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Introduction
The Culture is the set of knowledge, skills, traditions and customs, unique to a human
group, to a civilization. France and China are very different countries. They both have
important history that provides them strong different cultures. These cultures make French
and Chinese people acting in life in specific ways. It affects the way they see the world and
how they think and especially how they do business. The way they do business differ
according to their customs, traditions and managing these differences adding language barrier
can be very hard. An important think in international business, is the negotiation between the
members of different country. The negotiation and its issues are an important point to success
doing business with someone. In international context the multicultural aspects affect the
outcome of the negotiation. The differences between countries in culture impact all the parts
of the negotiation. In this paper we will try to analyse how cultural differences between
France and China affect the way they do business and the way they negotiation. To make the
best analysis we will first have a look to the basics of each the French and the Chinese
Culture. Then we will analyse the both cultures in Business. Finally thanks to the first two
parts we will explain how the cultural differences between the two countries affect the
negotiation. For this we will use some interesting books and papers about this topics that you
will find in the reference list
I- The basics of French and Chinese cultures
1. Introduction to the Chinese Culture
China has an important history and own philosophy. It brings to the Middle Empire a
strong and unique culture. To understand this culture we have to see where the country comes
from. According to John L. Graham, 2003, some points explain the Chinese culture.
First, the Agrarianism philosophy, two third of the Chinese population lives in rural places
and work in agriculture. They work in groups and the business depend on the harmony and
cooperation between individuals. One of the most important philosophies in China is the
Confucianism. Confucius (551 – 479 BC) defined a strong morality with the importance of
relations and hierarchy within these relations. The Taoism invented by Lao Tsu also defined
moral values finding the way between the Ying and Yang forces. Last point that explains the
Chinese culture is their historical international relations. During the pasts centuries China has
been attacked several times by other countries that cause distrust toward foreigners. All these
points have influenced the Chinese culture.
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2. Introduction to the French Culture
French history is very big in various fields like, philosophy (philosophers of the
Enlightenment) democracy (French Revolution and The Declaration of the Right of Man and
of the Citizen) and military (one of the biggest colonial power in the world). According to the
importance of their country at international level, French people are very independent and
think they are unique (BusinessInsider, 2014). Furthermore, French motto “Liberty, Equality,
Fraternity” drives the population in their actions.
II- The culture in Business.
To analyse the Chinese and French Culture in business we will take a lot of the keys
elements of the Chinese culture and compare it to French culture using Hofstede and
Trompenaars comparison models. The influences of Chinese culture seen in the first part have
lead to eight basics elements in business that we will talk inside (John L. Graham, 2003).
Guanxi (interpersonal connection): Relations are very important in Chinese culture and it’s
also valid in Business. Chinese gave an importance to long-term relationships. In the Hofstede
Matrix they score 20 in individualism. It means Chinese are very collectivist they think in the
interest of the group. French people are the opposite they score 71 in individualism. In France
the relations in business are more contract based. This point is also highlited by the
Trompenaars matrix; French are guided by individualism, and Chinese by communitarianism.
We can also add the universalism of French peoples and the particularism of Chinese. It
means that French are more rules based and Chinese relation based.
Zhongjian Ren (The intermediary): As relations is very important for Chinese and they
distrust foreign people, to make business with foreigners they want an intermediary that they
know well and that will give the trust and the Guanxi to the foreign business partner.
Shehui dengji (Social status): Hierarchy is a key point of Confucianism. In business Chinese
want also to deal only with peoples with the same social status. In the Hofstede model they
rank 80 in power distance. This very high score means that hierarchy is very important and
that they acceptable inequalities among people. France was a country with high aristocracy
and with an upper class domination of the society. In the meantime France is also a country
where “égalité” (French motto) is important and where people fight for there right. According
to this they have a high score in power distance, 68. It means that people accept inequality but
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it have to be fair, power is very centralized and French companies are very hierarchical.
Trompenaars matrix confirm this point. For him both France and China are ascription culture
more than achievement.
Renji Hexie (Interpersonal Harmony): Already about relations, in China people create
relations, having dinner, making sport together or going to events before making Business.
Zhengti Guannian (holistic thinking): In business, Chinese have a holistic thinking. They
take every point as an indivisible whole and speak about everything in the mean time. They
also are drive by uncertainty (30 in uncertainty avoidance). Ambiguity is normal in China and
it can be explained by the Taoism culture. French score high in this point (86). They are know
to plan everything in business. They don’t like surprise. According to Trompenaars they are
more sequential culture and China Synchronic witch confirm the holistic thinking of chinese
people.
Jiejian (Thrift): With the instable history of China, saving money was a key to survive and
Chinese people know well how to do it. The consequence is that they are hard negotiators in
term of price. According to Hosfede Chinese is a long-term orientation society with a very
high score, 87. It means that Chinese knows to adapt to changing situations and they
persevere to achieve result. French also score high score, 63. They are known to be pragmatic
people.
Mianzi (Face): The face in China is about the reputation in social relations. Loosing face is a
disaster for them and in business in face they want to save face.
Chiku nailao (endurance): For Chinese, endurance quality is a very important one. They
usually work a lot and show endurance in business relations or negotiations. Hofstede
characterise the Chinese society as success oriented. (66 in masculinity) According to him
Chinese works a lot and some sacrifice family and leisure for work. It confirms the Chiku
nailo. French society is more feminine society (43 in masculinity). French are maybe the
people whose works less in the world with 35 hours per week and 5 weeks holidays per years.
They have a lot of advantages in society as the welfare system that shown quality of life is
very important for them. One recent example to illustrate this point is the European crisis. It
as affected all Europe and in some countries to face the crisis they adopted austerity policy as
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Portugal and Spain. The citizens of theses countries had to make some effort to help the
country face the crisis. In France is very difficult to adopt such policy because French people
are attached to their standards of living.
III- The application in Negotiation
The cultural differences from China and France make Chinese and French people acting
different in business life. It leads to different behaviour in negotiation. In this part we will
analyse the differences between French and Chinese in negotiation. For this we will take a
look to some different point of the negotiation; the strategy, the body language, the way to
argue, the relations and the decision process.
1. Strategy
According to Donald W. 1996, Chinese people use war strategy as commercial strategy. In
the Middle Empire culture war strategy is very important. Some famous writings like The Art
of War of Sun Tzu as driven Chinese philosophy is some fields like business. One meaningful
example, Sun Tzu says that the art of war is based on dupery, when you capable say you’re
incapable, pretend you are inferior and encourage the enemy to arrogance. According to
Donald W. 1996, in the negotiation strategy they will present themselves as weak to ask for
concessions. In addition Chinese usually don’t like to do business with strangers. Due to what
they call guo qing (i.e. “special national circumstances” with foreign invasions and some
political changes), they may use win-lose strategy negotiating with foreigners (James K.
Sebenius, 2008). Nevertheless we saw that the Chinese culture is based on Guanxi and
Confucianism. To have good long-term relations, who are very important, they are in
collaborative approach to have mutual satisfaction (Donald W. 1996) To reach these
objectives they must adopt win-win strategy. French negotiator use power strategies in
negotiation (Wendi Adair, 2004), hierarchy is very important in France. They prepare well
negotiation and the team. (Christopher W. Moore, 2010) For them negotiation is about logic
arguments and being well organized. Maybe due to their philosophy descendants they are
very Cartesian. (Jon P. Alston, 2003). They focus on long-term strategy and include a lot of
issue or details.
2. Body Language
Body Language is very important it represent more than 70% of communication. We says
lot by our gesture and emotions and it have a important impact on the negotiation issues.
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Interesting difference between French and Chinese is the neutral vs emotional point of the
Trompenaars matrix. French are emotional, they show their emotions naturally and they like
that people show their emotions too. Chinese are the opposite of French they are neutral they
never show their emotion both in body language that in language.
3. Relations
The main theme of Confucianism is the relations. For Chinese people negotiation is about
long-term relations so they keep the relation after the negotiation. French philosophy and
mind-set is more about long term than short-term issues. In the negotiation their objective will
be more long-term oriented so as Chinese they will maintain long relations after the
negotiation. (Jon P. Alston, 2003).
4. Decision process
Concerning the decision, the process in China is very long. They know that for some
foreigners time is money but not for them, patience is part of Chinese culture. The decision
process can go very far beyond the deadlines agreed. The decision maker has only a role of
listening in the negotiation it does not participate to debate. It allows him to not loose
something very important for Chinese, the Face. (James K. Sebenius, 2008). As we seen,
details are primordial for French; they consider a lot of issues in their decision and they are
carefully studied. (Jon P. Alston, 2003).
Conclusion
France and China have both strong cultures that are very different from other cultures.
Despite numerous differences, they have common points. The most important one is the
strong attachment to their countries and their culture. Each country has a strong and complex
business etiquette culture that affect business and negotiation. To success in business and
moreover in negotiation with these two specific countries, negotiator don’t have only to be
informed about the business etiquette and some advise of the country. Both France as China
have very complex and sometimes paradoxical cultures. It’s really important to understand
deeply the counterpart culture and how it’s affect business relations and negotiation. For that
negotiators have to accept, respect and adapt to it. Nevertheless, the since both parties try to
adapt to other culture, the impact of cultural differences could be lower. Cultural differences
should not be a problem in negotiation, but it must be a strength taking it into account.
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Reference list
Christopher W. Moore, Peter J. Woodrow, Handbook of Global and Mutlicultural
Negotiation, Wiley, 2010.
Donald W. Hendon, Rebecca Angeles Hengon, Paul Herbig, Cross-Cultural Business
Negotiations, Praeger, 1996
James K. Sebenius, Cheng (Jason) Qian, Cultural Notes on Chinese Negotiating Behavior,
Harvard Business Review, 2008.
John L. Graham and N. Mark lam, The Chinese Negotiation, Harvard Business Review. 2003
Jon P. Alston, Melanie Hawthorne and Sylvie Saillet. A practical Guide to French Business,
IUniverse, 2003.
Sun Tzu, The Art of War. French Edition.
Wendi Adair, Jeanne Brett, Alain Lempereur, Tetsushi Okumura, Peter Shikhirev, Catherine
Tinsley, and Anne Lytle, Culture and Negotiation Strategy, Negotiation Journal, 2004.
