跨文化交际案例case study 4 (1)

Chapter 4 In the Workplace
Case1
Eric Chan had been successfully working in a large computer company in an overseas country. He heard that there was an opening for a position in the Programming Department. He decided to go to talk with his boss.
Eric: Excuse me, could I see you for a moment?
Boss: Sure. Come on in. have a seat.
Eric: Thanks.
Boss: What’s on your mind?
Eric: Well, I’ve heard that there’s job going in the Programming Department.
Boss: And…?
Eric: I’d like to be considered for it.
Boss: I see. Have you seen the criteria for selection?
Eric: No, but I’ve talked with some of the programmers there. I believe I have the right skills. Boss: It’s very different work to the work we do here in Operations, you know.
Eric: Yes, I understand that, but my aim is to work in programming.
Boss: Well, I’d be sorry to lose you to another department. You’re a good worker and you have a good future here. But I realize that you have to seek promotion. That always happens to the good workers.
Eric: So, you would support me if I make an application?
Boss: Sure. I’d be happy to.
Eric: I really appreciate that.
Boss: Good luck with it. Let me know if I can help.
Eric: Thanks, I will.
分析：西方人认为工作场地的老板与雇员的关系更多的是分工角色的不同，大家的共同目标是把工作做好。

因而向老板请求特殊照顾不太适宜，所以外国雇员这方面十分小心。

尽管如此，劳资之间的人情不是不存在的。

老板对于雇员有时需要请假或给予特殊关照十分理解，不会不加考虑。

在需要请假或照顾的情况下，要当面与有关人士将事情解释清楚，然后提出要求。

一般来说，老板会理解并批准你的请求的。

有时要在事情过后将工作补上，说通过做别的事情弥补。

但工作场地的灵活性非常强，并不象人们看上去的那样死板教条。

Case 2
A small group of colleagues have gathered to see if they can find a way to meet the deadline on a particular report. Maria is the chairperson.
Maria: Well thanks for coming, everyone. We have only a short time so I will explain the situation. We have a problem with the department report for the Annual Report. The department report will be delayed by oine week at least. I’d like some suggestions.
Tony: What’s the hold up? Can anything be done?
Maria: The problem is with the regional groups. They can’t get the statistical analyses back in time.
Holly: Do we know the main content of the department report?
Maria: Mostly, but he statistics are needed for the recommendations and for the appendices. Holly: Could one or two of us work on the main body of the report and add the material for the appendices later?
Tony: I can’t see that working, Holly. I t’d be doing it in sections. The style would probably suffer.
Maria: Well, that might be so Tony, but let’s think about that idea. We can get access to the main issues section. We know what the department has achieved over the last eight months. Holly: If I could just add something here. Maybe we could write the main section of the report, send it off for initial approval and send up the statistical data later.
Maria: Hmmm.Possible, but it makes us look ineffecient.
Tony: Do we have any of the data from the regions?
Maria: Quite a lot, but not all. What’s your idea Tony?
Tony: Some of us chould work back and send it up. If it differs with the data that comes from the regional analyses, we could send it up with an explanation.
Maria: That’s good. It’s a bit of a gamble though.
Holly: Maybe we should talk to the regional directors to see exactly what the situation is. Maybe not all of them have the delay problem.
Tony: Good idea. They chould tell us what information they currently have.
Maria: I think we have something here. Let’s find out the real situation. We might be able to do something. Holly, will you contact the regional derectors for me? Tony, will you liaise with Holly and set up a teleconference as soon as possible. Tomorrow would be good. Any time. Holly: Sure.
Tony: That’s fine.
Maria: Good work. We’ll meet again tomorrow before you go home. Thanks.
分析：西方国家的会议主持人，即会议主席，与其他国家的较大不同处可
能在于：主席的任务是协助会议，引导会议的成功，达到会的预期目的。

这包
括的发动与会成员献计献策，发表看法。

所以，座位主席，要善于引导，不要
对会议大包大揽。

他们像掌舵的人，使会议按时准确驶达彼岸。

这是一个出色
的会议主席所必备的素质。

Case 3
Finding an Interested Buyer
Georage Hall was in Beijing attending a trade fair and looking for an opportunity to do business in China. He had been very successful in his business dealings in the US and prided himself on his ability “to get things moving.” His first day was going well .He looked around at the displays of sporting equipment to get some idea of whom he might approach. He was sure that his products, tennis rackets with an unusual new design, would arouse some interests. On the second day he approached the company which he felt would be most responsive to his products. He introduced himself to the general, a Mr. Li. Since he had read that Chinese find getting down to business immediately too abrupt and rude, he began a casual conversation, eventually leading up to the topic of his products and suggesting how Mr. Li’s company might benefit from using them. George then suggested that he could arrange to get together with Mr. Li and provide more specifics and documentation on his products.
Mr. Li responded in fairly good English,”That would be interesting.”
Knowing that he had only a few days left in Beijing, George wanted to nail down a time,”When can we meet?” asked George.
“Ah. This week is very busy,”replied Mr. Li.
“It sure is,” said George,”How about 10 o’clock? Meet you here.”
“Tomorrow at 10 o’clock?” asked Mr. Li thoughtfully.
“Right,” said George, “I’ll see you then?”
“Hmm, yes; why don’t you come by tomorrow,” was the reply.
“OK,” responded George,”It was nice meeting you.”
The next day at 10 o’clock he approached Mr. Li’s company’s exhibit only to find that Mr. Li had some important business and was not able to meet with George. He called back later in the day and was told that Mr. Li was not available.
分析：英美人士做事情讲究守时。

而中国人不太重视这方面。

本案列中，李先生不仅没有准时接见预约的客户，甚至放了他“鸽子”。

Case 4
Four Secretaries and Their Jobs
Four classmates from a top Chinese university all took jobs as secretaries after graduation. Five years later the four former classmates had a reunion and discussed their jobs.
Chen Qi and Dai Yun both work as bilingual secretaries for a Finnish company in Beijing. Chen Qi is secretary to the Finn general manger, and Dai Yun is secretary to the Chinese local manger, a position only slightly lower than that of the Finn manger.
Zhang Ying is from a politically prominent family and was hired as the secretary to the leader of a small government bureau in the capital city of her home province. Lu Yan works for a state run enterprise in the same city where she was hired as the secretary to the new manager for international marketing. The company has never marketed its products abroad before so this office and Lu Yan’s position are new to the company.
Five years later Chen Qi is satisfied with her job with the Finnish company but Dai Yun is not. The Finn manager receives orders from the company’s home office in Finland, and he gives orders to those below him in China, including his secretary Chen Qi. He tells her how he wants his time scheduled and she then makes appointments for him according to his instructions. She translates memos and other documents and interprets from Chinese to English to Chinese. If the manager does not think Chen Qi has done her work well, he tells her right away. He is very demanding, but Chen Qi feels that she knows what her duties are and knows what her manager expects. She is confident that she is doing a good job.
Dai Yun often does not have as much work to do as Chen Qi does, because her boss schedules his own appointments and does a lot of the office paperwork himself. When he is out of town she has time to study for the graduate entrance exam. However, she is not sure whether or not she is doing a good job. Her manager tells her what she is expected to do, but he does this day by day. When people call or come to the office to see her boss, she greets them in English or Chinese as necessary. She receives their memos and other messages as well as their questions and requests and passes them on to her manager. Dai Yun thinks of her job as doing what her manager wants her to do. She pays close attention to his moods and behavior, and sometimes she is able to anticipate what he would like without him telling her. 分析：许多中国人在外企工作，不同国家的外企领导有不同的工作作风和标准。

本案列中，戴云给不同的外国上司做秘书，在工作中出现由于文化冲突而引起的问题就很常见
了。

Case 5
Work Performance Review
Wu Weimin had just started working for a Swedish company that has extensive business commitments in China. His work involved both writing reports and recommendations and addressing meetings. As he was very anxious to succeed, Wu Weimin always researched his topics thoroughly and tried to make his presentations as clear as possible. However, he gradually became aware that something was wrong. It often seemed that nobody listened to him and his advice was ignored. When he spoke at meetings, he felt that people were impatient and uninterested in what he had to say. He got more and more unhappy and began to feel that his colleagues were not interested in his opinions because he was Chinese. This, he thought, was racism.
The company had a policy of annual review, which meant that every staff member met with the managing director once a year to discuss his or her progress. When the time came for Wu Weimin’s review, the managing director gave him a copy of the company’s assessment of his performance. The assessment praised his hard work, but made the following, very serious criticisms:
When speaking at meeting, arguments are often unfocused and speeches lack clear direction.
Written reports contain too much irrelevant material.
In both speaking and writing, material is poorly organized, with important recommendations often appearing only at the end of the report.
Often appears uncertain about the points he wants to make.
Wu Weimin was shocked by these criticisms. He could not understand why they had been made and he was not sure what to do about them.
分析：外国人做事讲究简洁、干练，而中国人则讲究面面俱到。

所以本按列中吴为民的工作作风不被同事和上司所赞同。

Case 6
Whose Car Is It?
A join venture in Beijing involved Chinese and American-recruited specialists were working together with Chinese specialists in establishing a factory. The American side of this project had provided most of the material and equipment necessary to start the plant, including a car. The use of this car became the focus of an on-going battle that was regularly raised at each semi-annual management meeting.
The Americans claimed that the car had been provided for project use during working hours and for private use for American project members outside office hours. They claimed that this implied that American team members should be able to drive it. The Chinese felt that the car should only be driven by authorized Chinese drivers, which effectively limited its use by Americans but increased its use by senior Chinese project members.
The conflict centered on the registration. The car first had a registration that prevented its being driven by the Americans. Their aim was to change this registration. The Chinese were apologetic-it could not legally be done. The Americans cited the Memorandum of Understanding that formed the legal basis of the project; they cited Chinese law and precedent.
All agreed that it was possible. The Chinese authorities answered with a number of practical difficulties, but conceded that the Americans had the right to drive the car and promised to look into the matter.
Six months later nothing had changed. The matter was again raised at the semi-annual management meeting. The right of the Americans drive the car was again acknowledged, difficulties again mentioned and action again promised. Six months later, nothing had changed .
分析：本案列中一辆公车归谁使用发生了争议。

按照外国人的习惯，谁需要谁就用；而在中国，领导或专家就有优先使用权了。

Case 7
Off to a Bad Start
David Hu had just started working for the foreign owned company. He was sitting at his workstation but had not been given any assignment that he should be doing at this moment. He was relaxing and waiting and then thought he would take the opportunity to have a look around. He poked his head into several offices just to see what there was to be seen.
Suddenly Mr. Parker came up to him and angrily asked him what he was doing. David Hu was embarrassed. He laughed and quickly started to move back toward his workstation. This did not seem to satisfy Mr. Parker who started to talk rapidly and angrily. Hoping to calm him down, Mr.Hu smiled and apologized, trying to explain that he was trying to learn more about the department. However, Mr. Parker got even angrier. Finally, another worker came by and calmed him down, but Mr. Parker left, he still looked angry. Mr.Hu sighed; he knew he had made a bad start but still didn’t understand why.
分析：外国人很讲究隐私权，一般不允许自己的私人空间受到打扰。

而中国人比较喜欢看热闹，想知道别人在做什么。

所以在本案列中，吴先生未经允许就在公司四处走动，引起其他员工的强烈不满。

Case 8
Fair Price
Ken Kopp, an American importer, successfully negotiated a contract with Zhen Jian garment factory in southern Jiangsu Province to purchase 46,000 winter coats in three months. The first two months went very smoothly. Ken was satisfied with everything from quality control to prompt shipping; he was even more surprised with the speed of production. One summer afternoon he decided to drive down from his headquarters in a large hotel in a nearby city to inspect some of the factory’s workshops. He was pleased to find himself cordially greeted by every worker he met. Through his interpreter he readily told some inquisitive Chinese workers that he was paying their company $10 for each coat, which he then would sell for $200 in the US.
The following week the American manager unexpectedly noticed a sharp decline of the garments’quality at the packing department. He immediately raised his concern to the Chinese manager and tightened quality inspection. Nothing seemed to help. The pile of rejected coats just kept growing to the point that it was impossible to finish the contract in time.
分析：因为美元和人民币货币比值的不同，还有经济发展水平等各方面的原因，使得同种货物在两国的售价大大不同。

在本案列中，中方工人由于知道了自己所生产的货
物在美国高昂的售价后，挫伤了其工作积极性。

Case 9
The Job Interview
Jiang Anshi applied for a job as a computer programmer in a large foreign-owned computing company. Because he was very well qualified in computing and had extensive experience, he thought that he had a very good chance of getting the job. Three people interviewed him. They started out by asking him questions about his qualifications and experience. He answered confidently.
Suddenly, however, one of the interviewers asked him whether he could work in a team. Jiang Anshi was rather surprised at the question but said, “Yes.” He was then asked why he was interested in this particular job. He explained that the job was very suitable for him as he had done similar work before. He also explained that the salary was better than the salary he was currently receiving. Finally, he was asked if he himself had any questions. He did not.
Jiang Anshi left the interview feeling that he had done well. However, he did not get the job and later found out that the successful applicant had less experience than he had.
中西方人们对面试的概念有一定区别。

西方招聘单位在招聘职员时，更注重你的团队合作精神，对应聘职位的兴趣而不是简历上的一些经验和职业资格证书等，他们认为面试的目的是使招聘单位与应聘人相互了解，招聘职员是双向选择，而不是招聘单位单方面地了解进而选择应聘人员。

Case 10
Sharing the Wealth
Anna Bilow had been working for a Chinese-owned and operated company in Nanjing for about six months. The division she was working in had a small collection of Chinese-English dictionaries, English language reference books, and some videos in English including a couple of training films and several feature films that Anna had brought at her new employer’s request when she came from Europe. Anna knew that some of the other sections had similar collections. She had sometimes used her friendship with one of the women in another department, Gu Ming, to borrow English novels and reference books and in turn had let Gu Ming borrow books from her section’s collection. On other occasions, she had seen friendly, noisy exchanges, where one of the other workers in her division had lent a book or video to a colleague from another section.
Anna thought it was a great idea when a memo was circulated saying that the company’s leaders had decided to collect all the English language materials together into a single collection. The plan was to put them in a small room that was currently being used for storage so that all employees could have equal access to them. Now she would no longer have to go from department to department trying to find the materials she needed.
Anna was surprised to hear her co-workers complaining about the new policy. When the young man in charge came to the department to collect their English language materials, she was astounded to see them hiding most of the books and all but one of the videos in their desks. When she checked out the new so-called collection, she found that the few items were all outdated or somehow damaged. She also noticed that none of the materials she had borrowed from Gu Ming were in the collection. She asked her friend why the Chinese were
unwilling to share their English language materials with all their co-workers, when they seemed willing to share them within their departments.
西方人乐于将自己的书籍和整理的资料拿出来让朋友和同事共享，而在中国，即便是朋友间，人们也不愿意与人共享自己的书籍和资料。

由于这种资料共享的观念不同，案例中Anna才会难以理解顾明等同事将自己的资料，书籍藏起来的做法。

Case 11
The Entrepreneur
Charles was excited about his new promotion and transfer to China .He had done well in the marketing department of his company and had been promoted to assist the director of marketing at the company’s recently established operations in Shanghai. HE had studied a bit about Chinese, but so far had worked only in the United States and had little experience with Chinese individuals or culture. In the two months before relocating, Charles often went to the local university library to try to absorb all he could about China, its culture, and the ways of doing business. In addition, his company provided a week-long culture seminar just prior to his departure.
After arriving in Shanghai, Charles found that his work was exciting and that marketing to the Chinese was a new challenge .During his culture seminar he had learned several concepts that were important in the Chinese business environment such as the concept of guanxi .HE had also learned about individualism .He felt he understood these concepts and was sure he would learn more.
Because the marketing director had two assistants, Charles worked closely with Dashan, his Chinese was counterpart .Charles learned that Dashan came from a fairy influential family in the area .Dashan was quite motivated and worked very hard .to Charles it seemed that Dashan was quite “individualistic” as he worked hard for bonuses, was always going the extra mile, and had set a number of work related goals for himself.
After a few months, Dashan left the company to start a venture of his own .Charles kept in touch with him and noticed that Dashan’s business was doing very well. One weekend, Dashan invited Charles for dinner .Many of Dashan’s relatives were present as well as some friends whom Charles had not met .Charels found that Dashan’s house was quite nice and equipped with many big-ticket consumer items ,such as a personal computer ,air-conditioning, and modern kitchen appliances ,Charles also learned that Dashan had recently bought a new car for his parents .It was clear that Dashan’s business was very profitable and successful .Dashan was managing it himself and already had 40 or 50 employees .It seemed to Charles that Dashan was doing quite a good job of being “individualistic.”
中西方人们对个人主义的理解有一定区别。

案例中，大山对工作努力、拿奖金、跳槽、装修房子、给父母买新车等都被Charles视为个人主义很强，为了得到自己的利益才努力工作等。

而在中国人眼里，给父母买房子，买车，努力工作以让自己父母过上好日子都是孝顺的表现。