extravagant risk-taking. Far from it. Instead, this is one area where Western know-how can potentially plug a skills gap. ‘I think the Chinese have difficulty anticipating problems,’ claims Feriel Karoui, a French business development manager. If she’s correct, the duty of foresight is one that falls to the Western colleagues of Chinese executives.
Yet, at the same time, expats have to handle their contribution with cultural sensitivity. As another French national, Edith Coron, intercultural consultant and coach, explains: ‘In an environment where GDP is growing at over 10 per cent a year, it’s understandable that the level of entrepreneurship and risk-taking should be so high.’ And as we’ve seen before, perhaps it’s important for Westerners to shift their own mindset and accentuate the positives of the situation. As our World Bank executive puts it: ‘The Chinese have a culture of trying, which makes them dare a lot. And in some ways trying is more important than planning: the more you try, the more you learn - and the better your chances of winning.’
Perhaps, in the end, the global economic crisis will be a moderating influence on Chinese risk-taking. Culture, after all, is a complex and multi-layered phenomenon. And sometimes, despite what specialists like us would have the world believe, universal human nature triumphs over culture. This, then, is our final - and most important - point: there may be some truth in those old myths. Maybe those three men really did see a tiger after all.
When myth meets reality
In reality, anyone working with the Chinese will probably find a subtle blend of old myth and new aspirations. This may be particularly true when working with the Chinese government (known for its long-term approach) or older generations. The good news is that we have identified trends illustrating when the Chinese most often behave one way rather than the other. For example, while decisions may be short term, relationships most certainly aren’t. It takes a very long time indeed to build business bonds in China. And those bonds are likely to be the key to success. It’s well worth Western managers knowing that their star salesperson, who has established good relationships with important clients over several years, is likely to whisk them away to a new employer, regardless of the product, price or service they’re leaving behind.
Likewise, while many Chinese business people may appear aggressively individualistic in most circumstances, they will revert to collectivism at specific times. Decisions are often made in groups. And members of those groups may be hesitant to express individual opinions, without having consulted colleagues about their ideas off-line. The upshot for Westerners is that they should not only expect to conduct negotiations with sizeable delegations, but also to spend a lot of time in informal pre-meeting discussions with individuals. The official meeting may simply be a forum for delivering decisions that are already signed and sealed.
In the end, there’s a good reason why so many cross-cultural theorists have failed to capture China. That’s because it’s a multi-faceted, many-layered, fast-changing construct of cultural factors. Old myths co-exist with new realities - and unravelling the two presents a major challenge to Westerners. But then the truth about culture is rarely simple. And if that isn’t an old Chinese proverb, it ought to be.
Erin Meyer is an adjunct professor in the organisational behaviour department at the business school, INSEAD. Elisabeth Shen is a consultant to Western companies operating in China
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