Question

Chinese differences; cultural and institutional profiles compared to the United Kingdom.

A Chinese employee is coming to work in your organisation in the United Kingdom, you are a manager of your organisation in the United Kingdom.

A. Put together a report advising about cultural differences that they may have coming to work in the United Kingdom, and the differences in the institutional business environment.

B. What challenges will be had as a manager in the United Kingdom, dealing with a Chinese employee?

Answer 1

Chinese culture is totally different from the culture of the United Kingdom. Whenever a Chinese individual has to work in the UK environment, he has to face many challenges, the cultural & business profile of both countries are different. For a manager in the UK, it is his responsibility to tackle Chinese employee, and make him comfortable with the organization culture whenever he joins the institution.

A. Put together a report advising about cultural differences that they may have coming to work in the United Kingdom, and the differences in the institutional business environment.

Both countries have different cultures & business environments, and it affects the working of Chinese employees in the United Kingdom.

Cultural & Business Environmental difference of China & UK has been formulated in tabular format:

Basis	China	United Kingdom
Negotiation.	Chinese negotiators believe in building relationships & trust before negotiation. They give more importance over gaining trust & confidence than the facts & figures.	They are very practical & seen it as a joint problem-solving meeting. They are detail oriented & structured. They utilize technology before & while doing negotiation.
Culture.	Chinese culture is collectivistic culture that focuses on the ''WE'' aspect.	UK's culture is individualist, that is they focus on the ''I'' aspect.
Work environments	Chinese work environment is collaborative in nature. Every employee will think about each other & work in a team. Chinese employees do not accept criticism.	They have a formal and hierarchical business environment. UK's employees see criticism as a part of growth.
Language	Chinese people believe in following their mother language. They love to communicate in Chinese instead of English.	People in the UK follow English as their standard language.
Body language	While doing business meetings, gestures & posture doesn't matter a lot for Chinese. For example: They avoid direct eye contact.	Gesture & posture plays a key role while doing business communication. For example: Eye contact plays a key role while doing meetings.
Privacy	Chinese are possessive about their privacy. They hide information from others.	People in the UK focus on getting details about the company while doing business meetings.
Technology	They believe in using their own-build technology. For example: They use their own search engine, use WeChat.	They use Google for search & are technological oriented. They believe in Email writing using applications which are accepted world-wide.
Formal structure.	They do not believe in paperwork & agreement. Trust is important.	They believe in paperwork, laws, and agreement.
Addressing	They avoid addressing by first name.	They follow first name culture.

B. What challenges will be had as a manager in the United Kingdom, dealing with a Chinese employee?

Manager has to face all these above tabular challenges when dealing with a Chinese employee.

For example:

• Since Chinese employees are not familiar with using Google or other publicly accepted technologies, a manager in the UK, faces difficulty whenever he asks a Chinese employee to draft mail or use Google for search.
• Chinese employees will face difficulty while addressing others through their first name.
• The major difficulty that stuck in the way of a manager at the UK for handling Chinese employees is that, Chinese do not accept criticism as part of their job. Whereas criticism is considered as a productive part for employees in the UK.
• Language is the major barrier for Chinese employees at the UK office.

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