On Business Etiquette in theCross-cultural Communication.doc

AbstractWith the development of economy and the progress of technology, the way of life, education, entertainment and communication has changed a lot in the contemporary society. At present, many international companies and multinational companies have been established in many large cities in China, such as Beijing and Shanghai. With the accelerated process of economic globalization, especially the event that Chinese join into the world trade organization, the international business exchanges have become increasingly frequent, making the business negotiations and business etiquette more and more important. Under this background, this paper is based on the Chinese and Western different etiquette culture on business communication, firstly it introduce the basic definition of business etiquette and the related concept; then it specifically describes the Chinese etiquette culture and Western etiquette culture, and the comparisons between the later and the former are analyzed, also, the relationship between intercultural communication and business etiquette is introduced. In the main part of the paper, it introduce three strategies related to business etiquette applied in cross-cultural communication.Key Words: business etiquette; cross-cultural communication; etiquette comparisons摘要随着经济的发展和技术的进步，在当代社会中，人类的生活方式、教育、娱乐和交流也产生了革命性的变化。目前，众多国际公司和跨国企业已经在中国的许多大城市逐步建立，如北京和上海。随着经济全球化进程的加快，特别是在中国加入国际贸易组织，与此同时，国际商务往来的日益频繁，使得商务谈判和商务礼仪也越来越凸显其重要性。在此背景下，本文立足于中西方商务沟通的不同礼仪文化，首先介绍了商务礼仪的基本定义以及相关概念；接着具体描述了中国的礼仪文化与西方的礼仪文化，并对其两者进行对比分析，并在此基础上介绍跨文化交流与商务礼仪的关系。本文的主要部分从“正确认识礼仪文化差异”、“充足的谈判前准备”以及“如何克服谈判中的语言障碍”三个方面，介绍跨文化交流中的商务礼仪的运用。关键词：商务礼仪；跨文化交流；中西礼仪对比；IIIContentsTHESIS FOR BACHELORS DEGREEIABSTRACTI摘要IICONTENTSIII1. INTRODUCTION42. BASIC CONCEPTS ON THIS TOPIC52.1 The Definition of Business Etiquette52.2 Chinese Etiquette52.3 Western Etiquette62.4 The Comparisons between Chinese and Western Etiquette in business communication72.5 The Relationship between Business Etiquette and Cross-Cultural Communication83. STRATEGIES IN CROSS-CULTURAL BUSINESS COMMUNICATION103.1 To Learn and Respect Cultural Differences103.2 Prepare For Communication113.3 Overcoming Communication Barriers124. CONCLUSION15BIOGRAPHY16ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS181. IntroductionAs the rapid development of world economics internationalization and globalization, numerous overseas companies as well as multinational companies gradually spread widely across Chinese. Meanwhile, increasingly frequent international business contacts make business communications more and more important in various fields. Business communications has been widely used in business contacts, to express thoughts, establish and maintain a good business relationship. Politeness is an indispensable part of our daily life and social life. Politeness is one the standard of a successful communication, and often used as the sign to measure the level of development of the society. Also, politeness principle has been the basic principles and requirements of business communications; different business communication needs different politeness principles. There are different interpretations of the same speech in the different language communities due to the thousands years of cultural accumulation. There are differences between different cultures in the realization of politeness. In one culture, it is considered to be a speech act to keep the hearer's face, which may be difficult to accept in another culture, or even hurt the face of others. The author thinks that the language learning and etiquette learning should not only learn the etiquette etiquettes conception, form and structure, but also to understand the social function of etiquette, understanding etiquettes different usages in different cultural backgrounds, so that we not only understand the etiquette culture profoundly, but also master the proper methods and strategies to utilize etiquette culture in different situations.2. Basic concepts on this topicChina is an ancient civilization, a land of courtesy, which always attach great importance to use polite language. In recent years, the problems of using proper courtesy language have also attracted many considerations and attentions from in the domestic linguistics circle. English is mostly used in business communication, thus increasing the difficulty of the communication. In this case, we ought to meet certain etiquettes.2.1 The Definition of Business EtiquetteAlthough the concept of "etiquette" is universal, it is restricted by the cultural rules in a particular society. Chinese and Western expressions of politeness are notably different in the problem of the etiquette culture, because of the existence of pragmatic and cultural differences between the two languages on how to maintain the etiquette is not the same. There are different interpretations of the same speech in the different language communities due to the thousands years of cultural accumulation. The process of business negotiation is essentially the process of using the language to communicate and expect to achieve a win-win situation. Language plays an important role in the business negotiation; whether we can use the art of negotiation language sometimes can make or mar the business negotiation. Etiquette is described as a code of behavior that delineates expectations for social behavior according to contemporary conventional norms within a society, social class, or group.The etiquette of business is actually the set of written and unwritten rules of conduct that make social interactions run more smoothly. In different countries, there usually exists significantly different business etiquette, and it is absolutely invariably connected to the local culture. Businesses etiquettes are often used to maintain a good impression as well as good relationship, sometimes it can help us to avoid conflicts and gain a successful negotiation 1.2.2 Chinese EtiquetteCollectivism and individualism are the main embodiment of Chinese values and American values. Chinese emphasize that personal value should be reflected in ones social value and collectivism 2. In the relationship between the individual and the collective or society, the collective interests is often regarded more important than personal interests in China, which stresses that the interests of individuals should be combined into the interests of the collective to show the individual's contributions to society. Although the traditional Chinese culture also requires people to have their own personality and personal thoughts, but it does not mean to put personal interests above the communitys. Also, Chinese and western national traditions and customs have great difference. For example: in Chinese culture, the implementation of compliments is different from that of American. In China, in most cases, the purpose of the use of compliments is to get a good impression from ones superior leaders.Chinese culture believes that etiquette is a symbol to distinguish between human and animal. "The reason why human is human, it is etiquette makes so." ("Book of Rites"). Ceremony is also the foundation and can distinguish the level of personality. "Book of Songs" says: “Look at the mouse that have complete body and skin, but you as humankind, know nothing about politeness?" Confucius said: "no politeness, no legislation." Chinese ethical culture can be said to be "etiquette culture" in some sense. "Propriety" is one of the virtues of the Chinese nation. As a moral standard, its content is complex. As a system of ethics and ethical order, "etiquette", and “etiquette" are the important way of getting along with people. “Etiquette", as individual cultivation, is called "Politeness" it used to deal with the relationship with others, called "comity"."Etiquette" is rooted in the people who have the quality of humility, out of the respect to their elders, the ethics of reverence and the love for humankinds 3. 2.3 Western EtiquetteWesterners emphasize more on individualism, because they believe that society is the embodiment of personal value. In the view of the west people, the pursuit of their own interests and happiness will make contributions to social development, and the development of individuals can promote social progress. Therefore, even if westerns think that individuals can not be separated from the community and the collective society, they tend to attach more importance to the interests of the individual in society. In west society, compliments are usually used in order to maintain the normal relationship between the upper and lower levels, so people in the higher status often give compliments to people in the lower status. For westerns, the evaluation of others is a very formal and serious thing, and the person must have the ability to evaluate, so as to guarantee the quality of the evaluation.Although etiquette has been studied in a variety of cultures for many years, Penelope Brown and Stephen Levinson's politeness theory has become very influential. In 1987, Brown and Levinson proposed that politeness was a universal concept, which has created controversy within academia 4. Politeness is the expression of the speakers' intention to mitigate face threats carried by certain face threatening acts toward the listener 5. Another definition is "a battery of social skills whose goal is to ensure everyone feels affirmed in a social interaction”. Therefore, being polite can be an attempt for the speaker to save their own face or the face of who he or she is talking to 6. One study by Cynthia Dunn observed a Japanese business that required etiquette training for their new employers 7.Employers were taught the company's definition of politeness; they were expected to incorporate these beliefs into their day-to-day behavior, such as "kindness," "consideration for others," and "deference and respect"7.However, self-presentation was also a critical feature employers wanted their employees to improve upon. An attractive self-presentation through various nonverbal and word choice would not only reflect the individual's politeness but the corporation's as well 7.This decision had very positive consequences in the workplace environment.2.4 The Comparisons between Chinese and Western Etiquette in business communicationMost westerns thinking pattern is linear, which means to speak directly and straight-forwardly. In terms of Chinese people, whole society is a social relationship, and people attaches great importance to relationships. Also, it seems that, compared with achieving a goal, making something done, Chinese people often pay more attention on establishing a friendly and harmonious relationship. However, west society is more pragmatic, and all activities are oriented for the achievement of the final goal. This is especially true in business negotiations involving money interests. The purpose of business communications is to achieve business goals, or to achieve business interests. So, they are always talking straightly into the subject, putting all efforts for the realization of this target. Comparatively, Chinese people do not want to offend people, always try to avoid conflicts and disputes, and hope to conduct communications in a relaxed and harmonious atmosphere. However, in the eyes of westerns, these actions are of little meaningfulness. They are more willing to follow the rules of business, straightly into the theme, and put forward their own views and opinions. They will always adhere to what they believe is right. Besides, westerns like to make a lot of preparations before the communication, taking every detail into consideration, which saves much time of formal negotiations, once the communication begins; they used to speak straightly into the subject, without wasting time talking about unrelated issues 8. They pay attention to the immediate situation, focus on the final results, and do not care that much about the process. On the contrary, Chinese people pay more attention to the harmony of the negotiations in the process of communication, caring less about the time spending on communication, and they concern more about the future, hoping to establish long-term cooperation with partners. Therefore, before the negotiations, the Chinese representative will spend much time knowing negotiators on the other side, focusing on the development of friendship, and ready for long-term cooperation.2.5 The Relationship between Business Etiquette and Cross-Cultural CommunicationCross-Cultural Business Communication refers to the international trade business within the scope of information transmission, including written communication and oral communication. Cross-cultural business negotiation process generally includes 4 stages: the first one is to greet with each other; the second stage is to exchange information; the third one is the proposals and trying ones best to convince the other side; the last stage is for the two side of communication to make corresponding compromises and concessions and finally reach an agreement.Cultural differences will inevitably have a profound impact on people's communication method and etiquette strategies. In business negotiations, a misunderstanding may lead to the break of negotiations, thus making all previous hard work wasted. Therefore, we must attach great importance to cultural differences in the process of cross-cultural business communication. In all the language communication activities, in order to achieve a specific goal, the speaker and hearer, there are some principles that both parties should abide by. However, in practice, people often express themselves in a subtle and indirect way, and in many cases people do it out of etiquette. Brown and Levinson thought that a lot of speech acts are actually threatening the “face” naturally 9. To be polite is to reduce the communicative behaviors that may cause others to lose face. The concept of politeness is essentially strategic, that is, through the adoption of a language strategy to achieve the purpose of both sides of the communication to save face. This theory of politeness is often referred to as "face saving"". Any act that violates the principle of politeness can make the other person lose face and feel extremely uncomfortable, resulting in business failure or deterioration of the relationship. In addition, cultural differences will be inevitably involved in cross-cultural business communication between different countries, so the cultural factors must be taken into account how to appropriately use the politeness principle in different cultures and not hurt each other's face and feelings 10. Therefore, in cross-cultural business communication, we should use appropriate politeness strategies in order to establish a good business relationship. In short, politeness is essen