Mentality, Mindset, Mianzi
How to Avoid a Crisis
By Donny Huang*
In 2005 numerous public relationship crisis have haunted multinationals operating in
Impact of Cultural on Business
It is a well known fact that personal and professional relationships are much more blurred in
Mianzi
‘Mianzi’ (面子) means ‘face’, but in Chinese culture it stands for much more than appearance, it represents the social identity and standing of a person in the community. It has two underlying meanings:
1. Lian (脸): related to the moral side of one’s face. The loss of Lian makes it impossible for one to function properly in the community.
2. Mian (面): related to personal face, standing for a kind of prestige or reputation achieved through personal success.
Loss of Mianzi can bring shame or disgrace to the family or the organisations that the individual is associated with, as much as to the individual themselves. It applies to all levels of Chinese society and even applies on a national level. When a Chinese person feels that they have ‘lost face’, a series of actions will follow to regain it.
Example: Generally speaking, the Chinese are hesitated to take out a lawsuit. The customer from the Jianxi province who sued SK-II probably would not have taken this extreme step if she had not been deeply hurt emotionally by the SK-II representative. Equally, if the Sony China management team had responded earlier to the quality claim by the Zhejiang Industrial and Commercial Bureau, the government officials would not have felt loss of face. Again, the outcome would have been different and probably solved on a less public level.
Hierarchical Mindset
In
1. Ruler to Subject
2. Father to Son
3. Husband to Wife
4. Elder Brother to Younger Brother
5. Elder Friend to Younger Friend
Because of this
Example: Over 60 percent of Chinese television commercials, are endorsed by celebrities. A big part of the reason why the local media refused to co-operate with Sony was that the criticism had come from an important political body and very publicly too. This was the main reason why the media forced Sony to change its stand toward the claim of quality problem with its digital camera from denying to apologising. This eventually led to the products being removed from the shelves, causing the incident to escalate to a serious national public relations crisis.
Group Mentality
The root of Chinese culture lies in its farming society background. Chinese people are very much group-oriented and relationship-based. Chinese saying are a good way to understand some elements of its culture. For example the saying “Gun will kill the bird that sticks its head out”, vividly describes the group dynamic and peoples reluctance to stand out from the crowd. The opinions and reactions of society and the peer group are hugely important for the individuals decision making process and behaviour. This peer group consists of family members, trusted alliances, and close friends. This also means that the ‘snowball’ effect can happen faster in
Example: With this in mind, employee incentive programmes in
Conclusion
All these elements and many more play into the daily reality of doing business in
*Donny Huang, managing director, 4stones Cross-cultural Consulting Group
This article is published in 02/06 issue of Business Forum
Labels: Mentality, Mianzi - How to Avoid a Crisis (D.Huang), Mindset
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