Communication In China Case Study

Communication and Business Manner Dimensions in China Communication in China, given the status of the country being somewhat of a collectivists school of thought, will differ greatly in comparison to its American counterpart. For starters, China, like other Far East or South East Asian nations, is considered a high-context culture. According to Hall (1976), as cited by Kim, Pan, and Park (1998), high-context culture is one in which people are deeply involved with each other. In other words, people place their preferences and investments on the conditions of others more than they do for themselves. This of course results in several phenomena: a very deep, intimate relationships among people, the existence of a social hierarchy, the control …show more content…
Business relationship successes are highly dependent, if not its survivability, on the ability to maintain a respective and reputable state between participating parties. The term "face", which is "a metaphor relating to prestige, status, dignity, and respect (Cardon, 2009)", is a key factor in gaining business in China. Collectivists cultures, especially the Chinese, tend to have an interdependent view of themselves and are more concerned with the maintenance of face for others, since one 's life opportunities are highly dependent on one 's social network. Face is essentially the measure of a person 's position within that social network and it is incrementally improved by a history of socially sanctioned behaviors. In other words, relationships in China are maintained by people 's ability to encourage an environment where not only face, prestige and/or respect are nurtured for growth, they 're also protected. To fail at any of these activities, global business managers will find it extremely difficult to just get their foots in the door of the Chinese business market. Face is important in Chinese business culture to get things accomplished or to ensure that an objective is on schedule towards completion. There are four practices that allow for the creation and the protection of social status (face): giving face, protecting (saving) face, vying for face, and not considering face. Giving face means to enhance, elevate or affirm the face of others with the expectation of increasing loyalty and reciprocity from the recipient. Protecting, or saving, face means to protect the reputation of oneself, vying for face means to seek an increase in status for oneself or one 's group, and not considering face is the state of not being obligated to conceal disagreements or return favors. Hwang (1987)