China culture

At present china is the factory of the world manufacturing a wide range of

products for multinationals from advanced countries.

Cultural dynamics in Chinese

societies
Collectivism
Chinese are characterised as collectivistic
Collectivism involves two different aspects: concern for ones relationship with
other people; and concern for ones relationship with the collective.
Chinese people tend to be more concerned with maintaining good relationships
with people connected to them than with the collective. This may explain why
the phrase a bucket of loose sand is often used to describe Chinese peoples
lack of commitment to a group
Conflict avoidance is discouraged in Confucian classics if it means turning a blind
eye to injustice and immorality
Drawing upon collectivism and Confucianism, there are two types of harmony,
with harmony enhancement referring to a genuine desire for harmony, and
disintegration avoidance referring to the tendency to avoid actions that strains a
relationship and result in instrumental losses. Harmony enhancement is close to
the Confucian ideal of harmony, and disintegration avoidance is related to the
preference for stable relationships with other people emphasized by cultural
collectivism.
Power distance
High power distance culture
power distance is defined as the extent to which the less powerful members of
institutions and organizations within a country expect and accept that power is
distributed unequally.
cultures that prefer large power distances believe that each person has a rightful
and protected place in the social order, that the actions of authorities should not
be challenged or questioned, that hierarchy and inequality are appropriate and
beneficial.
China belongs to high power distance culture. That is, inequalities among people
are acceptable. The subordinate-superior relationship tends to be polarized and
there is not defence against power abuse by superiors.

In the Chinese business world, every single member in Chinese companies is

willing to follow office regulation and work guidelines made by the owner.
Employees do not want to challenge their senior workers or supervisors and just
want to obey the decisions or orders their superiors make. That is, the order of
rank is anchored firmly and Chinese workers do not want to insubordinate
occupational hierarchy.
In Chinese culture, rank is extremely important in business relationship and you
must keep rank differences while communicating.
Uncertainty avoidance
Uncertainty avoidance is the extent to which the culture feels threatened by
ambiguous, unknown situations and have created beliefs and institutions that try
to avoid these.
High uncertainty avoidance cultures tend to be worried about the future. They
have high levels of anxiety and are highly resistant to change. Therefore, these
cultures develop many rules to control social behaviors
China is a high uncertainty avoidance country. Managers are more controlling,
less approachable, and less likely to delegate to subordinates than their lowavoidance counterparts. That is, managers in China do not place as much trust in
their employees as managers in other countries like U.S., France, or Sweden.
Chinese government has usually established very strict legislations to control
social behaviors. The most well known law is public execution.
In business world, Chinese people usually dont like doing business with
companies they dont know and consider relationship among various parties as
one of the most important factors in business. However, the relationship is not
based on money. If you want to establish close relationship with Chinese
businessmen, you have to foster understanding and emotional bonds. Frequent
contact is the best way. When you and your Chinese business partners can feel
friendship each other, they feel obligated to do business with their friends first.
Here is another way for making good relationship. When Chinese visit their
business partners, they usualy bring gifts such as wine, cigarettes and the like. If
you visit your Chinese business partners with empty hands, you would not give
good impression to them.

Geert Hofstede study

Power Distance (PDI) Power distance is the extent to which less powerful
people in an organization will accept and expect power to be distributed
differently. China ranks 80 on PDI which is very high. This means there is a lot of
power distance between subordinates and superiors, but that it is accepted and
normal.
Individualism/Collectivism (IDV) This is whether or not people think with
the mentality of I or We. The American culture is very I focused, meaning
that we focus more on furthering ourselves and careers versus furthering our

department or group. On the other hand, China ranks 91 on IDV, meaning that
they are highly collectivistic and think as a group versus individually. This can be
seen with the high amount of in-groups and out-groups.
Masculinity/Femininity (MAS) This is the first dimension where the
Americans and the Chinese rank similarly. China ranks 66 for this dimension,
meaning they are very driven by successful, competition, and achievements. The
Chinese will often put work before family or leisurely activities. This dimension
can be seen in the fact that Chinese workers will leave their families to go work at
factories for 11 months out of the year, proving how important work truly is to
them.
Uncertainty Avoidance (UAI) This is the second dimension where
Americans and Chinese rank similarly as well. China ranks 40, meaning they
accept ambiguous situations and are not deterred by them. It may seem like
China has a lot of rules and regulations in place to avoid ambiguous or uncertain
situations, however they are willing to bend and changes the rules as situations
require it. The Chinese language is also very ambiguous; the Chinese characters
are hard to interpret or understand if it is not your native language.
Long-term/Short-term Orientation (LTO) The Chinese rank extremely high
on long term orientation at 118, meaning they focus on persistence and
perseverance, and that they will dedicate however much time is required to
achieve their goals. This is seen in the very time consuming Chinese negotiation
process, the time required to build trust and long-term relationships, and their
focus on long term results versus short term goals.