By William R. Dodson
A Chinese auditor at a Big 5 accounting firm pointed
out that Americans are always quick to blame others in business for difficulties
they meet, whereas Chinese people always blame themselves first. She said
that in business meetings she hears Americans say things like, "Oh,
the market went against me," or "The client was impossible to
work with," or "The team was no good." Beyond the criticisms
of others, there seems little attempt, she added, for Americans to reflect
on the role they played in an action that had unexpected results. Typically,
the initial Chinese response to negative results is silence, quickly followed
by self-examination and self-improvement.
There is historical precedent for the Chinese orientation to look to the
self as responsible for results that do not live up to expectations. For
hundreds of years, the only way a Chinese family could assure financial
and social security was for the younger generations to pass difficult
government examinations. The exams were meritocratic: with enough study,
even the poorest peasant could pass the rigorous tests and become a government
official. The exams covered everything, including art, poetry, science
and the Confucian classics. Children started studying for the examinations
from a very early age, and were pushed hard by every elder in their family
to do their best.
Families with traditional Chinese values admonish their children to look
to other children who outperform them in various activities—math,
science, chess or piano playing. Parents say things like, "Oh look
at Xiao Wei. He’s so good at math; why can't you be that good? You're
too lazy, that’s why." Consistently, the message to children in China,
Taiwan, Hong Kong and throughout the West, if their parents were born
and raised in any of these places, is, "You have to do better than
your peers; no one else is going to help you. You must do it yourself."
The most important component of Chinese competition between individuals
is to show excellence through mastery. Chinese believe that to talk about
what they can do or to blame others for results that did not meet expectations
merely throws a spotlight on one’s shortcomings. Instead, Chinese feel
it’s much more effective and convincing if they improve the shortcomings
in themselves that did not support their delivery. They believe they should
spend all the energy they would otherwise use to blame others to, instead,
identify and then rectify their own weaknesses.
Western managers who work with Chinese staff will indeed benefit from
the Chinese approach to self-improvement. Though this learning does not
mean Chinese employees are necessarily self-directing; they will appreciate
efforts to help them see where they can improve themselves so they can
do a better job for the organization or for their team. However, like
anyone, Chinese can find constant criticism irksome and humiliating if
it is not presented constructively. Western managers must also watch out
for the symptoms of obsessive self-improvement on the part of Chinese,
including a lack of communication of the true state of affairs of an issue,
employee burnout and staff de-motivation.
Chinese social conditioning may prevent a Chinese from speaking about
a problem because of an innate sense that he or she is the source of the
problem, and/or must solve the problem alone. Of course, when any individual
takes on too much responsibility, there is always the chance he or she
will suffer a nervous breakdown or physical exhaustion. Another result
of taking on unnecessary responsibility is a dramatic dip in motivation
once the individual realizes he cannot solve the problem alone. When Western
managers take these cultural imperatives into account when developing
relationships with their Chinese staff, the organization, the manager
and, certainly not least, the employee herself will reap the benefit.
Author Bio: William R. Dodson is Managing
Director of Silk Road Communications, L.L.C., a market research and business
development consultancy that positions companies for success in China
and Greater Asia. He is the contributing editor on international business
to American Management Association’s (AMA) MWorld Journal of Management.
His Website is www.silkrc.com
He can be reached at wdodson@silkrc.com
or +1 (847)630-1271.
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