What should a US manager know about dealing with workers from China (in China)?

Question

• What factors do and do not motivate people from China and from the US?
• How do they show respect and deference?
• Are they used to a strong hierarchy or to an egalitarian setting?
• Do they normally do one thing at once or many things?
• How important is clock time and being on time?
• What factors lead them to respect someone? Is it age, experience, education, technical knowledge, wealth, or what?
• What conflicts or miscommunications may arise between workers from China and other workers due to cultural differences?
• How is considered team work?

Answer 1

Generally speaking:
1. Chinese people are primarily motivated by opportunities to elevate their social status, standard of living, and material wealth. Americans are motivated by the same things to an extent, but Americans are also motivated by opportunities to express their individuality and creativity and "be their own boss".
2. Chinese people show you respect by trying to help you avoid "losing face" (e.g. look stupid). Other ways they show respect are: They listen when you speak and make the conversation about you, not about them. They seek your advice and guidance. They arrange banquets in your honor. They do what you ask them to do. They keep you informed - they tell you what they know.
3. Chinese are all about hierarchy. Titles are very important. They need to be told what to do, not given an ultimate goal and told to figure out how to reach the goal on their own.
4. Chinese do one thing at a time.
5. Clock time and being on time are very important in China. While Americans like to be "fashionably late", Chinese strive to be "annoyingly early".
6. Chinese people respect all of the things you listed. Also, Chinese people respect foreigners who learn Chinese and learn about Chinese history and culture. Asking questions on Yahoo answers doesn't count. You need to learn Chinese and educate yourself about all those Chinese fables that every school kid knows. Then you will have them eating out of your hand.
7. Conflicts and miscommunications are too numerous to list. Entire books are written on this subject. Perhaps the most common example is that the American style of humor, which relies on irony and sarcasm, should be left at the airport. American-style humor will create all sorts of communication problems. Americans are so absorbed in their pop culture that they have a hard time speaking standard English without peppering their speach with slang, pop culture references and sarcasm.
8. The Chinese have difficulty in situations where there is not a clear leader and a clear set of instructions to follow.
As a manager in China or anywhere else it is your job to figure out what each person's strengths are, and make sure that each person has the support and information needed to do their jobs well.
Americans tend to wear their emotions on their sleeves, whereas the Chinese keep everything bottled up. Americans love to share what they know with everyone - they love to hear themselves talk. Chinese like to keep quiet, "know many things but say few".
This is just the tip of the iceburg. Read a few books, such as "The Chinese" by Jasper Becker and "One Billion Customers" by James McGregor. Read Harvard Business Review case studies on China. Study Chinese. Read Sun Zi's Art of War. Good luck.

Answer 2

This sounds suspiciously like a Org Behavior class question/essay.

I will point you to an excellent start...Lincoln Electric. INSEAD wrote an excellent paper on how lessons from Lincoln Electric can and cannot be applied to mainland China and Asia in general.

And, they are right...after nearly 6 years managing in Asia...they got it right.