Managing People In China, Not China In People
Someplace between the outdated concept that "Chinese workers want to perform for a foreign manager to master Western methods" and current articles announcing "The end of Western management methods in China" the expectations and characterizations of Chinese nationals are shifting. Also, individual values and motivations are becoming top components in the way Chinese men and women make profession choices. By failing to understand the values and motivations of their Chinese employees, foreign executives threat leaving out a fundamental component of the talent development equation.
A great number of international managers have noticed that "chance to understand and grow" usually ranks as leading priority in employee retention surveys. They have also heard a lot about cultural differences and thus push for heavy employee development programs including a cross-cultural module. Yet, these applications seldom convert into higher staff engagement or loyalty.
When it comes to creating and retaining talent in China, foreign executives typically face three primary challenges:
- To begin with, gaining a sound understanding of the standard Chinese culture and its impact on the way to do company and manage individuals. In her incredibly common write-up, Mona Chung (1) talked about for instance the concept of Guanxi'??(relationship) as one of very first cultural idea foreign executives have to develop into familiar with. In terms of talent development and retention, compared to Western, Chinese workers tend to be much less loyal to the organization as an abstract entity and even more attached to their connection with their manager at a personal level.
- Second, revisiting their initial conclusion and fine-tuning. In China, much more than anywhere else, "All I know it that I know absolutely nothing": The nation is diverse and its culture is an ever-green concept. When they begin segmenting Chinese many people into diverse age categories or geographic zones for instance, foreign executives enter a new stage of understanding the subtleties of Chinese culture, its diversity and its evolving aspect.
- Third, distinguishing the culture influence from the individual's personal characteristics and expectations. This is that certain accurate cross-cultural understanding of their Chinese employees' values and motivations that enables foreign managers to extra properly lead their many people, projects and organizations.
The road to hell is paved with excellent intentions!
Foreign executives assigned to China are typically successful home business men and women with impressive track records who arrive in this new marketplace with a strong intention of "acquiring items carried out" and consider in terms of "finest practices". When it comes to managing Chinese talent, lots of international leaders let themselves become misguided by some old stereotypes such as "local workers feel th ey can master even more from a foreign manager, in particular about Western approaches of doing organization," and subsequently behave like evangelists on a mission to convert Chinese people today to Western small business practices.
Nonetheless, opposite theory has emerged in current months and some articles in the Chinese press have even announced "the finish of Western management procedures in China." Many elements have contributed to this "anti-western" sentiment. I personally obtain it particularly interesting to observe how the Chinese government has leveraged events such as the Sichuan earthquake, the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the monetary crisis to fuel a expanding sense of national pride. Whatever the reasons, emotional or rational, a lot of Chinese employees have lost interest in generating efforts to implement Western management principles and are searching rather towards their own classic culture for guidance. For instance, in a recent write-up, Franck Gallo (2) briefly described how some Chinese see the present world economic crisis as the outcome of Western investment bankers taking dangers that they really should not have. This attitude shift in the Chinese is a probable source of new tension amongst threat-in search of international managers and their Chinese workers.
This wave of national pride and anti-western sentiment will almost certainly acquire momentum with future events such as the 2010 Shanghai World Exposition, but general I think that this let's-go-back-to-the-past movement won't final: I have no doubt that in the lengthy-term China will continue its journey towards modernity. It is subsequently imperative for foreign managers working in China to spend attention to shifts in the social atmosphere and specifically recognize the demands and expectations of the local employees on an individual basis. There is no 1-size fits all methodology of how to ideal manage an entire nation of skilled talent.
Soon after all, you are not managing Chinese representative of the national culture, but individuals driven by their personal personalities.
When it comes to efficiently establishing individuals in China, countless managers get it a daunting activity to separate national culture and individual personality. Following all, managing people today, in any cultural context, has much less to do with handling representatives of the nation and its culture than it has to do with inspiring individuals who have distinctive values and personalities. By failing to know the values and motivations of their Chinese staff, foreign executives danger leaving out a fundamental component of the talent improvement equation. This concept is applicable all more than the world, but especially so in China!
How does a single solve troubles? Make decisions? Create trust and communicate with other people? Those concerns are not uncomplicated to address, due to the fact they are moving targets. We can adapt our behavior and adjust our attitude even so, what does not change is the individual personality. An individual's personality drives his or her exclusive ways of responding to internal and external signals. For instance, does he or she have the empathy needed to realize client needs? The resilience required to bounce back from rejection? The thoroughness necessary to execute the program? Those are the important nuances that can make all the distinction as to whether an individual will be happy and successful in his or her job.
Let's go back to our instance of how you can increase danger-taking behavior in your organization. What if, rather of starting with a set system of how the organization will strategy threat-taking behavior, we concentrate instead on the individual employee's personality traits that guide his or her responses towards taking dangers? By understanding how 1 is comfy when evaluating a number of selections, thriving below pressure, handling rejection, and so on,. we can leverage the individual's one of a kind set of strengths to facilitate risk taking behavior and drive innovation.
Feel with an open thoughts and act with a compassionate heart.
In short, I would advise to each foreign and Chinese managers to not try to define large cultural troubles and rather focus on superior understanding their employees' values and motivations, especially in China where personnel want to see that their manager is interested in them as people, as opposed to workers, and treats them in a caring and friendly manner.
(1) Mona Chung, "The impact of culture difference when entering the Chinese market place" April 8th, 2008 by China Company Accomplishment Stories
(2) Franck Gallo, "Risk-Taking Amongst Chinese Workers" June 10th, 2009 by China Company Accomplishment Stories
