China, Inc.

The Chinese culture is very old, sophisticated, and influences all behavior, thus the Chinese act and think differently, and react from a different psychological perspective. The Chinese a foreigner is most likely to meet and work with-the professional and the paraprofes-sional-usually behave in the same way Westerners would in similar circumstances, although their tactics might seem different on the surface. Thus, "In the business and professional worlds, much of what goes on in China is the same as here-only more so."Every Chinese person over the age of 25 can remember massive social upheaval and life-threatening times: the warlord's civil wars, the Japanese wars, hyperinflation, the Communist Nationalist civil war, the Great Leap Forward, and the Cultural Revolution, to name a few of the more obvious incidents in recent history. Thus, for the Chinese, every step or misstep has greater and more serious conse-quences than we have ever experienced in the U. S.Moving into uncharted political territory, wholesale management turnover, drastic policy changes, decentralization, new procedures manuals, and the impact of foreigners are just a few of the myriad changes in the practical details of Chinese life and work. Any one of these deviations from the norm can be a major organizational trauma anywhere and the Chinese are having difficulty keeping track of and understanding them.