Between You & Me

How well do you know your co-workers with traditional Chinese cultural thinking? Is this a rhetorical question for numerous westerners, specifically in English-speaking countries? Of course not, but it might be a fact that they could not comprehend exactly what Chinese-speaking traders deliberate for their business. A typical question: What is guanxi (關係) similar to relation or related with relationship? You may think that both concepts are the same, while it is absolutely difficult to explain the difference between guanxi and relationship because the former word is not what you think so easily.

Scenario A

Slide 1

Slide 2

Slide 3

Scenario B

Closing

Guanxi derives from Confucianism (King, 1991); it states that the system of guanxi contains an individual, family, nation and the world. Guanxi defines that things affect and interplay one another i.e. someone or something interactive and influential. It also indicates that humankind connect with items; any types of behaviour somehow maintains trade-off, communication, negotiation, association, etc. in two or more organisations. Sometimes people would probably trade their favourite off against competitive advantages in order to acquire what they desire. All things in Chinese society develop in accordance with their own laws and philosophy. Guanxi shows a way of bilateral treatment; it belongs to direct and special link (Alston; Fahr et al.; Xin, 1998).

The framework of guanxi is an extention linked by person to person and gradually develops a social network. Seeing that the variety of research topics, objects and background by many researchers, the conception towards guanxi primarily categorises common, hierarchy and business. Common guanxi is ordinary interpersonal relationship which is one time with another (Fuet et al., 2006) and widely inclusive of family, acquentances or strangers (Yang, 1993). Hierarchical quanxi points the same background in the past like relatives, classmates, colleagues and so forth. Business guanxi is regarded as intermediation of attainable resources (Davies et al., 1995; Wall, 1990).

Guanxi in theory is on the basis of social exchange, social resources and social capital. Social exchange is mutual (Hwang, 1987) and sustainable (Pye, 1982) e.g. mutualism in economy or social movement; social resources are a kind of investment/capital in society (Butterfield, 1983); social capital is obtainable resources in anticipation of potential reward (Lin, 2001).

Last but not least, guanxi debt is composed of human sympathy, mutual benefits, reciprocation and reputation. It could be first and foremost that not to spare those sensibilities in the way of Chinese thought if you need their help in the future. You would not miss any opportunity in all likelihood for all the tea in China since you can not in all honesty deny it!

Multiculturalism is what you need to realise.

There are a lot of culture around the globe!

Western researchers have taken two concepts into accounts:

1. Relationship capital consists of mutual trust, reciprocal commitments and bilateral information exchange (Heide & John, 1992); trust and commitment are two major constructs of the capital.

2. Relationship marketing (RM) proposed by Morgan and Hunt in 1994 is an exchange of foundation, development and maintenance towards every marketing activity. It conflict with Chinese region for the first time.

Let’s take a look at two theories:

1. Social network theory (SNT) proposed by Knoke and Kuklinski in 1982 demonstrates partially on strong and weak ties - the former part describes the frequent connection with similarity for a group of people such as family, friends or colleagues; the latter part explains the gathering of new and diverse people. Self-categorisation theory introduced afterwards.

2. Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) proposed by Ajzen and Fishbein expresses guanxi as well. At the beginning, they combined Expectancy-Value Model by Vroom as well as behavioural intention and cognition of subjective norms to develop the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA). Subjective norm is related with normative belief (NB). Later on, Ajzen considered perceived behavioral control (PBC) by Bandura in 1977 to illistrate the TPB. On the whole, guanxi is helpful and performative (Hwang, 1987).

The cognition between guanxi and relationship

guanxi

relationship

bonding

1. establishment on society

2. behaviour for social control and business

3. customers and suppliers

4. aims at demand

reciprocity

1. beneficial feedback between providers and receivers

2. general intention

3. enahnced value

4. expected short-term value

5. specific intention

6. declined value

trust

1. relatives/members

2. first trust, then trade

3. individual as essentials

4. complete commitment

5. first trade, then relate

6. system as fundamentals

empathy

communication mainly for recievers

communication chiefly for transmitters

source: Yau, Lee, Chow, Sin & Tse (2000)

FURTHER READING

Shu, Dai-Jia. (2010). An Empirical Study of Development of Guanxi Debt Scale. National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan.

許玳嘉. (2010). 關係負債量表發展之實證研究. 國立成功大學, 臺灣.

Hong, -. (2011). The Research About Chinese Leader’s Guanxi Perform Strategy. National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan.

洪予琁. (2011). 華人領導者關係表現策略之研究. 國立成功大學, 臺灣.

Lai, -. (2010). A Study of the Impact of Guanxi-Debt on Organizational Commitment. National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan.

賴佳慧. (2010). 關係負債對組織承諾影響之研究. 國立成功大學, 臺灣.

Chen, -. (2010). The Relationship among Entrepreneurship, Guanxi Network and Organizational Performance - A Case of Managers in Southern Taiwan. National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan.

陳韋旭. (2010). 台灣企業主管的創業精神、關係網絡與組織績效關係探討－以南部企業主管為例. 國立成功大學, 臺灣.