Dragon Suit by Gábor Holch

Author:Gábor Holch
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Business Expert Press
Published: 2023-07-20T00:00:00+00:00

How Bossy Should a Boss Be?

It may happen resentfully or eagerly, but foreign managers must eventually accept and harness the filial character of professional relations in China. Otherwise, they may find themselves banging their heads against traditions as ancient and solid as the Great Wall. “The way I explain this to Westerners is that while their way is the minimum number of people doing maximum amount of work, the Chinese way is the maximum number of people doing a medium amount of work,” Leigh explained. Foreigners must adjust to this mindset. “Chinese people are constantly comparing themselves to their classmates and friends, and it takes a lot to keep up,” Laurie Underwood explains. “You need some creativity to satisfy them. For instance, global firms do not promote people as fast as local employees would hope, but you can print different titles on the English and Chinese sides of business cards—a kind of semi-promotion for employees with restless ambition.” Expats eventually learn to harness a more collective mindset to delegate tasks, share feedback, and measure performance. Human resources directors discover ways to reward employees for attracting their friends to the firm, for instance. Encouraging them to share vacancies among their WeChat friends works particularly well, Shaun Rein added.

Leadership philosophies are deeply personal. Adjusting them to new circumstances can be emotionally draining. Multinational firms from advanced economies promote flatter hierarchies than what Chinese conventions dictate. Consequently, most new expats experience the pressure to become bossier superiors than they would prefer. “Be careful with mixing friendship and professional interactions,” Judith advised. “Don’t try to treat everyone the same way, like you do at home. If you’re a supervisor, you will stand apart in your Chinese team’s eyes.” Marie agreed: “It is a question of who is the accountable decision maker. The kind of democracy you have in most multinationals can be exhausting to Chinese people, because they have to justify their numbers and decisions to superiors.” Some expats are more comfortable with these expectations than others. Managers with a sufficiently dominant temperament naturally slide into the role, grateful for the obedience they seldom encountered at home. Others accept it as a dubious price for efficiency. “If bosses don’t tell local teams about the ultimate goal, it’s fine as long as things are accomplished quickly,” Briana said.

The value of thorough cultural analysis becomes the clearest when managers with friendly and equitable collaboration styles suddenly find themselves in rigid hierarchies. Many such expats see China’s top-down culture as backwardness, even if they are generally in favor of the country and its people. “My closest colleague on arrival was a Chinese boss with completely outdated ideas,” Henrik König recalled. “He knew little about project details, and spent most of his time calling clients over everyone else’s head. I recall that his glitzy executive office was full of photos with Chinese political leaders, and currently he was busy negotiating the engine size of his chauffeured Audi.” Foreigners who feel uncomfortable working with lofty corporate figureheads are understandably alarmed when they are pressured to become such leaders themselves.

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