China Business Culture: Guanxi

Posted in June 17, 2009 ¬ 4:56 pmh.jeff4,411 Comments »
Throughout much of Chinese history, the fundamental glue that has held society together is the concept of guanxi, relationships between people.
Networking within the society is very strong and it has a term called Guanxi. Understanding this aspect of Chinese culture is extremely important if you plan to work with or deal with the Chinese. It means you provide what help you can to the friends and relatives within the network when they need help. It is through Guanxi that many problems can be simplified or overcome and you will find every Chinese has his or her own network. Guanxi is knowing the right people to achieve a given task. So it is extremely important for foreigners to be aware of Guanxi and establish their own Guanxi. If asked to do something you should not say "I can't" or "I won't". Instead you say "it may be difficult". It is the fact that you have considered it and would look into it that is very important rather than an outright "No". Guanxi is in simple terms "doing favours for others and they will do favours for you" and it cannot be emphasised how important it is in the Chinese culture.

Throughout much of Chinese history, the fundamental glue that has held society together is the concept of Guanxi, relationships between people. Networking within the society is very strong and it has a term called Guanxi.

Understanding this aspect of Chinese culture is extremely important if you plan to work with or deal with the Chinese. It means you provide what help you can to the friends and relatives within the network when they need help. It is through Guanxi that many problems can be simplified or overcome and you will find every Chinese has his or her own network. Guanxi is knowing the right people to achieve a given task.

So it is extremely important for foreigners to be aware of Guanxi and establish their own Guanxi.  Guanxi is in simple terms "doing favors for others and they will do favors for you" and it cannot be emphasised how important it is in the Chinese culture. For those who have never been to China or have never established any relationships in China, it is virturally impossible to develop a business relationship with Chinese without guanxi.


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