Creating a 700-word case study analysis requires careful planning,
organization, and attention to detail. Here is a step-by-step guide on how to
approach this task:
1. Understand the Case Study:
o Start by thoroughly reading and understanding the case study.
Pay close attention to the details, context, and the problem or
issue at hand.
2. Define the Purpose:
o Determine the purpose of your analysis. What are you trying to
achieve with this case study analysis? Are you evaluating a
business strategy, proposing a solution to a problem, or
assessing the impact of a decision?
3. Structure Your Analysis:
o Divide your analysis into key sections. For a 700-word analysis, a
simple structure could include an introduction, background
information, analysis, recommendations, and a
conclusion.
4. Introduction (Approximately 75 words):
o Start with a brief introduction that provides an overview of the
case study, the organization or individuals involved, and the
central issue. Mention the purpose of your analysis.
5. Background Information (Approximately 100 words):
o Provide essential background information relevant to the case
study. Explain the context, key players, historical developments,
and any significant events leading up to the current situation.
6. Analysis (Approximately 350-400 words):
o This is the heart of your case study analysis. Break down the
analysis into the following sub-sections:
a. Problem Identification: Clearly identify the main problem or
issue faced by the organization or individuals.
b. Analysis of Factors: Analyze the factors contributing to the
problem, such as internal and external influences, market trends,
or industry dynamics.
c. SWOT Analysis: Conduct a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses,
Opportunities, Threats) analysis to evaluate the organization's
current position and prospects.
d. Alternatives and Options: Discuss potential solutions or
courses of action available to address the problem.
e. Evaluation: Assess the pros and cons of each alternative,
considering the implications, risks, and benefits.
f. Recommendation: Make a well-justified recommendation
based on your analysis and explain why you believe it's the best
course of action.
7. Conclusion (Approximately 50-75 words):
o Summarize the main points of your analysis and restate your
recommendation. Provide a concise concluding statement.
8. Proofread and Edit:
o Carefully review your analysis for grammar, spelling, and clarity.
Make sure your writing is concise and flows smoothly.
9. References:
o If you've used external sources or references, include a list of
citations and sources at the end of your analysis.
10. Word Count Check:
o Ensure that your analysis does not exceed the 700-word limit. Be
concise and eliminate any unnecessary information.
A Short Guide to Understanding Business Communications
in China - CS EN
Analysis of several causes of misinterpretation that can arise between
Western and Chinese culture if people stick to their own cultural
expectancies.
For this paper, I will not only provide one small case study but also analyze
some experiences which exemplify some of the typical problems that occur
when western enterprises or representatives thereof, attempt to sell
products or services into the Chinese market. Although some of these
examples are not communication-specific, they will serve to provide the
reader with a better understanding of certain cultural elements which
should, in turn, allow him or her to communicate more effectively.
I should point also out that by analyzing not just one single experience but
a collection of experiences that have been gathered through interactions
with a number of different people in different situations over a period of time
they provide, to my mind, a more realistic overview of the difficulties that
can occur if one is not “tuned in” to Chinese business expectations. It is
problematic to use a single experience as a yardstick, and indeed difficult
to judge if such an experience provides a true reflection of reality. By taking
a broader view, however, we can understand what really are the “critical
incidents” of this intercultural communication.
Due to the sheer size of this market, it is considered extremely lucrative for
enterprises worldwide. We have witnessed in recent years a significant
change in the “balance of power” between China and the Western world,
which has for most of recent history played the dominating role
economically and to a lesser extent culturally. Thus we have also
witnessed a marked change in the way the two cultures interact.
The development of the local manufacturers in almost all fields of
consumer and commercial products has only served to accelerate this shift
of power balance, and this is indeed reflected by the mentality of the local
population as well. Indeed, one of the interesting facts in the ultra-
competitive market of today (and again I am compelled to highlight that this
situation has arisen due to the manufacturing of goods in South east Asia
and most notably China) is that, except in a few specific circumstances, it is
the buyer with an abundance of choice who plays the dominate role.
What makes this particularly interesting in when viewed in the field of IC is
that the role of the “dominating” culture is defined purely in economic terms.
For an enterprise to be successful, it must adapt to the expectations
of the buyer both economically and culturally with the most common
language being that of money. Indeed, to quote a well-known Western
saying, “money talks.” In such a situation the dominant culture is, for the
most part, that of the buyer and therefore reversible. If a Chinese firm is to
market itself in Europe successfully it must, at least to a certain extent
adapt to Western cultures and the same is true in reverse; when a Western
firm wants to market its products in China, it must be willing to adapt to
the cultural expectation of the Chinese buyer. Thus economics in many
cases will redefine the dynamics of IC.
A typical Case
In this specific case, a piece of technical equipment was to be prepared
and configured in Europe and sent to China where it would be installed at
the customer premises. This first phase of the project itself provides a
perfect insight into some of the major differences in how Western and
Chinese cultures conduct business transactions.
The expectation from a Western enterprise is that a set of detailed
specifications would be provided by the customer and the equipment would
then be built to this specification. The Chinese customer, however, expects
that the equipment provider is competent enough to know what should be
provided and therefore did not provide any specifications. When the local
sales manager was requested to ask the customer for specific information,
some reasons were provided as to why this could not be done, although an
actual refusal to do so was never offered. The Western engineers failed to
understand that for him to ask such questions would demonstrate to the
customer that our company is incompetent and also place him in what
would be considered to be a compromising situation. On the other hand,
this refusal also gave the western company the impression that the sales
manager (Chinese) was incompetent since none of the offered reasons
seemed to “make sense” (in their eyes at least).
This small example highlights some typical “East meets West” clichés that
are often encountered; namely that Chinese often see Western firms as
extremely process-driven and thus inflexible, whereas Westerns will depict
Chinese as unorganized and difficult to work with since specific information
is often not provided.
The “critical incidents” can be summarized as follows:
• Use of Language
• Information Flow
• The lack of understanding of the “cultural norms” from each side.
• Misaligned expectations due to cultural differences
The corresponding communication led both sides to feel some sort of
mistrust and frustration towards each other.
What is important in analyzing such a case is to be aware that without a
doubt, certain issues can be attributed to cultural differences, and indeed
are relevant from an IC perspective, but just as importantly many are not
and are merely following the buyer/seller culture. The analysis in
the second part of this text will use the aI2C model and attempt to
determine which parts of the communications process are IC-specific.
Of course this is not to say all interactions with Chinese on a business level
will always behave in this manner or that all Chinese display these habits,
clearly such a statement is ridiculous and has little credibility, the point is
merely that there are some cultural differences which if
not understood, or at least acknowledged, can result is
communication problems. After all, our cultures are indeed different;
if they were not then the field of IC would be non- existent.
2. Analyse
Processus de communication
It is relevant to start the analysis here since a clear method of sending and
receiving messages needs to be established before the other cultural
differences can be taken into consideration. Although many intercultural
communication theorists like to take the view that language should not be
over-emphasized when examining intercultural communications, from my
personal experience this fact cannot be underestimated. The fact is that
messages are often misunderstood and misinterpreted.
Both sides often fail to transmit the message clearly due to inaccurate use
of language which when coupled with the “noise” of translation and accent
diminishes the chances that a message is clearly received. Adaptation of
speaking style is extremely important, short and simple sentences
a necessity, repetition (when sending a message into the unknown, the
chances that it will receive are twice as good if the message is sent twice)
and minimal use of what can be considered superfluous phrases is
paramount. Although these may seem like obvious statements, the fact is
that many people who are inexperienced in the field of communications
simply assume that simply sending a message ensures that is has been
received and understood when in many cases it actually has not.
Much has also been documented on the differences between eastern and
western languages, notably the absence of the word “no” that occurs in
eastern languages. e.g.: in answer to a “yes / no” question such as “do you
have XYZ”, the answer is either, “have” or “not have”. The fact that “no”
does not
exist, is in fact relevant and one must be extremely careful how, if at all, to
use it. In the example above, “No we cannot until criteria A, B and C has
been fulfilled” can easily be misinterpreted as “No we cannot”. Aside from
that, simple statements such as “this can be done”, used to indicate
possibility can easily be interpreted as “this will be done”. Although this is
a simple example, it serves to demonstrate how expectations can be easily
misaligned through simple misinterpretation of language.
What is worse is that these misunderstanding will often be attributed to
“differences in culture” when they may or may not be. It is often a simple
case of the message that has been sent not being clearly received due to
noise or interference and this actually has very little to do with culture or
intercultural communications. That is not to say that there are not cultural
differences at play, just that these differences are not the only relevant
factors.
Cadres sociaux
This example clearly takes place between individuals who are representing
Private enterprises, although the Chinese customer is actually a state-
owned enterprise acting as a commercial body. Indeed, in many fields, the
market in China is still closed with most organisations still being state-
owned or a state-run duopoly being the norm. More importantly, as
described earlier, due to the fact this is a purely commercial incident;
the “cultural balance” clearly lies with the buyer who has a number of
existing local suppliers, who are linguistically and culturally competent, to
choose from. Due to this, they can afford to have what might been seen as
a certain arrogance, since if the western enterprise fails to meet
their expectations there are a number of local suppliers who will. In such a
case, it is the job of the western enterprise, who after all are participating in
this not for an experience in inter-cultural exchange but purely for profit-
driven motifs, to ensure that they adapt their behaviour to meet the
expectations of the customer, even if these expectations may
seem unreasonable, pointless or not clearly defined.
As with the previous discussion regarding language, this is not an IC-
specific issue but merely a model that can be seen in most economic
transactions; it is the job of the seller to adapt to expectations of the buyer.
Therefore when analyzing such a transaction, one must keep
in perspective which events are actually relevant to IC. What makes it
perhaps interesting in this case, perhaps not in terms of IC but cultural
studies, in general, is that until recently there were no such equipment
manufacturers in China (or only those manufacturing products of inferior
quality) and the change that has occurred in this field reflects in a small
way the change that has taken place throughout the country. One senses a
certain self-confidence; an understanding that China is indeed a powerful
nation and that the current generation is part of an important change that
is taking place regarding China’s places in the world.
Individual
The role of the individual cannot be dismissed for no organization or
enterprise can speak to each other directly; it is individuals representing the
organizations in question who communicate with each other. The
individuals can indeed be seen as the “medium” in this case that each
organization uses to communicate. And depending on the intercultural
competence or experience that the individual has, this will indeed
determine how successful the information exchange is. Although the
individual, can theoretically put all personal emotion aside when acting in a
professional role, i.e., representing his or her enterprise, the fact is that an
individual who is not aware of certain cultural elements can severely
impede communications and should not be under-estimated.
A western individual may ask himself why he must go and eat some
strange animal once his meeting has been completed and indeed find it
unreasonable that he is expected to do so. On the other hand, his Chinese
counterpart might ask himself why his “guest” seems hesitant to come to a
share this
generous invitation to him and find that his guest is somewhat rude for
hesitating to accept such an invitation.
The role of the individual within the organization will be discussed below
since it cannot, in many cases be separated from the “identités collective.”
Configuration Culturelle
Aside from the aforementioned linguistic challenges there are also certain
cultural peculiarities which need to be considered, especially with regards
to verbal communications. Westerners generally expect a direct answer to
a question and also express their own opinions quite directly. Under
most circumstances, however, when faced with a question that he or she
does not know the answer to, or indeed does not want to answer, this fact
is generally not communicated. The response “I don’t know” is seen to
demonstrate incompetence. If a Chinese does not agree with a proposal,
s/he will rarely state that directly but instead perhaps suggest a reason why
something cannot be done. This in turn leads to further questioning which
will not yield any answers meeting the expectations of the westerner and
merely lead to further communication problems and frustrations. The
westerner will feel that his Chinese counterpart is not providing information
whereas the Chinese will wonder why the westerner cannot accept his
answer and feel a sense of mistrust towards his counterpart.
The collective identity of the Chinese worker most also be considered.
Within the western world the role and rights of the individual within the
workplace is also extremely important. When faced with what could be
considered an unreasonable deadline to meet a customers requirement the
westerner will “do his best” to meet such a deadline but by no means feel
he has failed if this deadline cannot be met due to what he may consider as
unreasonable expectations. On the other hand when faced with the same
situation the Chinese would see this as a team challenge that must under
all circumstances be completed. Working extended hours at the expense
hours of private activities would be expected and failure to meet the
deadline could easily be considered as failure. (I will not discuss the social
implication of this here). For this reason, many Chinese find it
extremely difficult to comprehend why a Western enterprise cannot meet a
demanding schedule and indeed often perceive Westerners to be inflexible,
slow to react or even lazy. Whereas the westerner places his individual
rights as paramount the Chinese will see it as his duty to meet the
company’s requirements.
A more subtle point that one often does not notice at first, is the Chinese
attitude towards westerners no means judgemental but nonetheless almost
omnipresent. i.e., A westerner is generally seen as first and foremost just
that, a “white person.” Phrases like “you would have trouble understanding
this, since you are not Chinese” are not uncommon. It is always difficult to
judge if such a statement actually has a grounding in the Chinese psych or
simply something that can be used as a reason not to inform you about
certain details. Certainly, however, one does sense that there is a certain
hesitance to provide you with all the details of a particular situation.
Dimension Temporelles
Three factors should be considered concerning “dimensions temporelles.“
There is a saying that states, “There is no such thing as instant noodles in
China” which is a way of stating that things do not happen overnight.
Transactions that one could expect to be completed in a short space of
time with the western world can often inexplicitly be delayed. No reason will
be offered and indeed after some time one adjusted one’s expectations,
knowing full well that no explanation will be provided.
Secondly, the length of time the westerner has been working together with
his Chinese counterpart is extremely important. Aside from the fact that the
westerner will after some time “tune in”too many things that are not
apparently obvious at first, more importantly, is the building of
trust between players. Westerns are definitely more direct with people they
are not familiar with. Although one could easily argue that this is not
specific to Chinese culture, it is a marked difference and something that
cannot be underestimated.
The last and probably most important part of this whole analysis is that one
must consider the historical dimensions of Chinese culture. One can talk of
IC in the obvious situation described above, that of western Europeans
interacting with Chinese, but it should also should be considered that within
China, especially the well documented social gap between those living on
the land and those living in modern cities there are also huge cultural
differences. Many traditions, both business and otherwise, have been
practiced for literally centuries and this sense of history still plays a role in
business interactions today. To the casual observer visiting Shanghai or
Shenzhen for the first time and seeing the shopping malls, apartment
blocks and traffic jams on the freeways, it is easy to get the impression that
China has been completely westernized; that all sense of “old” China has
been destroyed.
And at a surface level, this may indeed be the case. However once one
scratches on the surface, one notices that many of the traditions are
thankfully still in practice. The purely economic driven businessman would
question my use of the word “thankfully” and find it questionable, since to
his or her way of doing things it is indeed these inexplicable nuances that
hinder what might be called an efficient transaction. However, to anyone
else, who should have even the smallest interest in culture, it is refreshing
to know that appearances are often just that. There is another culture at
play. There are different ways of doing things and seeing things and the
challenge is to understand and adapt to them.
