madhattertom

Hi
For one of my essays I am writting about the culture in the UK compared to China and have to write about the implications and potential pitfalls for a UK manager going to China to manage.

If you could provide me any information I would really appreciate it. What are the expectations of local staff in China going to be for a UK managerr?

Thank you

bakedbean

Are you at school?

madhattertom

University

bakedbean

Ah okay. Best of luck with your degree. Not a uk university I presume.

HK2UK

I don't think I even understand the question !

bakedbean

Yeh I know what you mean.... Universities pfffft

I was just being somewhat naughtilly sarcastic ie poster at uni but cannot spell heh heh but may be that he's rushing and autospell kicking in wrongly. It happens, right?

redvino

Hi, I am new here.

I can't understand the question either. But since the essay is about "the implications and potential pitfalls for a UK manager going to China to manage", maybe "What are the expectations of local staff in China going to be for a UK managerr?" COOOOULD MEAN 2 THINGS (Can only guess)
1) What is the UK manager going to expect from the chinese local staff?
2) What is the Chinese local staff going to expect from the UK manager coming to work in China?

Well, since I worked for a Chinese company for 6 months and I was the only foreigner, I can say:
The foreign manager would definately need heaps of patience, millions of repetition, and will get a lot ot overtime, a fair amount of y grey hair in retourn.
And would treasure the time when he goes to the pub to get a beer and talk notmal english withouth having to explain every single of his/her words.

bakedbean

Ha ha, nice one Redvino

sonlymewalter

implications and potential pitfalls for a UK manager going to China to manage are;
1. In Chinese culture it is more important to be part of a team than an individual therefore everything you would do as a manager is for the benefit of your team as opposed to yourself. This is different thinking to UK managaement culture as in UK it is acceptable to be seen as an individual as well as part of a team.

2. In Chinese work culture it is not acceptable to have a *work/life* balance as is the case in UK work culture. In UK it is generally acceptable to say no (within reason) to workloads unnatainable within reasonable hours whereas in Chinese work culture as a Manager you would be expected to work all hours expected to get the job done, and family come second to this.

3. In Chinese work culture and as a Manager you would be expected to be extremely patient, never raise your voice, always have a calm and demure presence and be courtious at all times. In UK a manager should always be professional however being an individual is also acceptable whereas in Chinese work culture you are not to stand out as an individual.

4. The expectations of local staff are that you will to some extent be *different* as you are European and they expect this however they will expect you to be mindful of the differences and make these fit with their culture.

Hope this helps for starters and maybe this will trigger the thoughts for others on here who can help. Have you also thought about joining a professional forum such as LinkedIn? They have sub forums that people join where they provide info from around the world regarding work culture and the differences in how each work.

Good luck with finding the help you need and the uni course mate