Cultural Information - Dress, Punctuality & Formality

Question:

What should I know about the workplace environment (deadlines, dress, formality, etc.)?

Local Perspective:

Dress professionally as you would here. In China, females tend to dress up for work (like going to church) more so than the males. Female workers love to wear heels even when they have to walk on mud or gravel roads (but you really do not have to—you have an excuse being a Canadian!). For myself, if I were in a business meeting, I dressed up. If I were working in the field, I dressed down a little because of the long travel and work environment. But be prepared that the local leaders who receive you will be all dressed up, and they would welcome you as a leader and show you off to their people. It all depends on how you would like to present yourself as a Canadian representative. (Note: the designation of volunteer is not likely to garner very much respect). You may address the female as "Madam [Last name]"(e.g., Mme. Lucia) regardless of their position. For the male, you may address the person as "Mr. (Last name)" (e.g., Mr. Hu), or "[Last name] [Position title]" (e.g,. Hu Deputy Manager). The Chinese will address you as "Madam [First name], or "Mr. [Last name], or "Dr. [First name]" (e.g, Dr. Nancy). Chinese people have high respect for foreigners and especially the experts. They do not feel comfortable to call you by your first name. When they are willing to do that, you know you have broken the barrier, and they consider you as one of them. Productivity is important and that’s how they judge if you are a suitable expert for them. The Chinese are often extremely efficient and produce high quality work. They value hard work, and you will find a lot of this in the leaders, and that’s why they are leaders. You may have to really work on how to motivate the staff. The staff is used to having their leaders to tell them what to do, when to do what, etc. They have a very different learning style and work approach. When the leaders are not around, you will have a lot of staff management problems from tardiness, absenteeism, etc. So try to incorporate all these in your project management work. When the Chinese leaders or staff consistently do not give you the work that you have asked for by the deadline, you can safely assume that they are not willing to do that task. So go back to find out what the barriers are, and encourage the needed level of communication to get the work done. Depending on where you work, some (hot) places in China have a 1.5-2.5 hour lunch break. Workers will eat quickly and nap then go back to work. They may find it very strange if you do not take a nap, but will not be offended if you don’t.

Canadian Perspective:

Many changes have taken in China with regards to workplace protocol. In general, people in China like to dress formally, the men in suit and tie, and the women in dress suits as well. With the number of foreign owned enterprises and personnel who may have experience working abroad, it wouldn’t be unusual to walk into an office that looks like an office in Canada, with co-workers dressed for business during the week with a "casual Friday" for jeans and open collars. Forms of address vary quite a bit in China. In Chinese the surname comes first followed by the given name or names, so an English name like "John Williams Smith" would be "Smith John Williams." In Chinese, the form of address for a man is typically "Mr." (xiansheng) as in "Mr. Wang" (Wang Xiansheng). More often than not, for women, terms of "Mrs. Peng" (Peng Taitai) for a married woman, and "Miss Tang" (Tang xiaojie) for an unmarried woman, are common. However, a man or a woman may be addressed as "Director Long" (Long Jingli) or "Manager Ting" (Ting laoban). At a first meeting in English, it would probably be safer to go with "Mr. Song" for a man and "Miss Ling" for a woman. Over all, it might be better to go with the flow and find out just how your colleagues and employees wish to be addressed. Approaches to time cannot be considered as standard in every workplace and it will be up to you to determine what particular work practices are in your office. Work habits vary in China. Some organizations and institutions are more strict or fluid with regard to productivity depending on the management style of the particular office.