面子文化差异对中美商务谈判的影响

1、中国矿业大学外文学院2011级学年论文姓 名： 刘佳 学 号： 12115124 专 业： 商务英语班 级： 2011-03 论文题目influence of face culture on sino-us business negotiation 指导教师： 陈硕 职 称： 讲师 2014 年 6 月 徐州 influence of face culture on sino-us business negotiation abstract: with the rapid development of globalization and chinas entry into the wto, c

2、hina has a closer and closer relationship with the united states from economy to politics, culture to technology. it is common that people in different culture backgrounds always differ in thinking, communicating and living. especially in international communication, understanding and mutual respect

3、 are the basic principles in business negotiations. among many factors that impact business negotiation, culture factor is becoming stronger and stronger in recent times. therefore people need to have a good command of others culture. china has enjoyed great reputation as a traditional oriental coun

4、try, from this perspective, we can conclude that politeness has played a major role in interpersonal communication. face is one of the most important parts of chinese politeness which influences sino-us business negotiation to a large degree. we cannot deny that china and the united states have a qu

5、ite different view on face perspective in sino-us business negotiations. this paper mainly talks about the influence of face culture on sino-us business negotiation. key words: face culture, difference, sino-us business negotiation i 面子文化差异对中美商务谈判的影响 摘要：随着全球化的飞速发展，中国加入世界贸易组织，中美关系无论是在经济上还是政治上，亦或是科技上都

6、日益密切。然而，不同文化背景下的民族，人民在思想，交流和生活上都截然不同。尤其是在国际贸易中，相互理解和尊重各种文化是最基本的原则。影响国际贸易谈判的因素有很多，其中文化因素在商务谈判中的影响日益增强。因此，各国人民应该对其他民族的文化有所了解。作为东方大国的中国，自古以来盛誉在望，礼貌文明在人际交流中起到了重要作用。面子文化作为中美文化的重要组成部分，对中美商务谈判的影响日益增加。我们必须承认不同的面子文化观念对中美商务谈判产生一定的影响。本文试通过对面子文化的比较分析，阐述其对中美商务谈判的影响。 关键词：面子文化；差异；中美商务谈判ii contentsabstract .i 中文摘要

7、.iicontents .iii1. introduction .12. definition of face culture .2 3. cultural differences and reasons between chinese and american face perspective . 3 3.1 individualism and collectivism .33.2 equality and hierarchy .4 4. influence of face culture of sino-us business negotiation .6 4.1 expression i

8、n the negotiation .6 4.2 concept in the negotiation .8 4.3 etiquette in the negotiation .85. conclusion .10 bibliography . 11iiiinfluence of face culture on sino-us business negotiation1. introduction: with the influence of globalization and booming market economy, china and the united states are cl

9、osely related to each other. the united states is one of the strongest countries in the world with advanced technology and stable economy. its economic power is the solidest and its gdp accounts for 1/10 of the worlds total gdp. similarly, china is the largest developing country whose economy grows

10、rapidly and prosperously. there is no question that these two countries have heated business negotiations with each other. in 2013, the total trade volume between the two nations reached 582.21 billion dollars, marking a 4.9 percentage increase over the last year. however, china and the united state

11、s have unique culture and face culture is an important part of culture. different face perspective will cause a lot of differences in their business negotiation. based on the face cultural theory from hofstede, hu hsienchin, and goffman, the paper makes a further research about face culture differen

12、ces between china and the united states. and on this basis, the paper combines with examples of business negotiations to illustrate the influence of differences of face culture on sino-us business negotiation. by way of case study method, the paper concludes that sino-us business negotiation is affe

13、cted in expression, concept and etiquette. this paper is divided into five parts, the first part describes the definition of face culture, the second is the reasons of sino-us cultural differences, and the third part is the face of cultural differences impact on china-us business negotiations, and f

14、inally the paper puts forward some suggestions based on sino-us business negotiation.12. definition of face culture face originates from china and it is divided into two characters, one is honor and reputation and the other is self-esteem and dignity. hu hsienchin is the first scholar who brings fac

15、e culture into the west. according to his opinion, he believes that face represents important social reputation and social status which could enhance their respect and honor. lin yutang once said, chinese peoples face can be washed, shaved, lost, given, fought and saved. lin yutang (october 10, 1895

16、 march 26, 1976) was a chinese writer, translator, linguist and inventor everyone of our society needs to protect our face no matter we are young or old, poor or rich. in view of western countries, they also have their perspectives of face culture. according to goffman, erving goffman (11 june 1922

17、20 november 1982), a canadian-born sociologist and writer, was considered "the most influential american sociologist of the twentieth century".2 face is a sociological construct of interaction and once individuals give out a positive self image of themselves, they would have to keep that s

18、et image. when individuals cannot keep the image they claim to be, they risk being embarrassed and also they will be considered to be odd and perverse. furthermore, goffman combines face with social interaction, believing face is the central goal of interpersonal rituals. the principles of social in

19、terpersonal rituals are protecting, preserving and defending face. so, in this way, we can conclude that face in chinese means mianzi, which values face, reputation, self-respect, prestige, honor and social standing. on the other hand, face in the united states means timian, which values face, good

20、looking, honor, dignity, prestige. it is obvious that the difference in understanding face is remarkably different.3. cultural differences and reasons between chinese and american face perspective as a result of the remarkably unique culture, there are some cultural differences between china and the

21、 united states which are as follows.3.1 individualism and collectivism the first cultural difference is about the two countrys value. chinese value collectivism and american value individualism. when we date into the history, we all know that chinese feudal culture has a two-thousand-year history an

22、d old china advocated the policy of restraining commerce. chinas civilization was based on the traditional agriculture and the long history of chinese farming community was matchless in the whole world. generations of farmers were tied closely to the land for their survival. people and land, people

23、and people had formed a bond of independence, thus, it was natural and reasonable that group awareness had grown increasingly and greatly since then. against this sort of historical background, the value of collectivism has performed great functions for interpersonal and natural harmony. with the in

24、fluence of traditional economy, chinese in today still tend to be collective and they emphasize the role of community. however, when compared to china, since ancient times, western countries were in favor of developing commerce. later, they came into the industrial society quickly. after the establi

25、shment of modern capitalist system, the society was based on the private ownership. with the active population mobility, it was hard to form a stable and complete population relationship. therefore, the streamline of american culture is the individual. americans are individual-centered and they disl

26、ike interfering others. “culture is more often a source of conflict than of synergy. cultural differences are a nuisance at best and often a disaster.” gerard hendrik (geert) hofstede (born 2 october 1928 in haarlem) is a dutch social psychologist and hofstede's cultural dimensions theory is a f

27、ramework for cross-cultural communication. 3 dr. geert hofstede once said on the dimensions analysis on cultural differences. hofstedes attitude towards the cultural differences can illustrate the face cultural conflict between china and the united states. hofstede has examined four dimensions with

28、collecting and analyzing data from over 100000 individuals from 40 countries. the four well-known dimensions are power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism and masculinity. in this sense, the largest conflict between china and the united states lies in their individualism and collectivism

29、in work. according to hofstedes theory about individualism and collectivism, he notes that is the tendency of people to look after themselves and their immediate family. moreover, individualism is just contrary to the collectivism. countries with individualism are more open and people there tend to

30、be more friendly and cooperative and efficient than the countries with collectivism. in this sense, just talking about china and the united states, china is more collective and the united states is more individual. in some degree, the difference of individualism and collectivism makes a great impact

31、 on both countries. because of the difference, chinese tend to make a team to decide in the negotiation and americans like to decide by themselves. 3.2 equality and hierarchy china has been influenced by confucianism for two thousand years. hierarchy is normal and common in china and thus chinese la

32、ck the concept of equality. whats more, traditional chinese advocated the three cardinal guides containing ruler guides subordinates, father guides son and husband guides wife and five constant virtues including humanity, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and fidelity. thus they laid enough foundatio

33、n of this level of relationship and it still has some degree of influence today. therefore, in china today, the vertical superior-subordinate relationship is of prevalence. the seniority and authority are greatly admired and respected. as for chinese who are influenced largely by seniority and autho

34、rity, they form centered collectivism and they are willing to make collective decisions avoid 4making mistakes and taking on the responsibility. whereas, the united states experiences renaissance and enlightenment, the concept of equity influences americans deeply. because of this difference, chines

35、e care more about the superior-subordinate relationship but americans care little. moreover, power distance also differs a lot in the two countries. from the point of hofstede, power distance means the extent to which less powerful members of institutions and organizations accept that power is distr

36、ibuted unequally. in this sense, china tends to have a high power distance culture, thus, the organization is centralized and has a high organization structures. whereas, the united states tends to have a low power distance, and the staff feels more comfortable and easy when they are working. there

37、is indeed a big difference between different culture, and the root of the difference deeply grows in peoples mind cannot be removed easily. cultural differences are caused by different nations historical process and social environment. only by learning the differences and communicating with each oth

38、er could we cooperate efficiently. 54. influence of face culture of sino-us business negotiation negotiation is the kind of activity which mainly intends to establish a goodrapport with the other side and comes to an agreement for cooperation. that is，buying or selling activities in short. however,

39、on the simple surface, negotiation is just an activity of buying and selling, it also a deep relationship with the others which matters whether you can make a long constant cooperation with your partner. in this sense, we must acknowledge that negotiation is a virtually paramount factor in the devel

40、opment of economy in the pace of globalization. however, a successful negotiation can be impacted by a lot of factors, and cultural factor is a vital one. in short, face culture plays a major role in culture scope. so it is undoubtful that face culture difference between china and the united states

41、could bring a big challenge to sino-us business negotiation. and the impacts are as follows.4.1 expression in the negotiation the reason why china and the united states have directly different face perspective lies in that they are differ in thinking patterns which could make a lot impact in communi

42、cation. chinese value face as their mianzi which determines their self-image, reputation and dignity. americans value face just as a means of timian to show their honor and good looking. robert kaplan robert s. kaplan (born 1940) is baker foundation professor at harvard business school6 (1966) has p

43、resented his view that the influence of cultural patterns of thinking has an impact on expression. he puts forwards that western thinking is linear, while asian thinking is spiral shaped. as we all know, chinas traditional economy is typical self-sufficient and chinese have an agricultural character

44、 which focus on tolerance and harmony. thus, when dealing with a negotiation, chinese pay more attention to their expression with tactful and smooth words in order to give the other side enough face to show chinese generosity and tolerance. in contrast, americans create a strong sense of spiritual s

45、truggle and freedom and independence. americans prefer to express their own thoughts frankly and directly without considering others thoughts and faces much. for example, supposing american representatives and chinese representatives are in the sino-us negotiation, two sides disagree with each other

46、 totally. when two sides express their views freely, chinese would like to say, may be you are reasonable in some way and we will talk about the issue after the meeting. or as for your opinions, we need further more consideration. could we talk about it when we have fully considered your opinions? j

47、ust as this example shows, chinese intend to save their partners face even if they are not happy in the mind. they value a lot in showing their reputation and generosity even though they have to pretend themselves to be nice and friendly and generous. on the contrary, americans are likely to express

48、 their thoughts directly, i dont think your idea is good. or they may say, frankly, we cannot agree with your proposal. sometimes, americans tend to use more direct words to refuse others, such as, to tell you the truth,we dont think that our products will have a good record in chinas market. we can

49、 see that americans do not care much about saving others faces and they behave freely and causally when they pose their different opinions. so it is clear that people in two countries perform completely different in expression. as karl pribram has mentioned in contradiction in ways of thinking, &quo

50、t;it's the diversity of not only the languages but also the thinking patterns that hinder the mutual understanding and harmonious relations among all nations in the whole world. in another word, it's because of the differences in the people's resources of knowledge and the orderly though

51、t methods." karl pibram (22 december 1877 15 july 1973), also known as “karl pribram”, was an austrian-born economist. he is most noted for his work in labor economics , in industrial organization, and in the history of economic thought.7 due to the different ways of thinking, the two nations i

52、n china and the united states hold different opinions about the face perspectives and perform differently in expression.4.2 concept in the negotiation chinese often take a modest attitude to save face of the other side, on the contrary, americans are willing to show their confidence and they hardly

53、care others face. whats more, they also take different views on conflicts. as a result of the influence of the concept of equality, americans are an independent individual in communicating with each other. with the system of hierarchy and subordinate relationship, chinese tend to be collective and d

54、ependent on community. the two nations behave differently in the performance of decision-makers and decision-making authority in sino-us business negotiation. members of negotiators in the united states are usually less than the chinese. everyone of the team is treated equally and has the same opportunity to play their roles in the negotiation. for americans, their highest goal of the negotiation is to complete the tasks and benefit