from EuroBiz Magazine

October 2008

by Bill Dodson
The greatest challenge in working with expats – whether from one’s own countrymen or from other countries – is the sense of camaraderie that naturally develops that can make Chinese feel excluded. A manager of a Scandinavian home furnishings manufacturer once told me how when he was transferred to the China operation he was appalled to see the Western managers all sitting together in the canteen upstairs, while all the Chinese staff sat together eating in the downstairs cafeteria. “I tried several times to sit with the Chinese staff downstairs to converse with them while we ate, but I got the feeling they felt I wasn’t sincere about wanting to break down the separation. The company culture seemed to have a built-in divide between the Westerners and the Chinese that the Chinese seemed quite aware of.”

In the fight Western companies are waging to find and keep the best local Chinese talent many Western managers overlook how they might invest in low-cost, high-impact opportunities to engage their local Chinese staff. Without such channels for involvement in their own company, Chinese employees might feel they are separated from their Western coworkers by a Bamboo Barrier. Local staff that does not have a sense of belonging in their own company and/or have a development path that will lead them to the same management domains as their Western counterparts will simply leave the company.

Some Western companies insist on fostering strong home-country characteristics that preclude local employees from expressing even a hint of Chinese-ness. The companies are attractive to local professionals only to the extent that employees can say they have experience working in a Western company. Within eighteen months of joining the company they will leave to find a higher paying position or to become a manager in a Chinese operation.

Still, many expat managers spend most of their time together – on the job and outside work. When it comes to dealing with other Westerners who are also based in China, they tend to have an “I’m OK; You’re OK,” attitude, even when some of the relationships strain credulity. The Danish Managing Director of a China-based market research company intimated to me that in Denmark he likely would not spend time with some of the Danes he meets and with whom he socializes in China. “What we share in common IS China,” he told me. Add to this the sense that many of the expat managers in China have salaries many multiples higher than their Chinese counterparts and walls that impede communications and trust inside the company can build exponentially.

One policy that can go a long ways toward breaking down the walls between cultures in the company involves language training. Many manufacturers in the economic development zones around Suzhou underwrite the cost of Chinese language training for their Western expat managers and technical specialists. No one ever imagines the Westerners will become fluent in the language; however, the training serves two critical purposes: it helps build a ramp between the linguistic gulf that sometimes separates expats from their Chinese counterparts, and it gives Chinese employees a sense that the Western corporate culture really does care about the well-being of Chinese employees.

One Western company provided Chinese business culture training to the more than two hundred business managers, engineers and technicians and administrators who would in any way be interfacing with their Chinese colleagues in the company’s first China operation. The plants were scattered geographically, which in no way deterred executive management’s intention to ensure that any staff that had anything to do with China knew how to engage their counterparts: cross-cultural trainers traveled to sites in different countries to provide the cultural primers. The company also provided free Chinese language training at their headquarters office to any manager that frequently traveled to China or who was going to be located in China.

The flip side of offering – or even of requiring – Chinese language training to Western managers and specialists is providing Business English training to local employees. The Chinese HR Manager of a Western electronics manufacturer proudly told me over lunch at an Italian restaurant that the previous week the company’s Business English teacher had brought Chinese managers to a Western restaurant where they had practiced “Menu English.” Interestingly, the HR Manager had been working in the HR department of Western multinationals in China for nearly fourteen years, and still found the English training an invaluable medium for himself and his co-workers.

English is also the second language of most Europeans in China. Many Europeans have found their English language capabilities increasing after coming to China, since so much of their work after coming here is in English. A brilliant corporate offering that is certain to foster more productive working relations between Western and Chinese staff is requiring both sides to take Business English classes together. Communications and camaraderie are certain to increase across the cultures.

Western GMs with employees from their own country will also sometimes discipline subordinates from their own country differently – even perhaps more lightly – than they would their Chinese staff. Whatever the reasons expat staff may have – short-term contracts, inability to adapt to China, ill-health – Western GMs need to be aware that such perceived favoritism merely fortifies in the mind of many Chinese the sense that Westerners feel “above it all” here in China. Chinese staff may express their resentment through apathy at work, or through passive-aggressive behavior that may include a surly manner or abrupt resignations. It’s important,then, that corrective actions – and promotions – be as evenly applied as realistic, lest Chinese staff build their own personal Bamboo Barriers that prevent their investing themselves in the company.

Annual company outings and frequent company social events that involve Western and Chinese staff also go a long way to breaking down the walls that fortify our expat existence in China, and toward building relationships across cultural boundaries. Expat managers can also create contexts that elucidate cultural similarities between East and West and provide opportunities for staff to capitalize on them in their engagements. For instance, in my own company, Chinese supervisors advised me that local staff would much more greatly appreciate receiving cash gift-cards to use at the local hypermarket for Moon Festival than they would yet more Mooncakes. Indeed, it turned out both Westerners and Chinese enjoyed the surprise!

And finally: never forget that a little beer shared between colleagues can be a great ambassador.

As the Danish Managing Director I mentioned above told me: “Because of language and culture differences with the Chinese, it takes longer for me to connect with them.

“But I still try to be the same person to all people,” he added. China operations with a similar organizational aim are certain to keep their local talent around longer.

Copyright ©William R. Dodson, 2009