Harmony in Conflict

1
Harmony in Conflict

• Active adaptation to life in present day Chinese
  society
• by
• Richard Hartzell

2
Eating,Banqueting and being a guest

• Underlying cultural patterns of eating
• "The Chinese idea of happiness and well-being is
  ...'a large group of relatives and friends eating
  a sumptuous meal.'
• Response to meal invitation may be indirect (will
  not directly refuse)
• Flexibility in terms of how many and who shows up
  for a banquet, compared with the West where an
  exact count is necessary.

3
Contrast with Western dinners

• Western restaurant individual portions
• Chinese no problem with latecomers - immediately
  brought into group
• Menu is not a contract some items may not be
  available
• ???, ??? (ke tao hua, ying chou hua) -- giving an
  affirmative replay to a request which you do not
  intend to fulfill

4
Pre-industrial revolution post-industrial
revolution

• High integration of personal/professional life
• Lack of legalistic orientation
• Human-ness, kindness, benevolence five
  relationships
• Guan-xi
• Sporatic enforcement of laws

5
Harmony

• individual vs. group
• responsibility
• sympathy
• morality

6
Confucian background

• Authoritarian political society
• Class structure
• scholar,
• farmer,
• worker,
• merchant,
• scum
• Morality not part of business

7
Five relationships

• Ruler and subject
• Parents and children
• Husband and wife
• Brothers and sisters
• friends
• Sensitivity to position in hierarchical context
  one must fit ones role - stereotyping is good

8
Small business orientation

• capital often raised through friends and
  relatives
• lack of adequate capital cutting corners
• need for temporary loans from family and friends

9
Purchasing, pricing and value

• Point of sale (marked or advertised price not
  binding)
• Concept of "natural" value "fair" price
• Unfair to ask one to sell at loss
• Contracts not binding if it would be unprofitable
  to meet them

10
Purchasing agent

• Organization gets agreed-upon price
• Purchasing agent has guan-xi takes private
  commission.
• Issue (China vs. US) should benefit of guan-xi
  go to person or organization?

11
Public/private confusion

• Broken promise of organization set right by
  private action of employee (taking aggrieved
  person out to dinner)
• Individual entrepreneurship within organization
  (no conflict of interest)

12
Reward/effort relationship.

• Time is not money
• There are no intangible expenses (expertise,
  design effort, collection of information,
  trademark use, opportunity cost,...)
• Otherwise idle facilities are free, since no
  direct cost is involved (e.g. weekend computer
  lab rental)
• Exchange of favors (e.g. government agency could
  use computer lab for free)
• Family concerns take priority over work

13
Business differences

• 'Contracts' for work aspirational, not binding
• Philosophy of business "make your service and
  quality good enough to get by in order to satisfy
  most of your customers. Most importantly,
  develop your connections."

14
Work contracted but not required due to change in
organization's plans is not paid for (e.g.
advertising campaign for a product which is not
released). One is expected to by sympathetic to
the organization whose plans change. Need to
understand what one is being paid for.
15
Injury and justice

• Only current physical injury exists, not
  intangible
• Breaking a leg - yes
• Violation of intellectual property rights - no
• Opportunity cost - no
• Pain and suffering - probably not

16
Liability

• Bicycle without lights going wrong way on a
  one-way street at night hit by a car car at
  fault.
• Liability to party who can best afford to pay.
• Legal vs ethical responsibility
• Ability to pay vs, moral obligation terminology

17
Other Ethical principles

• Filial piety (?) and family sharing
• Four ethical principles
• Ceremony ?,
• Justice ?,
• Uprightness ?,
• sense of shame ?
• Ethical thought is situational ethics rather than
  based on abstract concepts

18
Face

• Avoid direct contradictions in public
• Avoid direct criticism
• Indirect speech
• Do not put someone on the spot
• Avoid giving poor or immoral impression
• Display power, connections, generosity,...
• Follow traditional customs re wealth, superior
  connections, ability (e.g. re marriage customs)

19
Face 2

• Refusal of request for aid - loss of face
• Unequal financial renumeration - loss of face
  for both sides
• Implications of poverty - loss of face (e.g.
  working children)

20
Loss of face

• Do not necessarily pay attention to a speaker no
  loss of face from side conversations
• Student questions of fact - loss of face for
  professor.
• Dressing down - loss of face for both person and
  those accompanying.
• Pointing out faults, even in private
• Blunt remarks
• younger person doing better in competition than
  older one

21
Loss of face 2

• Student rating of professors
• using a Chinese language textbook written by
  someone else
• Having someone else make more for the same work
• Actions consistent with being poor (e.g. working
  wife, wife who makes more than husband)
• Accepting charity

22
Loss of face 3

• Challenge to Chinese point of view
• Manual labor (e.g handyman)
• Not fulfilling a request (hence agreeing without
  planning to follow through)

23
Gain of face

• Not examining the bill in a restaurant
• sympathizing with other party's difficulties

24
Indirect discourse

• When explaining reasons for non-performance
• When asking for help
• When explaining intentions
• When discussing achievement
• Indirect action having someone do something for
  you

25
Responses to a request/demand

• non-confrontational compliance
• confrontational compliance
• non-confrontational non-compliance more common in
  China
• confrontational non-compliance

26
Other differences

• Excuses/statements made without intent to harm
  are outside the honesty/dishonest spectrum
• Self-depreciation
• Dress conservative appropriate for position
  (DON'T dress down)
• Generosity important

27
Other differences

• Importance of 'ritual' in daily life (Americans
  irritated by 'meaningless' statements repeated
  such as "you're going to work").
• Whither to reasoning (Chinese) vs. where-from
  reasoning (American)
• Education American stresses why" reasoning

28
Other differences

• Homesickness is a prized emotion
• Comments made without intent to cheat or defraud
  are outside the honesty/dishonesty spectrum

29
Other differences

• Conflicting views of nature and naturalism
• education standardized
• "Chinese would rather be wrong in a harmonious
  fashion than right in a non-harmonious one."
• Ideals not goals but something divorced from
  reality

30
Role of Law

• laws are without sympathy
• Standing up for ones rights not productive. Not
  admired will lose public sympathy
• Impossible (and undesirable) to develop
  all-inclusive regulations

31
Chinese negotiation

• Black face/white face strategy (good cop bad cop)
  connection with plea for sympathetic treatment
• Take the remaining quantity technique (higher
  than normal discount if buy whole stock)
• Indirect stalling for persistent salesmen