In the session, a unique relationship, the cultural relationship is illustrated, which involves a personal relationship or Guanxi among Chinese business people. Chinese business people cultivate an intimate relationship for conducting business. The ties developed are often based on family and seem to transcend the size of any organization. The rules and protocols for establishing and maintaining Guanxi are complex and subtle and require a deep cultural understanding (Wong 25). Too much reliance on family and friendship (Guanxi), however, may lead to choices that, over time, favor inefficient and inferior quality and a subsequent loss of competitiveness.
Under Chinese philosophy, Pragmatism is a Chinese core value, and the tendency towards ensuring the particularistic is enhanced in organizational values. Hofstede’s cultural dimension theory is widely used to describe the effect of a society’s culture on organizational behavior and strategies. Indulgence for that matter involves controlling desires and impulse about how one is taught while growing up.
Confucianism has constrained Chinese behavior in such a way as to enable guanxi to solve the problem of contract enforcement. While everyone exposed to Chinese culture has a complete view of Confucianism, an understanding of Confucianism does give a flavor of how immersed in a personal relationship the Chinese people are. In the Chinese world also, unlike Confucianism Daoism illustrates the natural flow of things and they do not entail rules. There are various means by which the Chinese guard against opportunistic behavior and these show that the Chinese are skeptical. However, the cultural climate is such that an initial expectation of good faith on both sides is possible between people who are unfamiliar with each other, and this provides the possibility for further development.
Works Cited
Wong, Y. H. "An integrated relationship (guanxi) marketing model in China."Journal of Professional Services Marketing 18.1 (1999): 25-48.
