Chapter One Introduction to International Business Etiquette
Part One General Introduction
Part Two General Principles and Challenges of International Business Etiquette
Part Three Case Study
Chapter Two Greeting Etiquette
Part One General Rules
Part Two Cross-cultural Perspective
Part Three Case Study
Chapter Three Dressing Etiquette
Part One General Rules
Part Two Cross-cultural Perspective
Part Three Case Study
Chapter Four Office Etiquette
Part One General Rules
Part Two Cross-cultural Perspective
Part Three Case Study
Chapter Five Business Reception Etiquette
Part One General Rules
Part Two Cross-cultural Perspective
Part Three Case Study
Chapter Six Gift Giving Etiquette
Part One General Rules
Part Two Cross-cultural Perspective
Part Three Case Study
Chapter Seven Communication Etiquette
Part One General Rules
Part Two Cross-cultural Perspective
Part Three Case Study
Chapter Eight Meeting Etiquette
Part One General Rules
Part Two Cross-culturaI Perspective
Part Three Case Study
Chapter Nine Dining Etiquette
Part One General Rules
Part Two Cross-culturaI Perspective
Part Three Case Study
Chapter Ten Religion and Etiquette
Part One General Rules
Part Two Cross-culturaI Perspective
Part Three Case Study
References
I was riding the elevator a few weeks ago with a Chinese colleague here in the Journal's Asian headquarters. I smiled and said, "Hi." She responded, "You've gained weight."
I might have been appalled, but at least three other Chinese co-workers also have told me I'm fat. I probably should cut back on the pork dumplings. In China, such an intimate observation from a colleague isn't necessarily an insult. It's probably just friendliness.
There's a lot that goes on in Chinese workplaces that mystifies-and occasionally embarrasses-the expatriates pouring into China. Chinese people draw the lines between personal and work space differently from Americans. Beyond weight and body shape, office small talk here often includes the size of your apartment and your salary. Sometimes, my Chinese colleagues nap at their desks during lunch.
Some Chinese office characteristics came about loecause corporations here embrace the idea of company as surrogate family. Many offices have a "tea lady", who spends all day making tea and heating lunches-kind of an office nanny. For Lunar New Year, bosses give employees red envelopes filled with money, as family elders do, and host a banquet complete with games, prizes and karaoke.
Shoe habits suggest that Chinese women feel more at home in the office. Many female American executives commute to work in sneakers and put on professional shoes in the office.Chinese women are likely to do the opposite; slipping out of the Manolo Blahniks they wore to get to work and into slippers at their cubicles.
When American lawyer Jennifer Gallo moved to Beijing a few months ago, she had to go from her own office in San Francisco-"my little haven", she called it-into a shared room with another lawyer. After one day of polite silence in the new office, Ms. Gallo's Chinese office mate cried out, "Jennifer Gallo, you are incorrigible!"
Her co-worker's problem: too much quiet. "My Chinese colleagues seem to thrive on noise and community", says Ms. Gallo, 30. She's surrounded, she says, by loud phone talk, buzzing gadgets and a "concert ofring tones". Her office mate's phone blasts "Work It" by Missy Elliott.
But the lack of personal space goes beyond noise, she says. "It goes to the very heart of this American idea that certain things are better left unsaid." In recent months, Ms. Gallo has been given assessments of her wardrobe ("very nice, could be European"), muscle tone ("flabby", a translation settled on after consultation with a group of English speakers) and childbearing prospects ("certain to have many boys").
Of course, there's plenty about American office culture that confuses Chinese employees who join US companies out here. They're baffled by '6brown-bag lunch" conferences, during which junior staffers rudely chomp while somebody senior is giving a talk. It's rude because it mixes a social event with an official one.
"Chinese law firms would not have this kind oflunch," says Qian Wei, 26, who works at an American law firm in Beijing. "Maybe we would go outside to a really good restaurant to drink and chat for a while. But in the US, people pay much more attention to efficiency."
Also, Chinese offices tend to be hierarchical, and employees wouldn't think of calling their boss by lus or her first name. So while there are often close relationships between Chinese coworkers, American managers' efforts to seem egalitarian can backfire.
Justine Lee, 35, who works for an American manufacturer in Hong Kong, says her boss caused havoc with an annual ritual of meeting with all his employees individually. "People tried to work out their ' smartest' question a month in advance. It became a big project for the Chinese staff every year", she says. Afi.er a couple years, her boss dropped the idea.
Most of the time, she adds, Chinese people do their best to avoid bumping into their American colleagues. "The Chinese staff don't know how to hold small talk with Americans", she says. Direct translations of Chinese chatter can come across as confusing or intrusive in English. One of the most common is "Have you eaten?" which is less of an invitation to lunch and more of a."How are you?"
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