Monday, September 29, 2008

Cultural Stereotyping

It seems several China-related blogs have recently written about negotiating tactics, interest in quality, or other business-related cultural stereotypes of Chinese people. Maybe the new milk quality issues are triggering this new wave of generaliztions.

Although there are cultural differences between Americans and Chinese people, the stereotypes are almost useless in individual interactions. Chinese people don't act one way in a negotiation or related to product quality any more than Americans. While it may be somewhat helpful to be aware of cultural differences while negotiating, my experience has been that the principles of establishing trust and understanding the other person's position far outweigh any perceived cultural tendancies.

I do sometimes catch myself referring to Chinese factories like they are one entity. Afterwards I usually reflect on how inaccurate my comments were. There are the same range of quality options in China that there are in the USA. There are high quality factories there just like there are here. It is a developing country, so the range of factories may tend to have more low-end factories than we have here, but there is no "Chinese quality" or "Chinese negotiating tactic".

Beware of Americans that claim to know how Chinese people "are" and how you should deal with them. These people likely have a pretty narrow view of the world and business. I advise keeping an open mind and judging people (Americans and Chinese alike) on their actions, not what you have heard about their culture.

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