Â鶹ӰԺ

This summer, Leeds School of Business Teaching Professor Tracy Jennings led a group of 12 CU Â鶹ӰԺ undergraduate students in a Tang-funded global seminar on Organizational Behavior and Business in China. We'll be showcasing two blog?posts?from students to share their experiences.?

From Holt Bouma :

Both Chinese and Americans have very distorted views of each other¡¯s culture and society. Before arriving in China, while I was telling my friends and family about my upcoming trip, I received numerous warnings and concerns. While I personally wasn¡¯t worried, many people had the perception of China being a dangerous dictatorship that would surveil and arrest me for anything that I did. Now that it has been a little over a week, I have noticed similar misperceptions from Chinese people (thanks to my Chinese!). The recent and most prominent example happened while I was getting a street massage. During my massage, somebody walking by asked if they could take my picture, to which I agreed. Afterward, they¡¯re friends began telling her how foreigners don¡¯t like getting their picture taken. I told her that we don¡¯t care, but they were adamant that it was true and the masseuse agreed. Another example was when we visited the international school, where the students I spoke with were surprised to learn that American college students consist of mostly a higher social class. The students surprised to learn this, after they had been told that America was a ¡°Óлú»áµÄ¹ú¼Ò¡± (a country with opportunity). A fallacy I realized that I possessed was my personal belief that Chinese people weren¡¯t very social. Though their work life certainly prohibits them, you will very often see a group of friends sitting around chatting on the street. When we were in Beijing, it was shocking to see so many people playing Chinese hacky sack by the drum and bell towers. Furthermore, when we would eat dinner at less-busy restaurants, the workers would usually go back to conversing together after serving us. Now, I realize that it was short-sighted to view any culture as particularly reserved, being social is just a human trait. These misunderstandings between cultures can happen between any two countries, but I believe that The Great Firewall helps perpetrate a lack of cultural knowledge. Even though I¡¯ve traveled to other Asian countries, China has still been the first time I have felt the most culture shock (in a good way).

From Luis Carale:

Chinese companies stress the importance of interpersonal relationships, and this emphasis is reflected in a company¡¯s values as well as their management style. On our visit to E-Plus 3D, we learned a lot about the company¡¯s products and operations, but I found their perceived importance of interpersonal relationships to be the most striking. Throughout the workplace, they had signage displaying the company¡¯s mission and values. A quick Google translation revealed to me that they are customer oriented and strive for win-win results. This makes logical sense to me because customers buying their product is what directly results in sales, so they would want to do their best to make the customer happy. However, the value of interpersonal relationships goes beyond company-client relationships. The manager we spoke to explained that a good manager maintains 4 types of relationships: 1)self to boss, 2)self to colleague, 3)self to employees and 4)self to self. He explained that if a worker is able to keep good relations among the 4, they are more likely to succeed. While these relationships do exist in US companies, I think the Chinese place more importance in them compared to Americans, who have a strong sense of individualism. The core values plastered on the workplace walls and the manager¡¯s philosophy reinforce the importance of interpersonal relationships in Chinese companies. Since this was our first company visit, I am unsure if my observation holds true with other companies. I will be interested in discovering if the values of other Chinese companies place emphasis on interpersonal relationships.?