Secret: What is the secret of getting along well with western colleagues?

When you have a conflict with a foreign colleague, you probably can't tell who is right and who is wrong.

Management scholars and human resources experts generally believe that the difference in management methods brought about by cultural conflicts between China and the West is the biggest problem faced by foreign executives in China enterprises.

Jungle Wong, managing partner of Deloitte's human capital consulting service in Asia Pacific and China, told the interface journalist that he found that the differences between Chinese and western corporate management culture mainly lie in the way of thinking, decision-making and communication.

Lynn Paine, a professor of business management at Harvard Business School, wrote in Harvard Business Review that the lack of cultural adaptability is the biggest difficulty faced by foreign managers when they arrive in China. "They lack countermeasures to deal with the unique challenges of the China market."

Saibal Ray, a professor at McGill University, believes that foreign managers can succeed in China as long as they master some key cultural differences. He thinks the most important thing is to realize that China people work much longer hours than westerners. Many employees in China think that they should be on call 24 hours a day, come to the office early, and the boss will go home after work.

China people are famous for their diligence, but in addition, what other aspects have made foreigners feel the cultural shock?

Jungle King found that the differences between Chinese and western enterprise management culture are reflected in the following three points.

The first is the way of thinking. "China people's thinking is more circuitous, and they pay more attention to each other's feelings. They will consider' what do I think when I say this' and pay more attention to whether the result is harmonious or not, and whether it is' you can get by, I can get by'. Wang Dawei said, "China people like to talk about things from a macro perspective, while westerners and people who receive western education are more straightforward and prefer to talk about things from a micro perspective. "

Wang Dawei believes that this is why westerners always feel that China people are missing the point when they negotiate with China people in business. "China people are not unable to get to the point, but feel that they should tell the truth first and then talk about specific issues."

The second is the decision-making method. In China enterprises, decision makers often have no final decision-making power, and many decisions still need to be made by the top management. In western corporate culture, decision makers should take full responsibility for their own decisions and then report to their superiors when a decision is beyond their authority.

The third is communication. China people are reserved, pay attention to the environment of speech and nonverbal clues such as expressions and movements, and like contact; Westerners come straight to the point and like to use numbers and facts in conversation.

Wang Dawei found that when he communicated with his western colleagues on how to complete a project, he usually had a full discussion and immediately followed the discussed plan. Working with colleagues in China is rarely discussed, and often only one or two people make the final decision. However, there will be a lot of discussion in the implementation process, and some problems will not be solved until the implementation process.

American financial expert CT Qiang Sen left Ericsson on 20 12 to become the chief financial officer of Huawei. He told The Wall Street Journal that he was trying to adapt to the "subtle" way of communication in China.

In his first project in Huawei, he proposed a new method of writing financial reports. But he didn't realize at that time that his colleagues' "questions" were not about how to improve together, but only "objections". "In western companies, I hope my subordinates can ask me questions directly and respectfully. But in Huawei and most China companies, questioning is equivalent to blind refutation. " The project died after that.

However, domestic enterprises began to show a gratifying trend. Wang Dawei observed that the management culture of enterprises in China is changing.

There is a reason why the thinking mode of a new generation of young employees and entrepreneurs has changed. In Deloitte's leadership research, Wang Dawei found that post-80s and post-90s employees were more free and independent, valued themselves, and were more willing to challenge authority. "They are more willing to express their opinions and are more willing to influence leaders to make decisions with their own ideas." In addition, the older generation of China entrepreneurs gradually gave way to the second and third generation entrepreneurs, many of whom received western education and understood the importance of corporate culture transformation in China in the process of globalization.

A more important factor is that many China enterprises are expanding their business globally and hiring more foreign employees and executives in the process: hugo barra, former vice president of Google's Android product management, became vice president of Xiaomi on 20 13 and 10, and Jai Mani, former Google Play strategist, became vice president of Xiaomi on 20 14 and 10. As of 20 13, about 25% of Huawei150,000 employees are foreign employees; After Alibaba opened the cloud service center to the United States, it tapped the employees of well-known companies such as Amazon, Microsoft and Facebook, and has set up a team of about 300 people in the United States.

"More than 20 years ago, foreign-funded enterprises talked about localization (in China). Now it's the other way around. There are not many enterprises in China. The requirement of localization is how many middle and senior managers among local colleagues can be mainly locals. " Wang Dawei said. He believes that the localization development of China enterprises may be faster than that of foreign-funded enterprises coming to China.

Wang Dawei pointed out that in order to minimize the cultural influence within enterprises, China enterprises are taking advantage of the large number of overseas Chinese to recruit overseas Chinese employees with similar cultural backgrounds. One example is that Zhao Yu, the first employee in China, joined Alibaba on 20 15.

However, the problem of cultural conflict is inevitable. Especially when China enterprises going abroad need to cooperate with overseas enterprises in channels and resources, the integration of enterprise management culture is very important. Wang Dawei believes that in this case, understanding the local culture, bringing China's adaptable corporate culture to the local area and integrating it into the new culture will bring the greatest value. This requires respect, understanding and tolerance of different cultures and values.

Professor Payne suggested that foreign executives should establish a people-oriented working environment in China:

"For many people in China, the company is not only a place to work, but also a community. They want their boss to be not only a task-maker, but also a top manager. Smart managers will contact employees in a more humane way and make more positive feedback on their needs. ..... showing interest in the family and personal life of employees may be an invasion of privacy in the eyes of foreigners, but for most China people, it is part of expressing respect and being a good boss. "

Wang Dawei suggested that foreign China employees/executives should also actively explore opportunities for understanding and communication with local employees/executives, such as gathering, dining and organizing activities.

"I think people are still people, people are emotional and pay attention to each other's familiarity. Cultural integration is not to let him learn and change in any mechanical way, but to spend time with people and develop relationships. There is no way to rely solely on systems, incentives and lectures. This is actually no different from that in China, but the technique is different. Tactically speaking, it is completely consistent. " Wang Dawei told the interface journalist.

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