Introduction
Compared to any other culture, the Chinese culture is relationship-oriented; Chinese believe that one cannot undertake any meaningful activity without forging a good rapport with others in the society. For this reason, most of them do not value themselves as much as they value others. The paper seeks to proof that the relationship between people is more important that personal value. Moreover, the paper will verify that Chinese loyalty to the country is more important than loyalty to the family.
Chinese Loyalty
In the Chinese culture, one is expected to devote himself for the society’s benefit and not for the benefit of his family. This inherent assumption and belief has been practiced since the war of China and Korea. While in foreign countries, a Chinese would identify with his country and would work selflessly to protect the nationality and the country of origin; other people from different countries rarely practice this culture. Chinese-based firm has been considered as those winning contracts in many countries because of the quality of goods and service they deliver for the benefit of their country. The Chinese can commit themselves and work for their countries especially in foreign countries, while they live their families, which rely on humanitarian services for survival. The political ideology adopted by the Chinese, Communism, where the government owns and control most resources have indoctrinated the Chinese to believe that they need to be loyal to the state in order to benefit from some of the resources owned by the state.
Chinese relationships
In the Chinese culture, building and maintaining a good relationship among people is linked to destiny. In the first place, trust and honesty are vital virtues, which the Chinese culture usually emphasis. Upon having them, one is considered to have valued others more than himself or herself (Stewart & Bennett, 1991). Many Chinese consider that having such relationship can take any activity to the greatest height if all parties believed in others. Many business partners who have consider others more than themselves have ended up doing business with the Chinese community. Internationally, the Chinese community has a high volume of trade compared to other countries. The rationale behind it is that the Chinese have a culture of valuing others more and forging meaningful relationship with those that they transact business together. Most of the Chinese traders have proved to communities in other countries that they can commit themselves to what they say and show it through actions. For instance, in the Chinese community, it is said that if two people are best friends or kinsmen, then starting any business activity would not be a problem because the two trust in each other and can share ideas required to start and sustain the business.
Before any relationship is established, one has to proof to others that he is dependable and reliable in terms of sticking to the truth, sacrificing his own time and resources for the benefit of others. For instance, a person running errands for others could proof to others that he can be a good business partner. Apart from that, language dichotomies play a vital role in verifying the fact that establishing a good relationship is not only important to foster peace and understanding, but also important in creating a sense of commitment, which is a necessary prerequisite for one to establish a business (Reuvid, 2005).
The culture assumption that giving gifts to people helps in “opening up ways” through which one is pursuing portends that, in the future the giver would accumulate much through unknown ways. This element of kindness and honesty has attracted many international firms to open their assembly points in China, not because of cheap labour, but because the community there is Kind, honesty and committed to what they expect to do. According to Reuvid (2005), forging good interpersonal relationships helps in improving the productivity of an employee and thus of the entire organisation. In this sense, it involves a collaborative decision-making and problem solving, where every member would feel considered and acknowledged for the position they hold in the group. Consequently, the analogy explains why most of the Chinese firms adopt a flat organisational culture that would value all people in the firm.
Conclusion
Concisely, the Chinese value the loyalty of their country as opposed to that of their families because of the political ideology they are indoctrinated to and the sustainability of the reputation of their country. The Chinese culture is relationship-oriented and that for any successful business to be established and be sustained, and then affected parties in the business should learn how to value others more than themselves. In doing so, other partners would see the commitment, and establish the trust. Therefore, it is indeed true that establishing a good relationship with others and value others more.
References
Reuvid, J. (2005). Doing business with China (5th ed.). London: GMB Pub. ;.
Stewart, E. C., & Bennett, M. J. (1991). American cultural patterns: a cross-cultural perspective (Rev. ed.). Yarmouth, Me., USA: Intercultural Press.
